Sold  by 

Charles  B.  Davis, 

Washington  Street 

INDIANAPOLIS,  la. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SPEECHES 


HENRY  LORD  BROUGHAM, 


UPON  QUESTIONS  RELATING  TO 


PUBLIC    RIGHTS,    DUTIES,    AND    INTERESTS 


HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTIONS 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 


VOL.    I. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
LEA     AND    U  L  A  N  C  H  A  R  D . 

1841. 


T.  K.  4    P.   O.   COLLINS,  Printert. 
No.  1  Lodge  Alley. 


8  7 

IS  4 
V.  I 


TO  THE  MOST  NOBLE 

RICHARD  MARQUESS  WELLESLEY, 

SUCCESSIVELY 
THE  GOVERNOR-GENERAL  OF  INDIA, 

BRITISH  AMBASSADOR  IN  SPAIN, 
SECRETARY  OF  STATE  FOR  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS, 

AND 
LORD-LIEUTENANT  OF  IRELAND, 

THESE  VOLUMES  ARE  INSCRIBED 

AS  A  TRIBUTE 
MOST  JUSTLY  DUE  TO  SO  ILLUSTRIOUS  A  STATESMAN; 

AND  IN  COMMEMORATION 

OF  THE  RARE  FELICITY  OF  ENGLAND, 

SO  RICH  IN  GENIUS  AND  CAPACITY  FOR  AFFAIRS, 

THAT  SHE  CAN  SPARE  FROM  HER  SERVICE 

SUCH  MEN  AS  HIM. 


PREFACE. 


THE  plan  of  the  present  publication  is  sufficiently 
obvious.  The  Introductions  to  the  different  Speeches 
are  intended  to  elucidate  the  history  of  the  measures 
discussed,  and  of  the  periods  to  which  they  relate. 
But  the  most  satisfactory,  indeed  the  only  accurate, 
manner  of  giving  the  history  of  the  times,  must  always 
be  to  give  an  account  of  the  persons  who  bore  the 
chief  part  in  their  transactions.  This  is  more  or  less 
true  of  all  annals;  but  it  is  peculiarly  so  of  political 
annals.  The  course  of  state  affairs,  their  posture  at 
any  given  period,  and  the  nature  of  the  different  mea- 
sures propounded  from  time  to  time,  can  only  be  well 
understood,  by  giving  an  accurate  representation  of  the 
characters  of  those  who  figured  most  remarkably  upon 
the  scene. 

It  is  not,  however,  by  those  pieces  of  composition 
which  abound  in  many  histories,  under  the  name  of 
"  characters,"  that  anything  like  this  knowledge  can  be 
conveyed.  Without  any  regard  to  fine  writing,  mea- 
sured and  balanced  periods,  or  neat  and  pointed  anti- 
theses, the  personages  must  be  described  such  as  they 

really  wrere,  by  a  just  mixture  of  general  remarks,  and 

i* 


VI  PREFACE. 


reference  to  particular  passages  in  their  lives.  In  no 
other  way  can  they  be  made  known ;  in  no  other  way. 
indeed,  can  the  very  first  requisite  of  such  sketches  he 
attained — the  exhibition  of  the  peculiarities  that  marked 
the  originals — the  preservation  of  the  individuality  of 
each. 

The  works  of  some  of  our  most  celebrated  writers, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  deserve  to  be  studied,  with 
the  view  of  avoiding  as  much  as  it  is  possible  their 
manner  of  performing  this  most  important  of  the  his- 
torian's duties.  The  main  object  in  those  compositions 
plainly  is,  to  turn  sentences,  and  not  to  paint  characters. 
The  same  plan  is  pursued  in  all  cases.  Is  an  able  ruler, 
and  one  of  virtuous  life,  to  be  described  ?  The  author 
considers  what  qualities  are  wanting  to  constitute  great 
capacity  for  affairs.  So  he  hangs  together  the  epithets 
of  wise,  and  prudent,  and  vigorous,  and  provident;  and 
never  fails  to  bestow  on  the  individual  great  caution  in 
forming  his  plans,  and  much  promptitude  in  executing 
them.  But  discrimination  must  be  shown.  So  the 
author  reflects  how  the  excess  of  a  virtue  may  become 
a  vice;  and  therefore  the  hero  of  the  tale  has  prudence 
without  timidity — boldness  without  rashness — and  a 
great  many  things  without  a  great  many  other  things. 
Accordingly,  we  find  the  produce  of  a  workmanship  as 
useless  as  it  is  easy,  to  be  a  set  of  characters  all  made 
nearly  in  the  same  mould,  without  distinction  of  colour, 
or  feature,  or  stature ;  displaying  the  mere  abstractions 
of  human  nature,  and  applying,  almost  equally,  one  set 


PREFACE.  Vll 


to  any  able  or  virtuous  person,  and  the  other  to  any 
person  of  inferior  capacity  and  of  wicked  life.  The 
speeches  put  into  the  mouths  of  great  men  by  the  an- 
cient historians  are  from  the  same  kind  of  workshop — 
Cato  is  made  to  deliver  himself  exactly  like  Caesar; 
that  is,  they  both  speak  as  Sallust  wrote. 

In  the  attempts  which  these  volumes  contain,  to 
represent  individuals,  for  the  purpose  of  recording  the 
history  of  their  times,  all  ambition  of  fine  writing  has 
been  laid  aside,  and  nothing,  but  the  facts  of  each  case, 
and  the  impressions  actually  left  upon  the  writer's  me- 
mory, has  ever  been  regarded  in  the  least  degree.  With 
one  only  exception,  the  sketches  are  the  result  of  per- 
sonal observation,  and  in  general  of  intimate  acquaint- 
ance; so  that  each  individual  maybe  said  to  have  sitten 
for  his  picture.  No  sacrifice  has  ever  been  made  to 
attain  the  unsubstantial  and  unavailing  praise  of  felici- 
tous composition.  Nor  has  any  the  least  door  been  left 
open  to  feelings  of  a  worse  kind,  whether  amicable  or 
hostile.  The  relations  of  friendship  and  enmity,  whe- 
ther political  or  personal,  have  been  wholly  disregarded, 
and  one  only  object  kept  steadily  in  view — the  likeness 
of  the  picture,  whether  critical  or  moral.* 

*  In  describing  the  persons  who  mainly  contributed  to  abolish  the  slave 
trade,  the  reader  will  perceive  that,  the  much-honoured  name  of  Z.  Macau  lay 
is  omitted.  He  had  not,  in  fact,  ceased  to  live  when  that  Introduction  was 
printed,  and  hopes  were  still  entertained  of  his  remaining  some  time  longer 
amongst  us.  This  great  omission,  therefore,  cannot  now  be  supplied.  But 
it  may  still  be  recorded,  that  after  Wilberforce  and  Clarkson,  there  is  no 
one  whose  services  in  the  cause  as  well  of  Emancipation  as  of  Abolition, 


Vlll  PREFACE. 


It  is  conceived  that  some  good  service  may  be  ren- 
dered to  the  cause  of  human  improvement,  which  the 
author  has  ever  had  so  much  at  heart,  by  the  present 
publication,  because  its  tendency  is  to  fix  the  public 
attention  upon  some  of  the  subjects  most  important  to 
the  interests  of  mankind.  The  repression,  or  at  least 
the  subjugation,  of  party  feelings,  must  be  always  of 
material  benefit  to  the  community,  and  tend  to  remove 
a  very  serious  obstruction  from  the  great  course  in 
which  legislation  is  advancing.  Party  connection  is 
indeed  beneficial  as  long  as  it  only  bands  together  those 
who,  having  formed  their  opinions  for  themselves,  are 
desirous  of  giving  them  full  effect.  But  so  much  of 
abuse  has  generally  attended  such  leagues,  that  reflect- 
ing men  are  now  induced  to  reject  them  altogether. 
Their  greatest  evil  certainly  is  the  one  most  difficult  to 
be  shunned — their  tendency  to  deliver  over  the  many 
to  the  guidance  of  the  few,  in  matters  where  no  domi- 
nion ever  should  be  exercised — to  make  the  opinions 

have  been  more  valuable.  It  is  indeed  saying  all,  to  say,  as  with  strict 
accuracy  we  may,  that  of  Emancipation  he  was  the  Clarkson.  His  practical 
acquaintance,  too,  with  the  whole  question,  from  actual  residence  both  in 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies,  was  of  material  use  through  every  part  of  the 
great  controversy  which  he  almost  lived  to  see  happily  closed.  But  his 
laborious  habits,  his  singularly  calm  judgment,  his  great  acuteness,  the  abso- 
lute self-denial  which  he  ever  showed  in  all  that  related  to  it,  and  the  self- 
devotion  with  which  he  sacrificed  his  life  to  its  promotion,  can  only  be  con- 
ceived by  his  fellow-labourers  who  witnessed  these  rare  merits;  and  still 
less  is  it  possible  to  represent  adequately  the  entire  want  of  all  care  about 
the  glory  of  his  good  works,  which  made  him  indeed  prefer  doing  his  duty 
in  silence,  in  obscurity,  and  in  all  but  neglect. 


PREFACE. 


adopted  by  leading  men  pass  current,  without  any  re- 
flection, among  their  followers  —  to  enfeeble  and  corrupt 
the  public  mind,  by  discouraging  men  from  thinking 
for  themselves  —  and  to  lead  multitudes  into  courses 
which  they  have  no  kind  of  interest  in  pursuing,  in 
order  that  some  designing  individuals  may  gain  by  their 
folly  or  their  crimes.  As  society  advances,  such  delu- 
sions will  become  more  and  more  difficult  to  practise  ; 
and  it  may  safely  be  affirmed,  that  hundreds  now-a-days 
discharge  the  sacred  duty  to  themselves  and  their  coun- 
try, of  forming  their  own  opinions  upon  reflection,  for 
one  that  had  disenthralled  himself  thirty  years  ago. 


CONTENTS. 


VOL.    I. 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  PAOB 
Introduction,             .....                         .13 

Case  of  J.  Hunt  and  J.  L.  Hunt,     .....  18 

Case  of  John  Drakard,         ......  38 

QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

Introduction,             .......  57 

Speech  in  the  Queen's  Case,            .....  62 

Account  of  Mr.  Denman's  Speech,               ....  136 

Argument  for  the  Queen's  Coronation,         .  .  .  .145 

CASE  OF  THE  REV.  RICHARD  BLACOW. 

Introduction,             .......  163 

Speech,        ........  167 

LIBELS  ON  THE  DURHAM  CLERGY. 

Introduction,             .......  171 

Argument  in  the  Case  of  J.  A.  Williams,    ....  174 

Speech  at  Durham  Assizes,              .....  183 

DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL,         .....  205 

COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES. 

Introduction,             .......  215 

Speech  on  Commerce  and  Manufactures,  and  the  Orders  in  Council,  224 

Introduction,             .......  251 

Speech  at  Liverpool  Ejection,          .....  256 

AGRICULTURAL  AND  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

Introduction,             .......  261 

Speech  on  State  of  Agriculture,        .....  2G5 

Speech  on  Manufacturing  Distress,  .  .  .  .291 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

ARMY  ESTIMATES.  PAOE 

Introduction,             .......  323 

Speech,        ........  324 

HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

Introduction,             .......  335 

Speech,        ........  344 

SLAVERY. 

Introduction,             .......  359 

Slave  Trade,  1810,               ......  365 

Introduction,             .......  377 

Missionary  Smith,  .......  379 

Negro  Slavery,  1830,           ......  424 

Slave  Trade,  1838,               ......  439 

Negro  Apprenticeship,         ......  449 

Eastern  Slave  Trade,            ......  473 

LAW  REFORM. 

Introduction,             .......  505 

Present  State  of  the  Law,  .  .  .  .  .516 

Local  Courts,           .......  608 


SPEECHES 
IN     TRIALS     FOR     LIBELS 


CONNECTED  WITH 


MILITARY    FLOGGING. 


INTRODUCTION. 

STATE  OF  OPINION. — MR.  WILLIAM  COBBETT. 

AN  opinion  had  for  some  j'cars  begun  to  prevail  among  political  reasoners,  and 
had  found  its  way  also  into  the  army,  that  the  punishment  of  flogging,  to  which 
our  troops  alone  of  all  the  European  soldiery  are  snhject,  was  cruel  in  its  nature, 
hurtful  to  the  military  character  in  its  effects,  and  ill  calculated  to  attain  the  «reat 
ends  of  all  penal  infliction — the  reformation  of  the  offender,  and  the  prevention  of 
other  offences  by  the  force  of  example.  Several  tracts  had  been  published,  chiefly 
by  military  officers,  in  which  the  subject  was  discussed;  and  among  these  the  pam- 
phlets of  Generals  Money,  Stewart  and  Sir  Robert  \Vilson  were  the  most  dis- 
tinguished, both  for  their  own  merits,  and  the  rank  and  services  of  their  authors, 
who  had  never  borne  any  part  in  political  controversy,  or,  in  as  far  as  they  had 
been  led  by  accidental  circumstances  to  declare  their  opinions,  had  been  found  the 
supporters  of  the  old  established  order  of  things  in  all  its  branches.  In  1810  Mr. 
Cobbett,  who,  having  himself  served  in  North  America,  had  witnessed  the  effects 
of  this  species  of  punishment,  and  had  naturally  a  strong  feeling  for  the  character 
of  the  profession,  published  some  strictures  on  the  subject  in  his  "  Political  Regis- 
ter." That  work  enjoyed  in  those  days  a  great  circulation  and  influence.  It  was 
always  one  of  extraordinary  ability,  and  distinguished  by  a  vigorous  and  generally 
pure  Knglish  style;  but  it  was  disfigured  by  coarseness,  and  rendered  a  very  unsafe 
guide  by  the  author's  violent  prejudices — his  intolerance  of  all  opinions  but  his 
own,  and  indeed  his  contempt  of  all  persons  but  himself — his  habitual  want  of 
fairness  towards  his  adversaries — bis  constant  disregard  of  facts  in  his  statements 
— and  the  unblushing  changes  which  he  made  in  his  opinions  upon  things,  from 
extreme  to  extreme,  and  in  his  comments  upon  men,  from  the  extravagance  of 
praise  to  the  excess  of  vituperation.  These  great  defects,  above  all,  the  want  of 
any  fixed  system  of  settled  principle,  almost  entirely  destroyed  his  influence  as  a 
periodical  writer,  and  extremely  reduced  the  circulation  of  his  paper,  long  before 
his  death  and  its  discontinuance,  which  were  contemporaneous;  he  having  for  the 
unexampled  period  of  five  and  thirty  years  carried  on  this  weekly  publication 
unassisted  by  any  one,  although  lie  was  interrupted  by  his  removal  to  America, 
whence  he  transmitted  it  regularly  for  several  years,  and  was  likewise  both  ham- 
pered by  difficulties  arising  out  of  farming  speculations,  and  occupied  occasionally 
by  several  other  lilt  r.uy  works.  Hut  in  1H10  his  \vright  with  the  public,  had 
Buffered  little  if  any  diminution,  and  a  vi  ry  large  number  of  his  Re;ji>ter  was 
VOL.  I.  —  ii 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

printed.  The  strictures  on  flogging  were  not  distinguished  by  any  of  Mr.  Cobbett's 
higher  qualities  of  writing.  They  were  a  mere  effusion  of  virulence  upon  the 
occasion  of  a  punishment  having  taken  place  in  the  local  militia  of  Ely.  They 
were  addressed  not  to  the  understanding  nor  even  to  the  feelings  of  the  reader;  but 
rather  to  those  of  the  soldiery  who  suffered  the  infliction,  and  of  the  bystanders 
who  witnessed  it;  their  tone  and  terms  being,  "  You  well  deserve  to  be  treated  like 
brutes,  if  by  submitting  to  it  you  show  yourselves  to  be  brutes." 

Such  was  the  spirit  in  which  the  few  remarks  in  question  were  conceived;  and 
indeed  this  was  their  substance,  although  these  were  not  the  words  employed. 
According  to  the  notions  in  those  days  entertained  of  the  law  of  libel,  it  could 
excite  no  surprise  that  the  government  prosecuted  the  author  and  publisher;  Sir 
Vicary  Gibbs,  then  Attorney-general,  having  frequently  filed  informations  for 
remarks  as  calm  and  temperate  as  these  wTere  coarse  and  violent.  Mr.  Cobbett 
was  accordingly  brought  to  trial  in  the  month  of  June,  1810.  He  defended  him- 
self; and,  appearing  then  for  the  first  time  before  a  public  audience,  exhibited  a 
new  but  by  no  means  a  rare  example  of  the  difference  between  writing  and  speaking; 
for  nothing  could  be  more  dull  and  unimpressive  than  his  speech,  nothing  less 
clear  and  distinct  than  its  reasoning,  more  feeble  than  its  style,  or  more  embar- 
rassed and  inefficient  than  its  delivery.  The  writer  and  the  speaker  could  hardly 
be  recognised  as  the  same  individual — such  is  the  effect  of  embarrassment,  or  such 
the  influence  of  manner.  But  he  afterwards  defended  himself  in  1820  against 
actions  brought  by  private  parties  whom  he  had  slandered;  and  then,  having  by 
practice  during  the  interval,  acquired  considerable  ease  of  speaking,  his  appear- 
ance was  more  than  respectable — it  was  very  effective.  His  style  was  also  abun- 
dantly characteristic  and  racy;  it  had  great  originality — it  suited  the  man — it  pos- 
sessed nearly  all  the  merits  of  his  written  productions,  and  it  was  set  off  by  a  kind 
of  easy,  good-humored,  comic  delivery,  with  no  little  archness  both  of  look  and 
phrase,  that  made  it  clear  he  was  a  speaker  calculated  to  take  with  a  popular 
assembly  out  of  doors,  and  by  no  means  certain  that  he  would  not  succeed  even  in 
the  House  of  Commons;  where  when  he  afterwards  came,  he  certainly  did  not  fail, 
and  would  have  had  very  considerable  success  had  he  entered  it  at  an  earlier  age. 
In  1810  he  was  convicted,  (as  in  1820,  he  had  verdicts  with  heavy  damages  against 
him,)  and  his  sentence  was  a  fine  of  1000/.  and  two  years  imprisonment  in  New- 
gate;— a  punishment  which  may  well  make  us  doubt,  if  we  now,  seeing  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  periodical  press,  live  in  the  same  country  and  under  the  same 
system  of  laws. 

In  the  month  of  August  immediately  following,  the  subject  was  taken  up  by  a 
writer  of  great  powers,  the  late  Mr.  John  Scott,  who  afterwards  conducted  a  weekly 
paper,  published  in  London,  called  the  "Champion."  He  was  honorably  distin- 
guished by  several  literary  works,  and  unfortunately  fell  in  a  duel,  occasioned  by 
some  observations  upon  a  gentleman  whose  conduct  had  come  in  question.  In  1810 
he  was  a  contributor  to  the  "Stamford  News,"  a  Lincolnshire  paper,  distinguished 
for  its  constant  adherence  to  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Its  publisher, 
Mr.  John  Drakard,  was  a  person  of  great  respectability,  and  showed  at  once  his 
high  sense  of  honor,  and  his  devotion  to  his  principles,  by  steadily  refusing  to 
give  up  the  author's  name,  when  menaced  with  a  prosecution.  These  remarks  of 
Mr.  Scott  were  soon  afterwards  copied  into  the  "  Examiner,"  a  London  paper,  then 
conducted  by  Messrs.  J.  and  J.  L.  Hunt;  and  the  Attorney-general  filed  informa- 
tions both  against  them,  for  the  publication  in  London,  and  against  Mr.  Drakard, 
for  the  original  publication  in  the  country — a  species  of  vindictive  proceeding  not 
without  its  effect,  in  bringing  all  state  prosecutions  for  libel  soon  afterwards  into 
a  degree  of  discredit  which  lias  led  to  their  disuse. 

The  remarks  were  as  follows: — 

"  ONE  THOUSAND  LASHES  ! !  " 

"The  aggressors  were  not  dealt  with  as  Buonaparte  would  have  treated  his  refractory 
troops." — SPEECH  OF  THE  ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

"  Corporal  Curtis  was  sentenced  to  receive  ONE  THOUSAND  LASHES,  but,  after  receiving 
Two  Hundred,  was,  on  his  own   petition,  permitted  to  volunteer  into  a  regiment  on 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

foreign  service.     William  Clifford,  a  private  in  the  Till  royal  veteran  battalion,  waa 
lately  sentenced  to  receive  ONE  THOUSAND  LASHES,  for  repeatedly  striking  and  kicking 
his  superior  officer.     He  underwent  part  of  his  sentence,  by  receiving  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  lashes,  at  Canterbury,  in  presence  of  the  whole  garrison.     A  garrison  court- 
martial  has  been  held  on  board  the  Metcalf  transport,  at  Spithead,  on  some  men  of 
the  fourth  regiment  of  foot,  for  disrespectful    behaviour  to   their  ofliccrs.     Two  THOU- 
SAND six  HUNDRED  LASHES  were  to  be  inflicted  among  them.    Robert  Chillinan,  a  private 
in  the    Bearsted   and    Mulling  regiment  of  local  militia,  who  was   lately  tried    by  a 
court-martial  for  disobedience  of  orders,  and  mutinous  and  improper  behaviour,  while 
the  regiment  was  embodied,  has  been  found  guilty  of  all  the  charges  and  sentenced 
to  receive  EIGHT  HUNDRED  LASHES,  which  are  to   be   inflicted  on   him  at  Chatham,  to 
which  garrison  he  is  to  be  marched  for  that  purpose." — London  Newspapers. 
"  The   Attorney-general  said  what  was  very  true — these  aggressors  have  certainly  not 
been   dealt   with  as    Buonaparte  would   have  treated    his   refractory    troops;  nor,    indeed, 
as    refractory    troops    would    be    treated    in    any  civilised    country    whatever,    save    and 
except  only  this  country.     Here  alone,  in  this  land  of  liberty,  in   this  age  of  refinement, 
by  a  people  who,  with   their  usual  consistency,  have   been   in   the  habit  of  reproaching 
their  neighbors  with  the  cruelty  of  their   punishment — is  still   inflicted   a  species  of  tor- 
ture, at  least  as  exquisite  as   any  that  was   ever  devised  by  the   infernal  ingenuity  of  the 
Inquisition.     No,  as  the  Attorney-general  justly  says,  Buonaparte  docs  not  treat  his  refrac- 
tory troops  in  this  manner;  there  is  not  a  man  in  his  ranks  whose  back   is  seamed  with 
the   lacerating  cut-o'-nine-tails;  his   soldiers  have  never  yet  been  brought  up  to  view  one 
of  their  comrades  stripped  naked;  his  limbs  tied  with  ropes  to  a  triangular   machine;  his 
back  torn  to  the  bone    by  the  merciless  cutting  whipcord,  applied  by  persons  who  relieve 
each  other  at  short  intervals,  that  they  may  bring  the  full  unexhausted  strength  of  a  man 
to   the   work  of  scourging.     Buonaparte's    soldiers   have   never  yet   with   tingling    cars 
listened  to  the  piercing  screams  of  a  human  creature   so   tortured;  they  have  never  seen 
the  blood  oozing  from  his  rent  flesh;  they  have  never  beheld  a  surgeon,  with  dubious  look, 
pressing  the  agonised  victim's  pulse,  and  calmly  calculating,  to   an  odd  blow,  how  far  suf- 
fering may  be  extended,  until   in  its  extremity  it   encroach  upon   life.     In  short,  Buona- 
parte's soldiers  cannot  form  any  notion   of  that   most  heart-rending  of  all  exhibitions  on 
this  .side  hell — an  English  military  flogging, 

"Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  we  intend  these  remarks  to  excite  a  vague  and  indiscrimi- 
nating  sentiment  against  punishment  by  military  law;  no,  when  it  is  considered  that  disci- 
pline forms  the  soul  of  an  army,  without  which  it  would  at  once  degenerate  into  a.  mob; 
when  the  description  of  persons  which  compose  the  body  of  what  is  called  an  army,  and 
the  situations  in  which  it  is  frequently  placed,  arc  also  taken  into  account,  it  will,  we  are 
afraid,  appear  but  too  evident,  that  the  military  code  must  still  be  kept  distinct  from  the 
civil,  and  distinguished  by  greater  promptitude  and  severity.  Buonaparte  is  no  favorite 
•  of  ours,  Clod  wot;  but  if  we  come  to  balance  accounts  with  him  on  this  particular  head, 
let  us  see  how  matters  will  stand.  He  recruits  his  ranks  by  force — so  do  we.  \\'cjlog 
those  whom  we  have  forced — fie  does  not.  It  may  be  said  he  punishes  them  in  some  man- 
ner; that  is  very  true.  He  imprisons  his  refractory  troops,  occasionally  in  chains,  and  in 
aggravated  cases  he  puts  them  to  death.  But  any  of  these  severities  is  preferable  to  tying 
a  human  creature  up  like  a  dog,  and  cutting  his  flesh  to  pieces  with  whipcord.  Who 
would  not  go  to  prison  for  two  years,  or  indeed  for  almost  any  term,  rather  than  bear  the 
exquisite,  the  almost  insupport  iblc  torment  occasioned  by  the  infliction  of  seven  hundred 
or  a  thousand  lashes?  De.ith  is  mercy  compared  with  such  sufferings.  Besides,  what  is 
a  man  go'id  for  after  he  has  the  cat-o'-nine-tails  across  his  baek?  Can  he  ever  again 
hold  up  his  head  among  his  fellows?  One  of  the  poor  wretches  executed  at  Lincoln  last 
Friday,  is  stated  to  have  been  severely  punished  in  some  regiment.  The  probability  is, 
that  to  this  odious,  ignominious  flogging,  may  be  traced  his  sad  end;  and  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  he  found  the  gallows  less  cruel  than  the  halberts.  Surely  then,  the  Attorney- 
general  ought  not  to  stroke  his  chin  with  such  complacency,  when  he  refers  to  the  manner 
in  which  Buonaparte  treats  his  soldiers.  We  despise  and  detest  those  who  would  tell  us 
that  there  is  as  much  liberty  now  enjoyed  in  1'Yaneo  as  there  is  left  in  this  country.  Wo 
give  all  credit  to  the  wishes  of  some  of  our  great  men;  yet  while  anything  remains  to  us  in 
the  shape  of  free  discussion,  it  is  impossible  that  we  should  sink  into  the  abject  slavery 
in  which  the  French  people  are  plunged.  But  although  we  do  not  envy  the  general  con- 
dition of  Buonaparte's  subjects,  we  really  (and  we  speak  the  honest  conviction  of  our 
hearts)  sec  nothing  peculiarly  pitiable  in  the  lot  of  his  soldiers,  when  compared  with  th.it 
of  our  own.  Were  we  called  upon  to  make  our  election  between  the  services,  the  whip- 
cord would  at  once  decide  us.  No  advantage!  whatever  can  compensate  lor,  or  render 
tolerable  to  a  mind  but  one  degree  removed  from  brutality,  u  liability  to  be  lashed  like  a 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

beast.  It  is  idle  to  talk  about  rendering  the  situation  of  a  British  soldier  pleasant  to  him- 
self, or  desirable,  far  less  honorable,  in  the  estimation  of  others,  while  the  whip  is  held 
over  his  head,  and  over  his  head  alone;  for  in  no  other  country  in  Europe  (with  the  excep- 
tion, perhaps  of  Russia,  which  is  yet  in  a  state  of  barbarity)  is  the  military  character  so 
degraded.  We  once  heard  of  an  army  of  slaves,  who  had  bravely  withstood  the  swords 
of  their  masters  being  defeated  and  dispersed  by  the  bare  shaking  of  the  instrument  of 
flagellation  in  their  faces.  This  brought  so  forcibly  to  their  minds  their  former  state  of 
servitude  and  disgrace,  that  every  honorable  impulse  at  once  forsook  their  bosoms,  and 
they  betook  themselves  to  flight'  and  to  howling.  We  entertain  no  anxiety  about  the 
character  of  our  countrymen  in  Portugal,  when  we  contemplate  their  meeting  the  bayonets 
of  Massena's  troops;  but  we  must  own  that  we  should  tremble  for  the  result,  were  the 
French  general  to  despatch  against  them  a  few  hundred  drummers,  each  brandishing  a 
cat-ai1 -nine-tails" 

The  Middlesex  jury  in  Westminster,  where  the  first  of  these  two  trials  took 
place,  after  retiring  for  two  hours,  acquitted  the  defendants,  Messrs.  Hunt,  although 
Lord  Ellenborough  had  given  a  very  powerful  charge  to  them,  in  favor  of  the  pro- 
secution, and  declared  his  opinion  without  any  doubt  to  be,  that  the  publication 
was  made  with  the  intentions  imputed  to  it  in  the  Information,  of  exciting  disaffec- 
tion in  the  army,  and  deterring  persons  from  entering  it. 

Sir  Robert  Wilson,  who  had  been  subprenaed  as  a  witness  by  the  defendants, 
but  was  not  examined,  sat  on  the  bench  by  Lord  Ellenborough  during  the  whole 
proceedings,  in  the  course  of  which  allusion  was  made  to  his  Tract,  not  only  by 
the  counsel  on  both  sides,  but  by  the  learned  judge,  who,  entertaining  no  doubt  at 
all  of  the  perfect  purity  of  his  intentions,  expressed,  but  respectfully  expressed,  a 
wish  that  lie  had  used  more  guarded  language;  and  indeed,  his  lordship  thought 
that  all  officers,  instead  of  publishing  on  so  delicate  a  subject,  ought  to  have  pri- 
vately given  their  opinions  to  the  government. 

At  Lincoln,  where  Mr.  Brougham  went  on  a  special  retainer,  three  weeks  after- 
wards, to  defend  Mr.  Drakard,  the  difference  between  a  provincial  jury  and  one  in 
the  metropolis  was  seen;  for  there  a  conviction  took  place,  and  the  worthy  and 
independent  publisher  was  afterwards,  by  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  where  he 
was  brought  up  for  judgment,  sentenced  to  eighteen  months'  imprisonment. 

These  trials  were  not  without  their  influence  upon  the  great  question  to  which 
they  related.  The  speeches  delivered,  the  discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  case  in 
the  public  papers,  the  conversation  to  which,  in  the  course  of  the  next  session, 
they  gave  rise  in  Parliament,,bronght,  for  the  first  time,  this  subject  before  the 
country,  and  also  turned  the  attention  of  military  men  to  it  much  more  than  it  had 
heretofore  been,  among  a  class  always  prone  to  abide  by  existing  usages,  and  hardly 
capable,  indeed,  of  conceiving  tilings  to  be  other  than  as  they  have  always  found 
them.  A  subject  which  has  since  been  discussed  with  the  most  unrestricted  free- 
dom of  comment  in  al!  cin-les — in  every  kind  of  publication — in  meetings  of  the 
people,  as  well  as  in  the,  chambers  of  Parliament — before  the  troops  themselves, 
as  well  as  where  only  ci:i/.ens  were  congregated — and  which  has  finally  been  made 
matter  of  investigation  by  a  military  board — can  at  this  time  of  day  hardly  be 
conceived  to  have  excited,  less  than  thirty  years  ago,  so  much  apprehension,  that 
the  broaching  it  at  all,  even  in  very  measured  terms,  drew  down  censure  from  the 
bench  upon  general  officers  who  had  been  so  adventurous  as  to  handle  it;  and  the 
approaches  to  its  consideration  were  carefully  fenced  by  all  the  terrors  with  which 
the  law  of  libel,  v.iguc  and  ill-defined,  arms  the  executive  government  in  this 
country.  There  seemed  to  prevail  a  general  anxiety  and  alarm,  lest  by  the  discus- 
sion, feelings  of  a  dangerous  kind  should  be  excited  in  the  soldiery.  A  mysterious 
awe  hung  over  men's  minds,  and  forbade  them  to  break  in  upon  the  question.  A 
fence  was  drawn  around  the  ground,  tti/nxi'i/  as  it  were  by  military  engines,  and 
other  symbols  of  mere  force.  A  spellbound  the  public  mind,  like  that  invisible 
power  which,  on  board  of  ship,  keeps  all  men's  limbs,  with  their  minds,  under  the 
control  of  a  single  voice.  The  dissolving  of  this  spell,  and  the  dissipation  for 
ever  of  all  these  apprehensions,  must  be  traced  to  the  trials  of  Drakard  and  the 
Hunts.  The  light  is  now  let  in  upon  this  as  upon  all  other  questions,  whether  of 
civil,  or  criminal,  or  military  polity,-  and  the  reign  of  the  lash  is  no  more  privi- 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

leged  from  the  control  of  public  opinion,  and  the  wholesome  irritation  of  free  dis- 
cussion, than  that  of  the  hulks  or  the  gibbet.  Men  may  still  form  various  opinions 
upon  the  subject.  Enlightened  statesmen  and  experienced  captains  may  differ 
widely  in  the  conclusions  to  which  their  observation  and  their  reasoning  have  led 
them.  It  is  still,  perhaps,  far  from  being  demonstrated,  that  a  punishment  whicli 
such  high  authorities  as  the  Duke  of  Wellington  regard  as  indispensable  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  can  bo  all  at  once  safely  abandoned.  But  whatever  may  be  the  result 
of  the  inquiry,  it  is  no'.v  an  entirely  open  question.  Its  being  thus  thrown  open, 
and  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  every  other  chapter  of  our  penal  code,  will 
assuredly  lead  to  its  being  rightly  settled  in  the  end;  and  the  trials  to  which  we 
have  adverted,  mainly  contributed  to  this  salutary  result. 


CASE 


JOHN  HUNT  AND  JOHN  LEIGH  HUNT. 

JANUARY  22,  1811. 


SPEECH, 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  LoRDSHIP — GENTLEMEN    OF  THE    JuRYI — In 

rising  to  support  the  cause  of  these  defendants,  I  feel  abundantly 
sensible  of  the  difficulties  under  which  they  labor.  It  is  not  that  they 
have  to  contend,  with  such  unequal  force  on  my  part,  against  the 
talents  and  learning  of  the  Attorney-general,  and  the  high  influence 
of  his  office;  nor  is  it  merely  that  they  stand  in  the  situation  of 
defendants  prosecuted  by  the  crown,  for  in  ordinary  cases  they  would 
have  the  common  presumption  of  innocence  to  work  in  their  favor; 
but  the  hardship  of  their  case  originates  in  the  nature  of  the  charge 
on  which  they  are  brought  before  you — a  charge  of  libel,  at  a  time 
when  the  licentiousness  of  the  press  has  reached  to  a  height  which  it 
certainly  never  attained  in  any  other  country,  nor  even  in  this  at  any 
other  time.  That  licentiousness,  indeed,  has  of  late  years  appeared 
to  despise  all  the  bounds  which  had  once  been  prescribed  to  the 
attacks  on  private  character,  insomuch  that  there  is  not  only  no  per- 
sonage so  important  or  exalted — for  of  that  I  do  not  complain — but, 
no  person  so  humble,  harmless,  and  retired,  as  to  escape  the  defama- 
tion which  is  daily  and  hourly  poured  forth  by  a  venal  tribe,  to  gratify 
the  idle  curiosity,  or  the  less  excusable  malignity,  of  the  public.  To 
mark  out  for  the  indulgence  of  that  propensity,  individuals  retiring 
into  the  privacy  of  domestic  life — to  hunt  them  down  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  their  enemies,  and  drag  them  forth  as  a  laughing-stock  to 
the  vulgar,  has  become  in  our  days,  with  some  men,  the  road  even  to 
popularity;  but  with  multitudes,  the  means  of  earning  a  base  sub- 
sistence. Gentlemen,  the  nature  and  the  causes  of  this  evil  it  is 
unnecessary  for  me  to  point  out.  Indeed,  I  am  far  from  saying  that 
there  is  nothing  to  extenuate  it;  I  am  ready  even  to  admit  that  this 
abuse  of  the  press  in  defaming  private  characters,  does  derive  no 
small  apology  from  the  insatiable  love  of  publicity  which  preys  upon 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  19 

a  great  part  of  the  community;  leading  them  scarcely  to  value  exist- 
ence itself,  if  it  is  not  passed  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  to  care  but 
little  what  they  do,  so  they  be  only  stared  at,  or  talked  of.  It  fur- 
nishes somewhat  of  excuse,  too,  that  the  public  itself  is  insatiable  in 
its  thirst  for  slander;  swallows  it  with  a  foul,  indiscriminate  appetite; 
and,  liberal  at  least  in  its  patronage  of  this  species  of  merit,  largely 
rewards  those  whom  it  sends  forth  to  pander  for  those  depraved 
tastes.  But,  in  whatever  way  arising,  or  however  palliated,  the  fact 
of  the  abuse  of  the  press  is  certain,  and  the  consequences  are  fatal  to 
the  press  itself;  for  the  licentiousness  of  which  I  complain  has  been 
the  means  of  alienating  the  affections  of  those  who  had  ever  stood 
forward  as  its  fastest  friends  and  its  firmest  defenders.  It  has  led 
them  to  doubt  the  uses  of  that  which  they  have  seen  so  perverted 
and  abused.  It  has  made  them,  instead  of  blessing  "the  useful 
light"  of  that  great  source  of  improvement,  see  in  it  only  an  instru- 
ment of  real  mischief,  or  doubtful  good;  and  when  they  find,  that 
instead  of  being  kept  pure,  for  the  instruction  of  the  world;  instead 
of  being  confined  to  questioning  the  conduct  of  men  in  high  situa- 
tions, canvassing  public  measures,  and  discussing  great  general  ques- 
tions of  policy;  when  they  find  that,  instead  of  such,  its  legitimate 
objects,  this  inestimable  blessing  has  been  made  subservient  to  the 
purposes  of  secret  malice,  perverted  to  the  torture  of  private  feelings, 
and  the  ruin  of  individual  reputation — those  men  have  at  last  come 
to  view  it,  if  not  with  hostility,  at  least  with  doubtful  friendship,  and 
relaxed  zeal  for  its  privileges.  It  is  no  small  aggravation  of  this  pre- 
judice, that  the  defendants  come  into  court  to  answer  this  charge, 
after  other  libels  of  a  more  general  description  have  been  published 
and  prosecuted;  after  those,  to  which  the  Attorney-general  has  so 
forcibly  alluded  in  the  opening  of  this  case,  have  so  lately  been 
brought  before  the  court,  and  their  authors  and  circulators  convicted. 
At  first  sight,  and  upon  merely  stating  the  subject  of  this  publication, 
it  is  but  natural  for  you  to  imagine  that  there  is  some  similarity 
between  those  other  cases  and  the  present;  and  that  a  publication  on 
the  general  subject  of  military  punishment  (which  is  the  only  point 
of  resemblance),  belongs  to  the  same  class  of  libels  with  those  so 
anxiously  alluded  to  by  my  learned  friend — with  those  particularly 
for  which  Mr.  Cobbett,  and  probably  some  others,  are  suffering  the 
sentence  of  the  law. 

The  Attorney-general  did  not  put  these  circumstances  in  the  back- 
ground; he  was  anxious  to  draw  a  parallel  between  this  case  and  Mr. 
Cobbelt's.  It  will  be  unnecessary  for  me  to  follow  this  comparison; 
all  I  say  in  the  outset  is,  that  I  confidently  predict,  I  shall  not  proceed 
far  before  I  shall  have  convinced  you,  gentlemen,  that  light  is  not 
more  different  from  darkness  than  the  publication  set  forth  in  this 
record  is  different  from  all  and  each  of  the  former  publications  brought 
before  the  court  by  the  Attorney-general  for  conviction, and  now  again 
brought  forward  for  argument.  The  consequence  of  all  these  prepos- 
sessions, in  whatever  way  arising,  is,  I  will  not  say  fatal,  but  extremely 
hurtful  to  these  defendants.  It  places  them  in  a  torrent  of  prejudice. 


20  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

in  which  they  would  in  vain  have  attempted,  and  I  should  not  have 
counselled  them  to  stand,  had  they  not  rested  on  the  firm  footing  of 
the  merits  of  their  individual  case,  and  the  confidence  that  his  lord- 
ship and  you  will  cheerfully  stretch  forth  an  helping  arm  in  the  only 
way  in  which  you  can  help  them;  in  the  only  way  in  which  they 
ask  your  aid — that  you  will  do  strict  justice  between  the  Crown  and 
them,  by  entering  into  an  examination  of  their  single  individual  case. 
Gentlemen,  you  have  to  try  whether  the  particular  publication,  set 
forth  in  this  record,  has  manifestly,  upon  the  bare  appearance  of  it, 
been  composed  and  published  with  the  evil  intention,  and  with  the 
bad  purpose  and  hurtful  tendency  alleged  in  the  information.  If  their 
intention  has  apparently  been  good,  or,  whether  laudable  or  not,  if  it 
has  been  innocent  and  not  blameworthy,  then,  whatever  you  may 
think  of  the  opinions  contained  in  the  work — even  though  you  may 
think  them  utterly  false  and  unfounded — in  whatever  light  you  may 
view  it  critically  as  a  piece  of  composition — though  you  may  consider 
the  language  as  much  too  weak  or  as  far  too  strong  for  the  occasion — 

O 

still  if  you  are  convinced  there  is  nothing  blameable  in  the  intention 
which  appears  to  have  actuated  the  author  and  publisher,  (for  I  will 
take  the  question  on  the  footing  that  the  author  himself  is  before  you, 
though  the  evidence,  on  the  face  it,  bears  me  out  in  distinctly  asserting 
that  these  defendants  did  not  write  this  article,  but  copied  it  from 
another  work  which  they  particularly  specify,  yet,  in  order  to  argue 
the  question  more  freely,  I  will  suppose  it  is  the  case  of  the  original 
composer,  which  you  are  now  to  try,  and  I  am  sure  my  learned  friend 
cannot  desire  me  to  meet  him  on  higher  or  fairer  ground,)  I  say  then, 
that  if  you  are  not  convinced — if,  upon  reading  the  composition  at- 
tentively, you  are  not,  every  one  of  you,  fully  and  thoroughly  con- 
vinced— that  the  author  had  a  blameable,  a  most  guilty  intention  in 
writing  it,  and  that  he  wrote  it  for  a  wicked  purpose,  you  must  acquit 
those  defendants  who  republished  it.  This,  gentlemen,  is  the  particu- 
lar question  you  have  to  try;  but  I  will  not  disguise  from  you,  that 
you  are  now  trying  a  more  general  and  important  question  than  this. 
You  are  now  to  determine,  whether  an  Englishman  still  enjoys  the 
privilege,  of  freely  discussing  public  measures — whether  an  English- 
man still  possesses  the  privilege  of  impeaching  (for  if  he  has  a  right 
to  discuss,  he  has  a  right  to  espouse  whichever  side  his  sentiments 
lead  him  to  adopt,  and  may  speak  or  write  against,  as  well  as  for), — 
whether  he  has  still  a  right  to  impeach,  not  one  individual  character, 
not  one  or  two  public  men,  not  a  single  error  in  policy,  not  any  par- 
ticular abuse  of  an  established  system — I  do  not  deny  that  he  has  the 
right  to  do  all  this,  and  more  than  this,  but  it  is  not  necessary  for  me 
now  to  maintain  it — but  the  question  for  you  to  try  is,  whether  an 
Englishman  shall  any  longer  have  the  power  of  making  comments 
on  a  system  of  policy,  of  discussing  a  general,  I  had  almost  said  an 
abstract,  political  proposition,  of  communicating  to  his  countrymen 
his  opinion  upon  the  merits,  not  of  a  particular  measure,  or  even  a 
line  of  conduct  pursued  by  this  or  that  administration,  (though  no 
man  ever  dreamt  of  denying  him  this  also,)  but  of  a  general  system 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  21 

of  policy,  which  it  has  pleased  the  government  to  adopt  at  all  times: 
— Whether  a  person,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  his  country,  warm  in 
his  attachment  to  its  cause,  vehemently  impelled  by  a  love  of  its  hap- 
piness and  glory,  has  a  right  to  endeavor,  by  his  own  individual 
exertions,  to  make  that  perfect  which  he  so  greatly  admires,  by  point- 
ing out  tfiose  little  defects  in  its  constitution  which  are  the  only  spots 
whereupon  his  partial  eyes  can  rest  for  blame: — Whether  an  English- 
man, anxious  for  the  honor  and  renown  of  the  army,  and  deeply 
feeling  how  much  the  safety  of  his  country  depends  upon  the  perfec- 
tion of  its  military  system,  has  a  right  to  endeavor  to  promote  the 
good  of  the  service,  by  showing  wherein  the  present  system  is  detri- 
mental to  it,  by  marking  out  for  correction  those  imperfections  which 
bear,  indeed,  no  proportion  to  the  general  excellence  of  the  establish- 
ment, those  ilaws  which  he  is  convinced  alone  prevent  it  from  attain- 
ing absolute  perfection? — Whether  a  person,  anxious  for  the  welfare 
of  the  individual  soldier;  intimately  persuaded  that  on  the  feelings 
and  the  honor  of  the  soldier  depend  the  honor  and  glory  of  our  arms; 
sensible  that  upon  those  feelings  and  that  honor  hinges  the  safety  of 
the  country  at  all  times,  but  never  so  closely  as  at  present — whether, 
imbued  with  such  sentiments,  and  urged  by  these  motives,  a  man  has 
not  a  right  to  make  his  opinions  as  public  as  is  necessary  to  give  them 
effect? — Whether  he  may  not  innocently,  nay,  laudably,  seek  to  make 
converts  to  his  own  views,  by  giving  them  publicity,  and  endeavor 
to  realise  his  wishes  for  the  good  of  the  state,  and  the  honor  of  its 
arms,  by  proving,  in  the  face  of  his  fellow-citizens,  the  truth  of  the 
doctrines  to  which  he  is  himself  conscientiously  attached?  These, 
gentlemen,  are  the  questions  put  to  you  by  this  record;  and  your 
verdict,  when  it  shall  be  entered  upon  it,  will  decide  such  questions 
as  these. 

Gentlemen,  it  is,  I  am  persuaded,  known  to  all  of  you,  that  for  many 
years  past,  the  anxious  attention  of  the  government  of  this  country 
has  been  directed  (at  times,  indeed,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  con- 
siderations) towards  the  improvement  of  our  military  establishment. 
It  would  be  endless,  and  it  would  be  unnecessary  for  me  to  enter  into 
the  various  projects  for  its  improvement,  which  from  time  to  time 
have  been  entertained  by  our  rulers,  and  adopted  or  rejected  by  the 
legislature:  it  is  enough  that  I  should  state,  in  one  short  sentence,  that 
all  those  plans  have  had  the  same  common  objects — to  protect  and 
benefit  the  private  soldier,  to  encourage  the  recruiting  of  the  army, 
and  to  improve  the  character  of  those  who  compose  it,  by  bettering 
the  condition  of  the  soldier  himself.  In  the  prosecution  of  these 
grand  leading  designs,  various  plans  have  been  suggested  by  different 
statesmen  of  great  name;  plans  which  I  need  not  particularise,  but  to 
some  of  which,  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  present  information,  it 
is  necessary  that  I  should  direct  your  attention.  One  of  the  chief 
means  suggested  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  soldier,  is  shorten- 
ing the  duration  of  his  service;  and  upon  that  important  subject  it  is 
unnecessary  for  me  to  use  words  of  my  own,  when  I  have,  in  a  pub- 
lication which  is  before  the  world,  and  I  dare  say  has  been  before  you, 


22  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

(at  least  yon  cannot  be  unacquainted  with  the  name  and  the  fame  of 
the  author,)  that  which  better  expresses  my  sentiments  than  any  lan- 
guage I  could  use  myself.  The  arguments  are  there  so  forcibly  stated, 
and  the  subject  is  altogether  placed  in  so  luminous  a  point  of  view, 
that  it  is  better  for  me  to  give  them  in  the  words  of  the  respectable 
writer,  the  gallant  officer  I  have  alluded  to.  It  is  Sir  Robert  Wilson, 
gentlemen,  whose  presence  here  as  a  witness,  should  it  be  necessary 
to  call  him,  prevents  me  from  saying,  so  strongly  as  I  could  wish,  what, 
in  common  with  every  one,  I  do  most  sincerely  feel — that  there  is  not 
among  all  the  brave  men  of  whom  the  corps  of  officers  in  the  British 
army  is  composed,  one,  to  whom  the  country,  considering  his  rank 
and  the  time  of  his  service,  is  more  indebted — one  who  has  more  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  enthusiastic,  I  had  almost  said  romantic, 
love  of  the  service — one  who  has  shown  himself  a  more  determined, 
I  may  really  say  personal,  enemy  of  the  ruler  of  France,  or  a  faster 
friend  to  the  cause  and  the  person  of  his  own  Sovereign,  and  of  his 
Royal  Allies.  This  gallant  officer,  in  the  year  1794,  published  a  tract 
"  On  the  means  of  improving  and  re-organising  the  Military  Force  of 
this  Empire."  It  was  addressed  to  Mr.  Pitt,  then  minister  of  the 
country,  and  whose  attention,  as  well  as  that  of  the  author,  was  at 
that  time  directed  to  whatever  was  likely  to  improve  our  military  sys- 
tem— to  encourage  the  obedience,  and  exalt  the  character  of  the  sol- 
dier already  in  the  army — arid  to  promote  the  recruiting  of  it  from 
among  those  who  had  not  yet  entered  into  the  service.  He  mentions 
a  great  variety  of  circumstances  which  deter  men  from  enlisting,  and 
render  those  who  do  enter  of  less  value  to  the  profession.  Among 
others,  he  mentions  the  term,  the  duration  of  their  service.  He  says, 
in  a  language  powerful  indeed,  and  strong,  but  anything  rather  than 
libellous,  "  It  is  strange  that  in  a  free  country,  a  custom  so  repugnant 
to  freedom,  as  enlisting  for  life,  and  to  the  particular  character  of  the 
British  constitution,  should  ever  have  been  introduced;  but  more  sin- 
gular, that  the  practice  should  have  been  continued  after  every  other 
nation  in  Europe  had  abandoned  it  as  impolitic,  and  as  too  severe  an 
imposition  upon  the  subject."  "  If  in  those  countries,"  he  proceeds, 
"  where  the  inferior  orders  of  society  are  born  in  vassalage,  and  where 
the  will  of  the  sovereign  is  immediate  law,  this  power  has  been  relin- 
quished, in  order  to  incline  rnen  voluntarily  to  enlist,  surely  there  is 
strong  presumptive  evidence  that  the  general  interests  of  the  service 
are  improved,  instead  of  being  injured,  by  this  more  liberal  considera- 
tion." He  then  goes  on  to  illustrate  the  same  topic  in  terms  still  more 
expressive  of  the  warmth  of  his  feelings  upon  so  interesting  a  ques- 
tion— "The  independence  of  an  Englishman,"  says  he,  "  naturally 
recoils  at  the  prospect  of  bondage,  which  gradually  produces  discon- 
tent against  the  bent  even  of  inclination."  "  How  many  men,"  he 
adds,  in  yet  more  glowing  words — but  which  I  am  far  from  blaming 
— for  I  should  have  held  him  cheap,  indeed,  if,  instead  of  giving  vent 
to  his  sentiments  in  this  free  and  appropriate  manner,  he  had  offered 
them  as  coldly  and  as  drily  as  if  he  were  drawing  out  a  regimental 
return. — "How  many  men  are  there  who  have  not  now  the  faintest 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  23 

wish  to  leave  their  own  estates,  even  for  a  journey  into  another  county, 
but  who,  if  restrained  by  any  edict  from  quitting  England,  would 
find  this  island  too  narrow  to  contain  them,  would  draw  their  breath 
convulsively,  as  if  they  craved  free  air,  and  feel  all  the  mental  anguish 
of  a  prisoner  in  a  dungeon?  What  is  the  inference  to  be  now  fairly 
drawn  from  the  perseverance  in  the  system  of  enlisting  for  life?  Is  it 
not  that  the  British  service  is  so  obnoxious  and  little  conciliating,  that, 
if  the  permission  to  retire  were  accorded,  the  ranks  would  be  alto- 
gether abandoned,  and  the  skeleton  only  remain,  as  an  eternal  and 
mournful  monument  of  the  wretchedness  of  a  soldier's  condition?  Is  it 
not  a  declaration  to  the  world,  that  the  service  is  so  ungrateful  to  the 
feelings  of  the  soldiery,  that  when  once  the  unfortunate  victim  is 
entrapped,  it  is  necessary  to  secure  his  allegiance  by  a  perpetual  state 
of  confinement?"  He  then  advances,  in  the  course  of  his  inquiry,  to 
another  topic;  and  in  language  as  strong,  as  expressive  of  his  honest 
feelings,  and  therefore  as  appropriate  and  praise  worthy,  lie  talks' of  the 
service  in  the  West  India  islands,  and  even  goes  so  far  as  to  wish 
those  colonies  were  abandoned.  I  am  net  disposed  to  follow  him  in 
this  opinion;  I  cannot  go  so  far.  But  God  forbid  I  should  blame  him 
for  holding  it;  or  that,  for  making  his  sentiments  public,  I  should 
accuse  him  of  having  written  a  libel  on  that  service,  of  which  he  is 
at  once  the  distinguished  ornament  and  the  zealous  friend.  It  might 
bear,  perhaps,  an  insinuation  that  such  a  topic  was  inflammatory — that 
it  had  a  tendency  to  excite  discontent  among  the  soldiers — and  to  deter 
men  from  entering  into  the  service.  But  far  from  imputing  that  to 
the  gallant  officer,  I  respect  him  the  more  for  publishing  a  bold  and 
downright  opinion — for  expressing  his  feelings  strongly;  it  is  the  best 
proof  that  he  felt  keenly.  lie  proposes  no  less  than  that  the  West 
India  islands  should  be  given  up,  in  order  to  improve  our  means  of 
defence  at  home.  He  says,  "  It  is,  however,  to  be  hoped,  that  the  day 
is  not  remote,  when  our  colonies  shall  cease  to  be  such  a  claim  upon 
the  active  population  of  this  country:  that  charnel-house  must  be 
closed  for  ever  against  the  British  troops.  The  soldier  who  dies  in 
the  field  is  wrapped  in  the  mantle  of  honor,  and  the  paM  of  glory  is 
extended  over  his  relatives;  but  in  a  warfare  against  climate,  the 
energy  of  the  man  is  destroyed  before  life  is  extinguished;  he  wastes 
into  an  inglorious  grave,  and  the  calamitous  termination  of  his  exist- 
ence offers  no  cheering  recollection  to  relieve  the  affliction  of  his  loss." 
Did  Sir  Robert  Wilson  mean  to  excite  the  brave  and  ill-fiitcd  regiments 
to  mutiny  and  revolt,  who  were  already  enclosed  in  those  charnel- 
houses?  or  did  he  mean  to  deter  persons  from  enlisting  in  those  regi- 
ments, who  might  otherwise  have  been  inclined  to  join  them?  Did 
he  mean  to  address  any  of  the  regiments  under  actual  orders  for  the 
West  India  service,  and  to  excite  revolt  among  them,  by  telling  every 
one  who  read  the  passage  I  have  cited,  that  which  it  so  forcibly  puts 
to  all  soldiers  under  such  ordrrs — "  Whither  arc  you  going?  You  arc 
rushing  into  a  charnel-house!"  Far  be  it  from  me  to  impute  such 
motives — it  is  impossible!  The  words  I  have  read  arc  uttered  in  the 
discussion  of  a  general  question — a  question  on  which  he  speaks 


24  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

warmly,  because  he  feels  strongly.  And  pursuing  the  same  course  of 
reasoning  in  the  same  animated  style,  he  comes  to  another  and  an 
important  part,  both  of  his  argument  and  of  the  question  in  which  we 
are  now  engaged. 

In  considering  the  nature  of  the  tenure  by  which  a  soldier  wears 
his  sword;  in  considering  that  honor  is  to  him  what  our  all  is  to  every 
body  else;  he  views  several  parts  of  our  military  system  as  clashing 
in  some  sort  with  the  respect  due  to  a  soldier's  character;  and,  fired 
with  a  subject  so  near  his  heart,  he  at  once  enters  into  the  question  of 
military  punishments,  paints  in  language  not  at  at  all  weaker  nor  less 
eloquent  than  that  of  the  publication  before  you — in  language  that 
does  him  the  highest  honor — the  evils  that  result  from  the  system  of 
flogging,  as  practised  in  our  army.  He  says,  "  The  second  and  equal- 
ly strong  check  to  the  recruiting  of  the  army,  is  the  frequency  of  cor- 
poral punishment."  Proceeding  to  enlarge  on  this  most  interesting 
point,  in  the  course  of  his  observations  he  uses  such  expressions  as 
these.  After  judiciously  telling  us,  that  "it  is  in  vain  to  expect  a 
radical  reform,  until  the  principle  of  the  practice  is  combated  by  argu- 
ment, and  all  its  evil  consequences  exposed  by  reasoning,"  he  adds 
this  assertion,  for  which  every  one  must  give  him  credit — "Be  this, 
however,  as  it  may,  I  feel  convinced  that  I  have  no  object  but  the 
good  of  the  service."  He  says,  that  "  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie  was 
also  an  enemy  to  corporal  punishments  for  light  offences;  his  noble 
and  worthy  successor,  whose  judgment  must  have  great  influence, 
Lord  Moira,  General  Simcoe,  and  almost  every  general  officer  in  the 
army,  express  the  same  aversion  continually,  but  they  have  no  power 
of  interference."  Of  that  interference,  then,  he  thinks  there  is  no 
prospect,  unless  by  reason  and  argument,  and  by  freely  discussing  it, 
we  can  influence  the  opinions  of  the  country  and  the  legislature — a 
proposition  to  which  all  of  us  must  readily  assent.  And  he  thus  pur- 
sues— "  I  feel  convinced  that  I  have  no  object  but  the  good  of  the 
service,  and,  consequently,  to  promote  the  commander-in-chief's  views, 
and  that  my  feelings  are  solely  influenced  by  love  of  humanity,  a 
grateful  sense  of  duty  to  brave  men,  and  not  by  a  false  ambition  of 
acquiring  popularity," — a  motive  which  I  am  sure  no  one  will  im- 
pute to  him.  "If,"  he  adds,  "I  did  not  think  the  subject  of  the  most 
essential  importance,  no  motive  should  induce  me  to  bring  it  forward; 
if  I  was  not  aware  that,  however  eager  the  commander-in-chief  was 
to  interpose  his  authority,  the  correction  of  the  abuse  does  not  alto- 
gether depend  upon  his  veto,  and  cannot,  with  due  regard  to  the  pe- 
culiar circumstances  of  his  situation,  be  required  to  emanate  abruptly 
from  him.  My  appeal  is  made  to  the  officers  of  the  army  and  militia, 
for  there  must  be  no  marked  discrimination  between  these  two  services, 
notwithstanding  there  may  be  great  difference  in  their  different  modes 
of  treating  the  soldiery.  I  shall  sedulously  avoid  all  personal  allu- 
sions— the  object  in  view  is  of  greater  magnitude  than  the  accusation 
of  individual  malefactors.  I  shall  not  enter  into  particulars  of  that 
excess  of  punishment  which  has,  in  many  instances,  been  attended 
with  the  most  fatal  consequences.  I  will  not.  by  quoting  examples, 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  25 

represent  a  picture  in  too  frightful  a  coloring  for  patient  examination." 
He  then  says,  "  The  present  age  is  a  remarkable  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  world — civilisation  is  daily  making  the  most  rapid  progress, 
and  humanity  is  triumphing  hourly  over  the  last  enemies  of  mankind; 
but  whilst  the  African  excites  the  compassion  of  the  nation,  and 
engages  the  attention  of  the  British  legislature,  the  British  soldier, 
their  fellow-countryman,  the  gallant,  faithful  protector  of  their  liberties, 
and  champion  of  their  honor,  is  daily  exposed  to  suffer  under  the 
abuse  of  that  power  with  which  ignorance  or  bad  disposition  may  be 
armed."  "There  is  no  mode  of  punishment  so  disgraceful  as  flog- 
ging, and  none  more  inconsistent  with  the  military  character,  winch 
should  be  esteemed  as  the  essence  of  honor  and  the  pride  of  manhood; 
but  when  what  should  be  used  but  in  very  extreme  cases,  as  the 
ultimum  supplicium,  producing  the  moral  death  of  the  criminal, 
becomes  the  common  penalty  for  offences  in  which  there  is  no  moral 
turpitude,  or  but  a  petty  violation  of  martial  law,  the  evil  requires 
serious  attention."  Here  he  appeals  with  a  proud  and  exulting  recol- 
lection to  the  practice  of  the  regiment  in  which  he  had  begun  his 
military  life. — "  Educated,"  says  he,  "  in  the  15th  light  dragoons,  I 
was  early  instructed  to  respect  the  soldier;  that  was  a  corps  before 
which  the  triangles  were  never  planted;" — meaning  the  triangles 
against  which  men  are  tied  up  when  they  receive  the  punishment  of 
flogging. — "There,"  he  adds,  in  the  same  language  of  glowing  satis- 
faction, contrasting  the  character  of  his  favorite  corps  with  that 
debasement  which  the  system  of  flogging  elsewhere  engenders — 
"  There,"  he  exclaims,  "each  man  felt  an  individual  spirit  of  indepen- 
dence; walked  erect,  as  if  conscious  of  his  value  as  a  man  and  a 
soldier;  where  affection  for  his  officer,  and  pride  in  his  corps,  were  so 
blended,  that  duty  became  a  satisfactory  employment,  and  to  acquire, 
for  each  new  distinction,  the  chief  object  of  their  wishes.  With 
such  men  every  enterprise  was  to  be  attempted,  which  could  be  exe- 
cuted by  courage  and  devotion,  and  there  was  a  satisfaction  in 
commanding  them  which  could  never  have  been  derived  from  a  sys- 
tem of  severity."  He  proceeds,  "There  is  no  maxim  more  true  than 
that  cruelty  is  generated  in  cowardice,  and  that  humanity  is  insepara- 
ble from  courage.  The  ingenuity  of  officers  should  be  exercised  to 
devise  a  mode  of  mitigating  the  punishment,  and  yet  maintaining 
discipline.  If  the  heart  be  well  disposed,  a  thousand  different  methods 
of  treating  offences  will  suggest  themselves;  but  to  prescribe  positive 
penalties  for  breaches  of  duty  is  impossible,  since  no  two  cases  are 
ever  exactly  alike.  Unfortunately,  many  officers  will  not  give  them- 
selves the  trouble  to  consider  how  they  can  be  merciful;  and  if  a 
return  was  published  of  all  regimental  punishments  within  the  last 
two  years,  the  number  would  be  as  much  a  subject  of  astonishment 
as  regret.  I  knew  a  colonel  of  Irish  militia,  happily  now  dead,  who 
flogged,  in  one  day,  seventy  of  his  men,  and  I  believe  punished  several 
more  the  next  morning;  but,  notwithstanding  this  extensive  correction, 
the  regiment  was  by  no  means  improved.  Corporal  punishments 
never  yet  reformed  a  corps;  but  they  have  totally  ruined  many  a  man 
VOL.  i. — 3 


26  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

who  would  have  proved  under  milder  treatment,  a  meritorious  soldier. 
They  break  the  spirit,  without  amending  the  disposition;  whilst  the 
lash  strips  the  back,  despair  writhes  round  the  heart,  and  the  miserable 
culprit,  viewing  himself  as  fallen  below  the  rank  of  his  fellow-species, 
can  no  longer  attempt  the  recovery  of  his  station  in  society.  Can 
the  brave  man,  and  he  endowed  with  any  generosity  of  feeling,  forget 
the  mortifying  vile  condition  in  which  he  was  exposed?  Does  not, 
therefore,  the  cat-o-nine-tails  defeat  the  chief  object  of  punishment, 
and  is  not  a  mode  of  punishment  too  severe,  which  forever  degrades 
and  renders  abject?  Instead  of  upholding  the  character  of  the  soldier, 
as  entitled  to  the  respect  of  the  community,  this  system  renders  him 
despicable  in  his  own  eyes,  and  the  object  of  opprobrium  in  the  state, 
or  of  mortifying  commiseration." 

He  is  now  about  to  touch  upon  a  topic  which  I  admit  to  be  of  some 
delicacy.  It  is  one  of  the  topics  introduced  into  the  composition 
before  you:  but  a  man  of  principle  and  courage,  who  feels  that  he 
has  a  grave  duty  to  perform,  will  not  shrink  from  it,  even  if  it  be  of 
a  delicate  nature,  through  the  fear  of  having  motives  imputed  to  him 
by  which  he  was  never  actuated,  or  lest  some  foolish  person  should 
accuse  him  of  acting  with  views  by  which  he  was  never  swayed. 
Accordingly,  Sir  Robert  Wilson  is  not  deterred  from  the  performance 
of  his  duty  by  such  childish  apprehensions;  and,  having  gone  through 
all  his  remarks  of  which  I  have  read  only  a  small  part,  and  having 
eloquently,  feelingly,  and  most  forcibly  summed  it  up  in  the  passage 
I  have  just  quoted,  he  says,  "  It  is  a  melancholy  truth,  that  punish- 
ments have  considerably  augmented,  that  ignorant  and  fatal  notions 
of  discipline  have  been  introduced  into  the  service,  subduing  all  the 
amiable  emotions  of  human  nature.  Gentlemen  who  justly  boast 
the  most  liberal  education  in  the  world,  have  familiarised  themselves 
to  a  degree  of  punishment  which  characterises  no  other  nation  in 
Europe."  "  England,"  (he  adds  pursuing  the  same  comparative 
argument  on  which  so  much  has  this  day  been  said,)  "  England  should 
not  be  the  last  nation  to  adopt  humane  improvements;"  and  then, 
coming  to  the  very  point  of  comparison  which  has  been  felt  by  the 
Attorney-general  as  the  most  offensive,  Sir  Robert  Wilson  says: 
"France  allows  of  flogging  only  in  her  marine;  for  men  confined 
together  on  board  ship  require  a  peculiar  discipline,  and  the  punish- 
ment is  very  different  from  military  severity.  The  Germans  make 
great  criminals  run  the  gauntlet;"  thus  illustrating  the  principle  lhat 
in  no  country,  save  and  except  England  alone  (to  use  the  words 
of  those  defendants),  is  this  mode  of  punishment  by  flogging  adopted. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  not  from  the  writings  of  this  gallant  officer  alone 
that  I  can  produce  similar  passages,  though,  perhaps,  in  none  could  I 
find  language  so  admirable  and  so  strong  as  his.  I  shall  trouble  you, 
however,  with  no  more  references,  excepting  to  an  able  publication 
of  another  officer,  who  is  an  ornament  to  his  profession,  and  whose 
name,  I  dare  say,  is  well  known  amongst  you;  I  mean  brigadier- 
general  Stewart,  of  the  95th  regiment,  the  brother  of  my  Lord  Gal- 
loway. This  work  was  written  while  the  plans,  which  1  have  already 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  27 

mentioned,  were  in  agitation  for  the  improvement  of  the  army;  and 
the  object  of  it  is  the  same  with  that  of  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  to  show 
the  defects  of  the  present  system,  and  to  point  out  the  proper  reme- 
dies. "Without  (he  begins)  a  radical  change  in  our  present  military 
system,  Britain  will  certainly  not  long  continue  to  be  either  formidable 
abroad,  or  secure  at  home."  This  radical  change  in  our  system  is 
merely  that  which  I  have  already  detailed.  Pie  says,  after  laying 
down  some  general  remarks,  "If  this  view  of  the  subject  be  correct, 
how  will  the  several  parts  of  our  present  military  system  be  recon- 
ciled to  common  sense,  or  to  any  insight  into  men  and  things?"  He 
then  mentions  the  chief  defects  in.  the  system,  such  as  perpetuity  of 
service,  and  the  frequency  of  corporal  punishments;  and  in  discussing 
the  latter  subject,  he  says,  "No  circumstance  can  mark  a  want  of 
just  discrimination  more  than  the  very  general  recurrence,  in  any 
stage  of  society,  to  that  description  of  punishment  which,  among  the 
same  class  of  men,  and  with  the  alteration  of  the  profession  alone, 
bears  the  stamp  of  infamy  in  the  estimate  of  every  man.  The  fre- 
quent infliction  of  corporal  punishment  in  our  armies,  tends  strongly 
to  debase  the  minds  and  destroy  the  high  spirit  of  the  soldiery.  It 
renders  a  system  of  increasing  rigor  necessary;  it  deprives  discipline 
of  honor,  and  destroys  the  subordination  of  the  heart,  which  can  alone 
add  voluntary  zeal  to  the  cold  obligations  of  duty.  Soldiers  of  natu- 
rally correct  minds,  having  been  once  punished  corporally,  generally 
become  negligent  and  unworthy  of  any  confidence.  Discipline  re- 
quires the  intervention  of  strong  acts  to  maintain  it,  and  to  impress 
it  on  vulgar  minds;  punishment  may  be  formidable,  but  must  not 
be  familiar;  generosity,  or  solemn  severity  must  at  times  be  equally 
recurred  to;  pardon  or  death  have  been  resorted  to  with  equal  success; 
but  the  perpetual  recurrence  to  the  infliction  of  infamy  on  a  soldier 
by  the  punishment  of  flogging,  is  one  of  the  most  mistaken  modes  for 
enforcing  discipline  which  can  be  conceived."  And  then,  alluding  to 
the  same  delicate  topic  of  comparison,  which,  somehow  or  other,  it 
does  appear  no  man  can  write  on  this  subject  without  introducing — 
I  mean  the  comparative  state  of  the  enemy's  discipline  and  our  own 
— he  says:  "  In  the  French  army  a  soldier  is  often  shot,  but  lie  rarely 
receives  corporal  punishment;  and  in  no  other  service  is  discipline 
preserved  on  truer  principles."  Gentlemen,  I  like  not  the  custom, 
which  is  too  prevalent  with  some  men,  of  being  over-prone  to  praise 
the  enemy,  of  having  no  eyes  for  the  merits  and  advantages  of  their 
own  country,  and  only  feeling  gratified  when  they  can  find  food  for 
censure  at  home,  while  abroad  all  is  praiseworthy  and  perfect.  I 
love  not  this  propensity  to  make  such  a  comparison;  however  it  is 
sometimes  absolutely  necessary,  though  it  may  always  be  liable  to 
abuse:  but  in  an  oflicer  like  General  Stewart  or  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  it 
has  the  merit  not  only  of  being  applicable  to  the  argument,  but  in 
those  men  who  have  fought  against  that  enemy,  and  who,  in  spite  of 
his  superior  system,  have  beaten  him,  (as  beat  him  we  always  do, 
when  we  meet  him  on  any  thing  like  fair  terms,)  in  such  men  it  has 
the  grace  of  liberality  as  well  as  the  value  of  truth;  and  it  not  only 


28  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

adds  a  powerful  reason  to  their  own,  but  shows  them  to  be  above 
little  paltry  feuds — shows  them  combating  with  a  manly  hostility — 
and  proves  that  the  way  in  which  they  choose  to  fight  an  enemy,  is 
confronting  him  like  soldiers  in  the  field,  and  not  effeminately  railing 
at  him.  In  the  French  army,  General  Stewart  says,  a  soldier  is  often 
shot,  but  he  rarely  receives  corporal  punishment,  and  "in  no  other 
service,"  he  adds,  "is  discipline  preserved  on  truer  principles."  "I 
know  the  service,"  he  means  to  say;  "I  have  had  occasion  to  see  it 
in  practice — I  have  served  with  Austrians,  Prussians,  and  Swedes — 
but  in  no  service  is  discipline  preserved  on  truer  principles  than  in  the 
French;  and,  therefore,  it  is  that  I  quote  the  example  of  the  French, 
whose  discipline  is  preserved  on  principles  too  true,  alas!  for  our  ill- 
fated  allies.  It  is,  therefore,  I  quote  the  French  army,  and  in  order 
to  show  that  the  change  I  recommend  in  our  own,  is  necessary  for 
the  perfection  of  its  discipline,  and  to  save  us  from  the  fate  of  those 
allies." 

Such  are  the  opinions  of  these  gallant  officers,  but  whether  they 
are  right  or  wrong  I  care  not — such  are  the  opinions  of  other  brave 
and  experienced  officers,  expressed  in  language  similar  to  that  which 
you  have  heard;  in  such  terms  as  they  deemed  proper  for  supporting 
the  opinions  they  held.  Do  I  mean  to  argue,  because  these  officers 
have  published  what  is  unfit  and  improper,  that,  therefore,  the 
defendants  have  a  right  to  do  the  same?  Am  I  foolish  enough?  Do 
I  know  so  little  of  the  respect  due  to  your  understandings?  Am  I  so 
little  aware  of  the  interruption  I  should  instantly  and  justly  meet 
from  the  learned  and  noble  judge,  who  presides  at  this  trial,  were  I 
to  attempt  urging  such  a  topic  as  this?  Do  I  really  dare  to  advance 
what  would  amount  to  no  less  than  the  absurd,  the  insane  proposition, 
that  if  one  man  has  published  a  libel,  another  man  may  do  so  too? 
On  the  contrary,  my  whole  argument  is  at  an  end,  if  these  are  libels. 
If  General  Stewart  and  Sir  Robert  Wilson  have  exceeded  the  bounds 
of  propriety,  and  those  passages  which  I  have  read  from  their  works 
are  libels,  their  publication  by  them  would  form  not  only  no  excuse 
for  the  defendants,  but  would  be  an  aggravation  of  their  fault,  if  I, 
their  counsel,  had  ventured,  in  defending  one  libel,  to  bring  other 
libels  before  you.  But  it  is  because  I  hold,  and  you  must  too,  that 
these  officers  are  incapable  of  a  libellous  intention;  because  you  well 
know,  that  these  officers,  when  they  wrote  in  such  terms,  were  inca- 
pable of  the  design  of  sowing  dissension  among  the  troops,  and  deter- 
ring men  from  entering  into  the  army;  it  is  because  you  know  that, 
of  all  men  in  this  court  and  in  this  nation,  there  are  no  two  persons 
more  enthusiastically  attached  to  the  country  and  the  service;  it  is 
because  you  know  as  well  as  I  do,  that  no  two  men  in  England  are 
more  entirely  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  British  army,  or  bear  a 
deadlier  hate  to  all  its  enemies;  it  is  because  you  must  feel  that  there 
is  not  an  atom  of  pretext  for  charging  them  with  such  wicked  inten- 
tions, or  for  accusing  them  of  a  libellous  publication;  it  is  for  this 
reason,  and  for  this  alone,  that  I  have  laid  before  you  what  they  have 
thought  and  written  upon  the  subject  matter  of  the  composition  which 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  29 

yon  are  now  trying.  I  entertain  no  small  confidence  that  you  are 
prepared  to  go  along  with  me,  in  my  conclusion,  that,  if  they  conld 
publish  such  tilings,  without  the  possibility  of  any  man  accusing  them 
of  libel,  the  mere  fact  of  these  things  being  published  is  no  evidence 
of  a  wicked  or  seditious  intention:  that  you  are,  therefore,  prepared 
to  view  the  publication  on  its  own  merits;  and,  considering  how 
others,  who  could  not  by  possibility  be  accused  of  improper  motives, 
have  treated  the  same  subject,  you  will  feel  it  your  duty  to  acquit  the 
defendants  of  evil  intention,  when  they  shall  appear  to  have  handled 
it  in  a  similar  manner. 

Gentlemen,  I  entreat  you  now  to  look  a  little  towards  the  composi- 
tion itself  on  which  the  Attorney-general  has  commented  so  amply, 
With  respect  to  the  motto,  which  is  taken  from  an  eloquent  address  of 
his  to  a  jury  upon  a  former  occasion,  there  is  nothing  in  that,  which 
makes  it  necessary  for  me  to  detain  you.  In  whatever  way  these 
words  may  have  originally  been  spoken,  and  however  the  context 
may  have  qualified  them,  even  if  they  bore  originally  a  meaning  quite 
different  from  that  which  in  their  insulated  state  they  now  appear  to 
have;  I  apprehend,  that  a  person  assuming,  as  is  the  fashion  of  the 
day,  a  quotation  from  the  words  of  another  as  a  text,  may  fairly  take 
the  passage  in  whatever  sense  suits  his  own  purpose.  Such  at  least 
has  been  the  practice,  certainly,  from  the  time  of  the  Spectator — I 
believe  much  earlier;  nor  can  the  compliance  with  this  custom  prove 
any  intention  good  or  bad.  A  writer  takes  the  words  which  he  finds 
best  adapted  to  serve  for  a  text,  and  makes  them  his  motto:  some 
take  a  line,  and  even  twist  it  to  another  meaning,  a  sense  quite  oppo- 
site to  its  original  signification;  it  is  the  most  common  device,  a  mere 
matter  of  taste  and  ornament,  and  is  every  day  practised. 

Let  us  now  come  to  the  introduction,  which  follows  the  text  or 
motto.  The  writer,  meaning  to  discuss  the  subject  of  military  punish- 
ments, and  wishing  to  oiler  his  observations  on  the  system  of  punish- 
ment adopted  in  our  army,  in  order  to  lay  a  ground-work  for  his 
argument,  and  in  case  any  reader  should  say,  "You  have  no  facts  to 
produce;  this  is  all  mere  declamation" — for  the  purpose  of  securing 
such  a  ground  work  of  fact  as  should  anticipate  and  remove  this  objec- 
tion; to  show  that  these  military  punishments  were  actually  inflicted 
in  various  instances,  and  to  prove  from  those  instances  the  necessity 
of  entering  into  the  inquiry;  he  states  fairly  and  candidly  several  cases 
of  the  punishments  which  he  is  going  to  comment  upon,  lie  says, 
"  Corporal  Curtis  was  sentenced  to  receive  one  thousand  lashes,  but 
after  receiving  two  hundred,  was  on  his  own  petition  permitted  to 
volunteer  into  a  regiment  on  foreign  service."  Enough  would  it 
have  been  for  the  argument  to  have  said,  that  Corporal  Curtis  had 
been  sentenced  to  receive  one  thousand  lashes;  but  the  author  owns 
candidly  that  on  receiving  two  hundred,  the  prisoner  was  allowed, 
and  at  his  own  request,  to  enter  into  a  regiment  on  foreign  service. 
Then  he  mentions  the  case  of  William  Clifford,  a  private  in  the  seventh 
royal  veteran  battalion,  who  was  lately  sentenced  to  receive  one  thou- 
sand lashes;  does  he  stop  there?  No,  he  adds  the  reason;  and  the 

3* 


30  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

reason  turns  out  to  be  one  which,  if  anything  can  justify  such  a  punish- 
ment, you  will  admit  would  be  a  justification.  He  says,  candidly, 
what  makes  against  his  own  argument;  he  says  it  was  "  for  repeatedly 
striking  and  kicking  his  superior  officer."  He  adds,  that  he  under- 
went part  of  his  sentence,  by  receiving  seven  hundred  and  fifty  lashes 
at  Canterbury,  in  presence  of  the  whole  garrison.  He  next  mentions 
another  instance  of  some  persons  of  the  4th  regiment  of  foot,  being 
sentenced  to  receive  two  thousand  six  hundred  lashes,  and  giving  the 
reason,  he  says,  it  was  "  for  disrespectful  behavior  to  their  officers." 
He  then  states  the  case  of  Robert  Chilman,a  private  in  the  Bearstead 
and  Mailing  regiment  of  local  militia,  who  was  lately  tried,  this  author 
tells  us,  by  a  court-martial,  "for  disobedience  of  orders  and  mutinous 
and  improper  behavior  while  the  regiment  was  embodied."  His 
offence  he  thus  sets  forth  almost  as  fully  as  if  he  was  drawing  up  the 
charge;  nay,  I  will  venture  to  say,  the  charge  upon  which  the  court- 
martial  proceeded  to  trial,  was  not  drawn  up  more  strongly  and  dis- 
tinctly. He  subjoins  to  these  facts  the  notice,  that  his  authorities  are, 
the  London  Newspapers. 

Having  thus  laid  the  foundation  and  ground-work  of  his  reasoning, 
he  comments  upon  the  subject  in  words  which,  as  they  have  been 
read  twice  over,  once  by  the  Attorney-general,  and  once  by  Mr.  Low- 
ten,  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  repeat;  I  would  only  beg  of  you  to 
observe,  that,  in  the  course  of  his  argument,  he  has  by  no  means 
departed  from  the  rule  of  fairness  and  candor  which  he  had  laid  down 
for  himself  in  the  outset.  He  brings  forward  that  which  makes  against 
him,  as  well  as  that  which  makes  for  him;  and  he  qualifies  and  guards 
his  propositions  in  a  way  strongly  indicative  of  the  candor  and  fair- 
ness of  his  motives.  After  having  stated  his  opinion  in  warm  language, 
in  language  such  as  the  subject  was  calculated  to  call  forth:  after 
having  poured  out  his  strong  feelings  in  a  vehement  manner,  (and 
surely  you  will  not  say  that  a  man  shall  feel  strongly  and  not  strongly 
express  himself,)  must  he  be  blamed  for  expressing  himself  as  these 
two  gallant  officers  have  done,  though,  perhaps, in  language  not  quite 
so  strong  as  theirs?  Having  thus  expressed  himself,  he  becomes 
afraid  of  his  reader  falling  into  the  mistaken  notion  of  his  meaning, 
an  error  which,  notwithstanding  the  warning,  it  would  seem  the 
Attorney-general  has  really  fallen  into,  the  error  of  supposing  that  he 
had  been  too  much  inclined  to  overlook  the  errors  in  the  French 
system,  and  that  he  who  had  argued  against  our  discipline,  and  in 
favor  of  the  enemy's,  might  be  supposed  too  generally  fond  of  the 
latter.  Apprehensive  of  a  mistake  so  injurious  to  him,  and  feeling 
that  it  was  necessary  to  qualify  his  observations,  in  order  to  protect 
himself  from  such  a  misconception,  he  first  says,  "  Let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed that  we  intend  these  remarks  to  excite  a  vague  and  indiscri- 
minate sentiment  against  punishment  by  military  law."  You  perceive, 
gentlemen,  that  before  proceeding  to  guard  his  reader  against  the  idea 
of  his  general  partiality  to  the  French  system,  he  stops  for  the  pur- 
pose of  correcting  another  misrepresentation — another  mistake  of  his 
meaning — into  which  also  the  Attorney-general  has  repeatedly  been 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  31 

betrayed  this  day.  The  writer,  fearing  lest  he  should  not  have 
guarded  his  reader,  and  especially  his  military  reader  if  lie  should 
have  one,  against  the  supposition  of  his  being  an  enemy  to  military 
punishment,  in  the  general,  states  distinctly,  that  severe  punishment 
is  absolutely  necessary  in  the  army;  and  he  proceeds  to  express  him- 
self in  words  which  are  nearly  the  same  as  those  used  by  the  Attorney- 
general,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  there  was  something  enor- 
mous in  attacking  the  system  of  corporal  punishment.  The  Attorney- 
general  says,  he  is  endeavoring  to  inflame  the  subjects  of  this  country 
against  the  whole  penal  code  of  the  army;  he  is  endeavoring  to  take 
away  the  confidence  of  the  soldier  in  those  military  regulations  which 
must  be  enforced,  while  we  have  an  army  at  all.  All  this  is  mere 
rhetoric — exactly  so  thought  the  author  of  this  work.  He  was  afraid 
some  person  might  fall  into  the  same  mistake,  and  accordingly  he 
warns  them  against  this  error;  he  says,  "  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that 
we  intend  these  remarks  to  excite  a  vague  and  indiscriminate  senti- 
ment against  punishment  by  military  law;  no;  when  it  is  considered 
that  discipline  forms  the  soul  of  an  army,  without  which  it  would  at 
once  degenerate  into  a  mob;  when  the  description  of  persons  which 
compose  the  body  of  what  is  called  an  army,  and  the  situation  in 
which  it  is  frequently  placed,  are  also  taken  into  account,  it  will,  we 
are  afraid,  appear  but  too  evident  that  the  military  code  must  still  be 
kept  distinct  from  the  civil,  and  distinguished  by  great  promptitude 
and  severity.  Buonaparte  is  no  favorite  of  ours,  God  wot!"  Then, 
with  respect  to  the  French  mode  of  punishment  and  our  own,  he 
observes,  "  It  may  be  said  he  (Buonaparte)  punishes  them  (his  troops) 
in  some  manner.  That  is  very  true;  he  imprisons  his  refractory  troops, 
occasionally  in  chains,  and  in  aggravated  cases  he  puts  them  to  death." 
Is  this  not  dealing  fairly  with  the  subject?  Is  this  keeping  out  of 
sight  every  thing  that  makes  against  his  argument,  and  stating  only 
what  makes  for  it?  Is  he  here  mentioning  the  French  military  punish- 
ments, to  prove  that  we  ought  to  abandon  the  means  of  enforcing  our 
military  discipline?  No!  he  does  not  argue  so  unfairly,  so  absurdly. 
His  argument  did  not  require  it;  he  states  that  the  French  punish  their 
soldiers  in  a  manner  which  I  have  no  doubt  some  will  think  more 
severe  than  flogging:  he  states,  that  Buonaparte  punishes  his  refractory 
troops  with  chains,  and  with  the  highest  species  of  all  human  punish- 
ment— with  death.  This  is  exactly  the  argument  of  the  defendants, 
or  of  the  author  of  this  composition;  and  it  is  the  argument  of  all 
those  who  reprobate  the  practice  of  flogging.  They  contend  that  he 
(Buonaparte)  does  not, and  that  we  ought  not  to  flog  soldiers;  but  that 
he  punishes  them  with  chains  or  death,  and  so  ought  we.  They 
maintain,  and  many  of  the  first  authorities  in  this  country  maintain, 
and  always  have  maintained,  that  for  those  offences  for  which  one 
thousand  lashes  are  inflicted,  death  itself  should  be  inflicted,  but  not 
flogging;  that  the  more  severe  but  more  safe  and  appropriate  punish- 
ment is  to  be  preferred.  The  argument  is  not  used  out  of  compassion 
to  the  soldier,  not  for  the  purpose  of  taking  part  with  him.  He  Joes 
not  tell  him  who  has  been  guilty  of  mutiny,  "  Your  back  is  torn  by 


32  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

the  lash;  you  are  an  injured  man,  and  suffering  unmerited  hardships: 
you  who  have  kicked  and  beat  your  officer,  ought  not  to  be  punished 
in  so  cruel  a  way,  as  by  being  tied  to  the  triangles  and  lacerated  with 
whipcords;" — this  is  not  what  he  tells  the  soldier.  No!  He  says, 
"The  punishment  you  receive  is  an  improper  punishment  altogether, 
because  it  is  hurtful  to  military  discipline — because  it  wounds  the 
feelings  of  the  soldier,  arid  degrades  him  in  his  own  estimation — 
because  it  ruins  irretrievably  many  a  man  who  might  be  reclaimed 
from  irregular  courses,  and  saves  the  life  only,  but  without  retaining 
the  worth  of  him  who,  like  you,  has  committed  the  highest  offences; 
therefore  such  a  punishment  is  in  no  instance  fit  to  be  inflicted.  But 
do  not  think  that  you  are  to  get  off  without  the  severest  punishment, 
you,  who  have  been  guilty  of  mutiny;  do  not  think  that  military 
punishments  ought  not  to  be  more  severe  than  the  civil;  my  opinion, 
indeed,  is,  that  you  ought  not  to  be  flogged,  because  there  are  reasons 
against  that  practice,  wholly  independent  of  any  regard  for  you;  but 
then  I  think  that  you  ought  for  your  offences  to  be  confined  in  chains, 
or  put  to  death.7'  It  is  not  tenderness  towards  the  soldier;  it  is  not 
holding  up  his  grievances  as  the  ground  for  mutiny;  it  is  a  doctrine 
which  has  for  its  object  the  honor  of  all  soldiers;  it  proceeds  from  a 
love  of  the  military  service;  it  is  calculated  to  raise  that  service,  and 
by  raising  it,  to  promote  the  good  of  the  country.  These  are  the 
motives,  these  are  the  views  of  this  train  of  argument.  Instead  of 
holding  out  the  idle  dream,  that  the  soldier  ought  not  to  be  punished, 
he  addresses  himself  to  the  subject,  solely  on  account  of  the  system 
of  which  the  soldier  forms  a  part;  solely  on  account  of  the  effect  which 
his  punishment  may  produce  on  the  army:  but  as  to  the  individual 
soldier  himself,  he  holds  the  very  language  of  severity  and  discipline; 
he  tells  him  in  pretty  plain,  nay,  in  somewhat  harsh  terms,  that  strictness 
is  necessary  in  his  case,  and  that  he  must  be  treated  far  more  rigorously 
than  any  other  class  of  the  community.  Furthermore,  he  tells  him, 
that  a  severer  punishment  than  even  flogging,  is  requisite,  and  that, 
instead  of  being  scourged,  he  ought  to  be  imprisoned  for  life,  or  shot. 
He  then  goes  to  another  topic,  but  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  proceed 
farther  with  the  qualifications  of  his  opinion;  he  says,  "  We  despise 
and  detest  those  who  would  tell  us,  that  there  is  as  much  liberty  now 
enjoyed  in  France  as  there  is  left  in  this  country."  Is  this  the  argu- 
ment— is  this  the  language  of  a  person  who  would  hold  up  to  admira- 
tion what  our  enemies  do,  and  fix  the  eye  of  blame  only  on  what 
happens  at  home?  Is  this  the  argument,  from  which  we  are  to  infer, 
that  he  looked  across  the  channel  to  pry  out  the  blessings  enjoyed  by 
our  enemies  in  order  to  stir  up  discontent  among  ourselves?  If  such 
had  been  his  intention,  was  this  vehement  expression  of  contemptuous 
indignation  against  those  who  are  over-forward  to  praise  the  French, 
likely  to  accomplish  such  a  purpose?  Surely  such  expressions  were 
more  than  his  argument  required.  He  goes  out  of  his  way  to  repro- 
bate men  of  unpatriotic  feelings;  men  whose  hearts  are  warm  towards 
the  enemies  of  their  country.  It  was  the  gist  of  his  argument  to  show 
that  the  French  discipline  being  superior  to  ours  (as  in  the  opinion  of 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  33 

Sir  Robert  Wilson  and  General  Stewart,  it  appears  to  be),  we  ought 
to  seek  the  amendment  of  our  system  by  availing  ourselves  of  the 
example  of  our  enemies;  but  he  says,  "  Do  not  believe  I  am  against 
punishing  the  soldier  because  I  am  averse  to  flogging  him,  or  that  I 
belong  to  the  description  of  persons  who  can  see  nothing  in  the  con- 
duct of  our  enemies  deserving  censure."  On  the  contrary  lie  warns 
the  soldier  that  rigor  of  discipline  is  his  lot,  and  that  he  must  expect 
the  severest  infliction  of  punishment  which  man  can  endure;  and  he 
purposely,  though  I  admit  unnecessarily  for  his  argument,  inveighs 
against  too  indiscriminate  an  admiration  of  France,  in  words  which  I 
shall  repeat,  because  they  are  important,  and  because  my  learned 
friend  passed  hastily  over  them;  "We  despise  and  detest  those  who 
would  tell  us,  that  there  is  as  much  liberty  now  enjoyed  in  France  as 
there  is  left  in  this  country." 

Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  publication  on  which  you  are  called  upon 
to  decide.  It  is  an  argument  qualified  by  restrictions  and  limitations, 
upon  an  important  branch  of  the  military  policy  of  this  country.  In 
pursuing  this  argument,  it  was  necessary  the  writer  should  choose  a 
topic  liable  to  misconception — the  comparison  of  the  system  of  the 
French  army  with  our  own.  His  argument  could  not  be  conducted 
without  a  reference  to  this  point.  But  to  preserve  it  from  abuse,  he 
guards  it  by  the  passage  I  have  read,  and  by  others  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  body  of  the  composition.  And  he  is  now  brought  before 
you  for  a  libel,  on  this  single  ground,  that  he  has  chosen  such  topics 
as  the  conduct  of  his  argument  obviously  required;  and  used  such 
language  as  the  expression  of  his  opinions  naturally  called  forth. 

Gentlemen,  I  pray  you  not  to  be  led  away  by  any  appearance  of 
warmth,  or  even  of  violence,  which  you  may  think  you  perceive, 
merely  upon  cursorily  looking  over  this  composition.  I  pray  you  to 
consider  the  things  I  have  been  stating  to  you,  when  you  are  reflect- 
ing upon  the  able  and  eloquent  remarks  of  the  Attorney-general;  more 
especially  upon  the  observations  which  he  directed  to  the  peculiarly 
delicate  and  invidious  topics  necessarily  involved  in  the  argument. 
The  writer  might  have  used  these  topics  without  the  qualifications, 
and  still  I  should  not  have  been  afraid  for  his  case.  But  he  has  not 
so  used  them;  he  has  not  exceeded  the  bounds  which  anything  that 
deserves  the  name  of  free  discussion  must  allow  him.  He  has  touch- 
ed, and  only  touched,  those  points  which  it  was  absolutely  impossible 
to  pass  over,  if  he  wished  to  trace  the  scope  of  his  opinions;  and  those 
points  he  had  a  right  to  touch,  nay,  to  dwell  upon,  (which  he  has  not 
done,)  unless  you  are  prepared  to  say  that  free  discussion  means  this 
— that  I  shall  have  the  choice  of  my  opinion,  but  not  of  the  argu- 
ments whereby  I  may  support  and  enforce  it — or  that  I  shall  have  the 
choice  of  my  topics,  but  must  only  choose  such  as  my  adversary 
pleases  to  select  for  me;  unless  you  are  prepared  to  say  that  that  is  a  full 
permission  freely  to  discuss  public  measures,  which  prescribes  not 
merely  the  topics  by  which  my  sentiments  are  to  be  maintained,  but 
also  tho  language  in  which  my  feelings  are  to  be  conveyed.  If  there 
is  a  difference  in  the  importance  of  different  subjects — if  one  person 


34  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

naturally  feels  more  strongly  than  another  upon  the  same  matter — if 
there  are  some  subjects  on  which  all  men,  who  in  point  of  animation 
are  above  the  level  of  a  stock  or  a  stone,  do  feel  warmly; — have  they 
not  a  right  to  express  themselves  in  proportion  to  the  interest  which 
the  question  naturally  possesses,  and  to  the  strength  of  the  feelings  it 
excites  in  them?  If  they  have  no  such  power  as  this,  to  what,  I  de- 
mand, amounts  the  boasted  privilege?  It  is  the  free  privilege  of  a 
fettered  discussion;  it  is  the  unrestrained  choice  of  topics  which  an- 
other selects;  it  is  the  liberty  of  an  enslaved  press;  it  is  the  native 
vigor  of  impotent  argument.  The  grant  is  not  qualified,  but  resumed 
by  the  conditions.  The  rule  is  eaten  up  with  the  exceptions;  and  he 
who  gives  you  such  a  boon,  and  calls  it  a  privilege  or  a  franchise, 
either  has  very  little  knowledge  of  the  language  he  uses,  or  but  a  slight 
regard  for  the  understandings  of  those  whom  he  addresses.  I  say, 
that  in  the  work  before  you,  no  individual  instance  of  cruelty  has 
been  selected  for  exaggerated  description,  or  even  for  remark;  no  spe- 
cific facts  are  commented  on,  no  statements  alluded  to  in  detail. 
Scarcely  are  the  abuses  of  the  system  pointed  out;  though  the  elo- 
quent author  might  well  have  urged  them  as  arguments  against  a 
system  thus  open  to  abuse.  It  is  the  system  itself  which  is  impeached 
in  the  mass;  it  is  the  general  policy  of  that  system  which  is  called  in 
question;  and  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  argument,  a  part  necessary 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  inquiry,  to  state  that  the  system  itself  leads 
to  cruelty,  and  that  cruelty  cannot  fail  to  be  exercised  under  it.  This 
is  among  the  most  important  of  the  arguments  by  which  the  subject 
must  needs  be  discussed:  and  if  he  has  a  right  to  hold,  and  publicly 
to  state  an  opinion  on  this  subject  at  all,  he  has  not  only  a  right,  but 
it  is  his  duty  to  enter  into  this  argument. 

But  then  the  Attorney-general  maintains,  that  it  tends  to  excite  mu- 
tiny, and  to  deter  persons  from  enlisting  in  the  army.  Now,  gentle- 
men, I  say,  that  this  fear  is  chimerical;  and  I  now  desire  you  to  lay 
out  of  your  view  everything  I  have  stated  from  the  high  authorities 
whose  sentiments  you  have  heard.  I  request  you  to  leave  out  of  your 
sight  the  former  arguments  urged  by  me,  that  you  cannot  impute  any 
evil  intention  to  their  books,  because  you  cannot  to  their  authors.  I 
ask  you  to  consider,  whether  there  is  any  visible  limit  to  the  argument 
which  the  Attorney-general  has  pressed  on  you,  when  he  asserts  that 
the  tendency  of  this  publication  is,  to  excite  disaffection  among  the 
soldiers,  and  to  prevent  the  recruiting  of  the  army?  I  ask  you  whe- 
ther any  one  of  those  points  which  are  the  most  frequently  discussed, 
at  all  times,  and  by  persons  of  every  rank,  can  in  any  conceivable 
way  be  discussed,  if  we  are  liable  to  be  told,  that  in  arguing,  or  in 
remarking  upon  them,  our  arguments  have  a  tendency  to  excite  sedi- 
tion and  revolt?  What  are  the  most  ordinary  of  all  political  topics? 
Taxes,  wars,  expeditions.  If  a  tax  is  imposed,  which  in  my  conscience 
I  believe  to  be  fraught  with  injustice  in  its  principle,  to  originate  in  the 
most  perverse  impolicy,  and  to  produce  the  most  galling  oppression 
in  the  manner  of  its  collection;  can  I  speak  otherwise  than  severely? 
or,  however  moderately  I  may  express  myself,  can  I  speak  otherwise 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  35 

than  most  unfavorably  of  it,  even  after  the  legislature  has  sanctioned 
it,  and  laid  it  on  the  country?  And  yet  the  Attorney-general  may  say, 
"  What  are  you  about?  You  are  exciting  the  people  to  resistance; 
you  are  touching  the  multitude  in  the  tenderest  point,  and  stirring 
them  up  to  revolt  against  the  tax-gatherers,  by  persuading  them  that 
the  collection  of  the  imposts  is  cruel  and  oppressive,  and  that  the  go- 
vernment has  acted  unwisely  or  unjustly,  in  laying  such  burthens 
on  the  people."  Is  it  rebellious  to  speak  one's  sentiments  of  the  ex- 
peditions sent  from  this  country?  If  a  man  should  say,  "  You  are 
despatching  our  gallant  troops  to  leave  their  bones  in  those  charnel- 
houses,  as  Sir  Robert  Wilson  calls  them,  which  you  are  constantly  pur- 
chasing in  the  West  Indies  with  the  best  blood  of  England;  you  are 
sending  forth  your  armies  to  meet,  not  the  forces  of  the  enemy,  but 
the  yellow  fever;  you  are  pouring  your  whole  forces  into  Walcheren, 
to  assail,  not  the  might  of  France,  nor  the  iron  walls  of  Flanders,  but 
the  pestilential  vapors  of  her  marshes."  Such  things  have  been 
uttered  again  and  again,  from  one  end  of  the  empire  to  the  other,  not 
merely  in  the  hearing  of  the  country,  but  in  the  hearing  of  the  troops 
themselves;  but  did  any  man  ever  dream  of  sedition,  or  a  wish  to 
excite  mutiny  being  imputed  to  those  millions  by  whom  such  remarks 
have  been  urged?  Do  those  persons  of  exalted  rank,  and  of  all  ranks, 
(for  we  all  have  a  right  to  discuss  such  measures,  as  well  as  the  states- 
men who  rule  us;)  do  those  men  within  the  walls  of  Parliament,  and 
without  its  walls,  (for  surely  all  have  equally  the  right  of  political  dis- 
cussion, whether  they  have  privilege  of  Parliament  or  no;)  do  all  who 
thus  treat  these  subjects  purposely  mean  to  excite  sedition?  Did  any 
one  ever  think  of  imputing  to  the  arguments  of  persons  discussing  in 
this  way  those  matters  of  first-rate  national  importance,  that  their  re- 
marks had  a  tendency  to  produce  revolt,  and  excite  the  soldiers  to 
mutiny? 

There  is  another  subject  of  discussion  which  instantly  strikes  one; 
it  is  suggested  to  you  immediately  by  the  passage  which  I  formerly 
read  from  Sir  Robert  Wilson;  indeed  he  introduces  it  in  lamenting 
the  treatment  of  the  soldier.  I  am  referring  to  those  signal,  and  I 
rejoice  to  say,  successful  efforts  made  by  our  best  statesmen  of  all 
parties,  on  behalf  of  the  West  Indian  slaves.  Could  there  be  a  more 
delicate  topic  than  this?  a  more  dangerous  subject  of  eloquence  or 
description?  Can  the  imagination  of  man  picture  one  that  ought  to 
be  more  cautiously,  more  scrupulously  handled,  if  this  doctrine  is  to 
prevail,  that  no  person  must  publish  what  any  person  may  suspect  of 
having  a  tendency  to  excite  discontent  and  rebellion?  And  yet  were 
not  all  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Pitt,  (to  take  but  one  example,)  from 
beginning  to  end,  pictures  of  the  horrors  of  West  Indian  slavery? 
And  did  any  one  in  the  utmost  heat  of  the  controversy,  or  in  the 
other  contentions  of  party  or  personal  animosity,  ever  think  of  ac- 
cusing that  celebrated  statesman  of  a  design  to  raise  discontent,  or 
shake  the  tranquillity  of  the  colonies,  although  lie  was  addressing  his 
vehement  and  impassioned  oratory  to  islands  where  the  oppressed 
blacks  were  to  the  tyrannizing  whites,  as  the  whole  population,  com- 


36  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

pared  with  a  few  hundred  individuals  scattered  over  the  West  Indian 
seas?  I  say,  if  this  argument  is  good  for  any  thing,  it  is  good  for  all; 
and  if  it  proves  that  we  have  no  right  to  discuss  this  subject,  it  proves 
that  we  have  no  right  to  discuss  any  other  which  can  interest  the 
feelings  of  mankind. 

But  I  dare  say,  that  one  circumstance  will  have  struck  yon,  upon 
hearing  the  eloquent  address  of  my  learned  friend.  I  think  you  must 
have  been  struck  with  something  which  he  would  fain  have  kept  out 
of  sight.  He  forgot  to  tell  you  that  no  discontent  had  been  perceived, 
that  no  revolt  had  taken  place,  that  no  fears  of  mutiny  had  arisen — 
that,  in  short,  no  man  dreamt  of  any  sort  of  danger — from  the  inflic- 
tion of  the  punishment  itself!  The  men  therefore  are  to  see  their 
comrades  tied  up,  and  to  behold  the  flesh  stripped  off  from  their 
bodies,  aye,  bared  to  the  bone!  they  are  to  see  the  very  ribs  and  bones 
from  which  the  mangled  flesh  has  been  scourged  away — without  a 
sentiment  of  discontent,  without  one  feeling  of  horror,  without  any 
emotion  but  that  of  tranquil  satisfaction?  And  all  this  the  bystanders 
are  also  to  witness,  without  the  smallest  risk  of  thinking  twice,  after 
such  a  scene,  whether  they  shall  enter  into  such  a  service!  There 
are  no  fears  entertained  of  exciting  dissatisfaction  among  the  soldiers 
themselves  by  the  sight  of  their  comrades  thus  treated:  there  is,  it 
seems,  no  danger  of  begetting  a  disinclination  to  enlist,  among  the 
surrounding  peasantry,  the  whole  fund  from  which  the  resources  for 
recruiting  your  army  are  derived!  All  this,  yon  say,  is  a  chimerical 
fear;  perhaps  it  is:  I  think  quite  otherwise;  but  be  it  even  so;  let 
their  eyes  devour  such  sights,  let  their  ears  be  filled  with  the  cries  of 
their  suffering  comrades;  all  is  safe;  there  is  no  chance  of  their  being 
moved;  no  complaint,  no  indignation,  not  the  slightest  emotion  of  pity, 
or  blame,  or  disgust,  or  indignation  can  reach  their  hearts  from  the 
spectacle  before  them.  But  have  a  care  how,  at  a  distance  from  the 
scene,  and  long  after  its  horrors  have  closed,  you  say  one  word  upon 
the  subject!  See  that  you  do  not  describe  these  things  (we  have  not 
described  them);  take  care  how  you  comment  upon  them  (we  have 
not  commented  upon  them);  beware  of  alluding  to  what  has  been 
enacting  (we  have  scarcely  touched  any  one  individual  scene);  but 
above  all,  take  care  how  you  say  a  word  on  the  general  question  of 
the  policy  of  the  system;  because,  if  you  should  attempt  to  express 
your  opinions  upon  that  subject,  a  single  word  of  argument — one 
accidental  remark — will  rouse  the  whole  army  into  open  revolt!  The 
very  persons  upon  whom  the  flogging  was  inflicted,  who  were  not  to 
be  excited  to  discontent  at  the  torture  and  disgrace  of  their  sufferings; 
they  will  rebel  at  once,  if  you  say  a  word  upon  the  policy  of  such 
punishments.  Take  no  precautions  for  concealing  such  sights  from 
those  whom  you  would  entice  into  the  service;  do  not  stop  up  their 
ears  while  the  air  rings  with  the  lash;  let  them  read  the  horrors  of 
the  spectacle  in  the  faces  of  those  who  have  endured  it.  Such  things 
cannot  move  a  man:  but  description,  remark,  commentary,  argument, 
who  can  hear  without  instantaneous  rebellion? 

Gentlemen,  I  think  I  have  answered  the  argument  of  the  Attorney- 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  37 

general  upon  the  dangers  of  such  discussions;  and  in  answering  it,  I 
have  removed  the  essential  part  of  the  information,  without  which  this 
prosecution  cannot  be  sustained;  I  mean  the  allegation  of  evil,  ma- 
licious, and  seditious  intention,  on  the  part  of  the  author  and  publisher 
of  the  work.  I  have  done — I  will  detain  you  no  longer;  even  if  I 
could,  I  would  not  go  further  into  the  case.  The  whole  composition 
is  before  you.  The  question  which  you  are  to  try,  as  far  as  I  am 
able  to  bring  it  before  you,  is  also  submitted  to  you;  and  that  question 
is,  whether,  on  the  most  important  and  most  interesting  subjects,  an 
Englishman  still  has  the  privilege  of  expressing  himself  as  his  feelings 
and  his  opinions  dictate? 


VOL.  i. — 4 


CASE 


OF 


JOHN     DRAKARD 

MARCH  13,  1811. 


SPEECH, 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  LORDSHIP — GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  JURY Yoil 

have  all  of  you  listened  with  that  attention  which  the  importance  of 
the  trial  demands,  to  the  very  able  and  ingenious  opening  of  the 
counsel  for  the  prosecution;  and  you  have  heard  the  various  com- 
ments which  he  deemed  necessary  to  support  his  case,  upon  the 
alleged  meaning  which  they  have  been  pleased  to  impute,  and  on  the 
various  tendencies  they  have  ascribed  to  the  publication  whose  merits 
you  are  to  try.  I  confess  I  was  struck  in  various  parts  of  that  learned 
gentleman's  speech,  with  the  remarkable  ingenuity  required  to  twist 
and  press  into  his  service  the  different  passages  of  the  composition  on 
which  he  commented;  and  although  from  knowing  as  I  do,  the  con- 
text of  those  passages,  with  which,  however,  you  were  not  made 
acquainted;  and  from  knowing,  as  many  of  you  may,  the  character 
of  the  person  accused;  and  from  having  besides  a  little  knowledge  of 
the  general  question  of  military  policy;  I  had  no  doubt  that  the 
learned  counsel  would  fail  to  make  out  the  intention  which  he  has 
imputed  to  the  defendant's  publication;  yet  I  am  ready  to  admit,  that 
every  thing  which  ingenuity  could  do  in  this  way  lie  has  done. 

I  shall  not,  gentlemen,  follow  the  learned  counsel  through  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  his  speech;  but  in  conformity  to  my  own  wishes,  and 
in  compliance  with  the  positive  injunctions  of  the  defendant,  I  shall 
attempt  to  lay  before  you  the  composition  itself,  and  to  make  for  him 
a  plain,  a  candid,  and  a  downright  defence.  Even  if  I  had  the  same 
power  of  twisting  and  perverting  passages  in  a  direction  favorable  to 
my  client,  which  my  learned  friend  has  shown  in  torturing  them 
against  him,  I  am  precluded  from  using  it,  not  merely  by  the  instruc- 
tions I  have  received,  but  also  by  my  own  intimate  persuasion  that 
such  a  line  of  conduct  is  far  from  necessary — that  it  would  be  even 
hurtful  to  my  case. 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  39 

For  the  same  reason,  I  shall  abstain  from  following  another  example 
set  me  by  the  learned  counsel  for  the  prosecution.  He  alluded,  and 
that  pointedly,  to  a  case  distantly  hinted  at  in  this  publication — that 
of  Cobbett,  who  was  convicted  by  a  jury  of  publishing  a  libel;  my 
learned  friend  took  care  to  remind  you  of  this  circumstance,  and  from 
a  line  or  two  of  the  publication  which  you  are  now  to  try,  he  inferred 
that  the  subject  of  that  libel  was  connected  with  the  subject  of  mili- 
tary punishment.  Perhaps,  gentlemen,  I  might  with  equal  justice, 
and  even  with  better  reason,  allude  to  another  case  more  directly  con- 
nected with  the  one  now  in  our  view.  Were  I  so  disposed,  I  might 
go  out  of  my  way,  and  leave  the  merits  of  the  present  question;  I 
might  find  no  difficulty,  since  the  example  has  been  set  me  by  my 
learned  friend,  and  his  conduct  would  justify  me  should  I  follow  it — 
in  calling  your  attention  to  a  case  of  libel  more  resembling  the  pre- 
sent; a  case  which  was  very  recently  tried,  but  in  which  a  conviction 
was  not  obtained.  If  I  were  so  disposed,  I  might  refer  you  to  a  case, 
in  which  twelve  honest  men,  unbiassed  by  any  interest,  determined 
that  the  great  bulk  of  the  present  publication  is  not  libellous  nor 
wicked.  But  I  will  not  avail  myself  of  this  advantage;  I  will  rather 
suffer  the  experiment  to  be  tried,  in  the  person  of  this  defendant,  of 
the  uniformity  of  juries;  whether  that  which  has  been  shown  by  a 
judicial  decision  to  be  innocent  at  Westminster  can  be  adjudged  guilty 
at  Lincoln.  I  might  put  it  to  you  whether  the  intentions  of  this 
defendant  can  be  so  wicked  as  they  have  been  represented  by  my 
learned  friend,  when  twelve  upright  men  in  another  court  have  held 
his  publication  to  be  not  only  lawful,  but  innocent — have  solemnly 
pronounced  it  to  be  by  no  means  libellous.  But,  gentlemen,  I  will 
waive  all  these  advantages  in  the  outset,  and  confine  your  attention 
exclusively  to  that  which  is  stated  to  be  the  evil  of  this  publication. 
I  beg  you  not  only  to  lay  out  of  your  view  the  case  of  Cobbett,  who 
was  tried  for  a  libel  that  has  no  possible  connection  with  the  present 
case,  but  I  will  also  ask  you  to  lay  out  of  your  view  the  acquittal  of 
the  Hunts,  who  have  been  tried  for  publishing  at  least  three-fourths, 
and  that  which  is  called  the  most  obnoxious  part,  of  the  contents  of 
what  you  are  now  to  try.  All  this  1  desire  you  to  lay  out  of  your 
view.  I  beg  you  to  confine  your  attention  solely  to  the  merits  of  this 
newspaper;  and  if  you  shall  be  of  opinion,  after  I  have  gone  through 
the  publication  much  less  particularly  than  my  learned  friend,  and 
without  any  of  his  ingenious,  and,  he  must  pardom  me  if  I  say,  his 
sophistical  comments;  if,  after  collecting  the  defendant's  intentions, 
from  comparing  the  different  parts  of  his  dissertation,  you  should  be 
of  opinion  that  he  has  wished  fairly  to  discuss  a  question  of  great 
importance  and  interest  to  the  country;  that  in  discussing  this  ques- 
tion he  has  not  merely  propounded  his  arguments,  but  also  given  vent 
to  those  feelings  which  are  utterly  inseparable  from  the  consideration 
of  his  subject;  if,  in  doing  so,  he  has  only  used  the  right  and  privilege 
which  all  men  in  this  free  country  possess,  of  discussing  and  investi- 
gating every  subject,  and  of  calling  to  account  the  rulers  of  the 
country,  (which  indeed  he  has  not  done);  if,  in  discussing  the  manner 


40  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

in  which  our  rulers,  not  of  the  present  day  only,  but  of  past  times 
also,  have  conducted  themselves,  he  has  only  exercised  an  unques- 
tionable and  unquestioned  right — the  right  of  delivering  his  senti- 
ments and  of  enforcing  them;  if  this  shall  appear,  you  will  be 
instructed  by  a  higher  authority  than  mine,  and  it  will.  I  am  sure,  be 
your  pleasure,  as  it  will  be  your  duty,  to  pronounce  the  defendant  not 
guilty. 

This,  gentlemen,  then,  is  the  question  you  have  to  try;  and  that 
you  may  be  enabled  to  decide  it,  I  shall  have  little  more  to  do  than  to 
request  your  attention  to  the  publication  itself.  I  do  not  wish  you  to 
forget  the  comments  of  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution,  but  I  shall 
take  the  liberty  of  laying  the  defendant's  discussion  before  you  more 
fairly  and  impartially  than  it  has  already  been  laid  before  you  by  that 
learned  gentleman.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  take  up  a 
subject  of  high  importance — a  question  universally  interesting — a 
case  that  has  often  been  alluded  to  by  different  writers.  Gentlemen, 
he  had  a  right  to  form  his  opinion  upon  this  question;  he  had  a  right 
to  form  it,  although  it  happened  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  policy  of 
the  country.  I  do  not  say  that  his  is  a  just  opinion;  that  it  is  a  cor- 
rect opinion;  but  it  happens  to  be  his  opinion,  and  he  has  a  right  to 
maintain  it.  If  he  thinks  that  the  practice  which  he  reprobates  is 
detrimental  to  the  service  of  this  country;  that  it  produces  reluctance 
among  the  inhabitants  to  enter  into  the  military  state;  nay,  that  it  has 
the  worst  effect  on  the  country  itself;  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  there  is 
any  guilt  in  entertaining  such  an  opinion — I  have  yet  to  learn  that  it 
is  criminal  to  promulgate  such  an  opinion  on  such  a  subject.  And  if, 
in  support  of  his  sentiments,  he  resorts  to  topics  of  various  descrip- 
tions, I  shall  hold  him  innocent  for  so  doing,  until  I  am  informed  from 
good  authority,  that  a  person  may  hold  an  opinion,  but  that  he  must 
be  mute  upon  the  subject  of  it;  that  he  may  see  the  question  only  in 
a  certain  point  of  view;  that  he  must  look  at  it  through  a  certain  par- 
ticular medium;  that  he  must  measure  the  strength  of  his  argument 
by  a  scale  which  my  learned  friend  alone  seems  to  have  in  his  pos- 
session— till  I  learn  all  this  from  a  higher  authority  than  the  learned 
counsel,  I  shall  continue  to  hold  the  doctrine  that  it  is  the  privilege  of 
a  subject  of  this  country  to  promulgate  such  fair  and  honest  argu- 
ments as  appear  to  him  best  adapted  to  enforce  his  fair  and  honest 
sentiments. 

Gentlemen,  how  does  the  publisher  of  this  piece  proceed  to  declare 
and  maintain  what  he  believes?  He  begins, "  ONE  THOUSAND  LASHES." 
This  is  a  short  head,  as  it  were,  to  the  article.  It  is  headed  in  capital 
letters,  in  the  same  way  as  other  articles  in  the  newspapers  are  usu- 
ally headed.  If  you  will  look  into  this  very  paper,  gentlemen,  you 
will  find  that  other  articles  begin  in  the  same  way.  Here  is  "  SPAIN 
AND  PORTUGAL,"  and  another  article  has  "FRANCE"  for  its  head, 
and  another  "  MISCELLANEOUS  NEWS."  Then  follows  a  motto,  or 
text,  which  the  author  has  chosen  to  give  force  to  what  was  to  follow; 
and,  according  to  the  practice  of  newspaper  writers,  he  took  it  from 
the  speech  of  a  celebrated  law  officer,  choosing  to  quote  him,  because 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  41 

he  differed  from  his  opinion.  Meaning,  therefore,  to  argue  with  that 
officer,  he  could  not  have  done  hetter  than  seize  hold  of  a  passage 
from  his  speech;  and  lie  then  proceeds  to  give  a  statement  of  the 
facts  and  sentiments  which  are  connected  with  that  passage;  using 
various  arguments,  sometimes  even  a  pleasantry  or  two,  as  is  no 
uncommon  method  when  we  wish  to  come  at  the  truth.  lie  then 
states  various  instances  of  the  punishment  which  he  condemns, 
because  he  is  about  to  discuss  or  rather  to  show  the  impolicy  of  the 
particular  mode  in  which  military  punishments  are  now  so  frequently 
inflicted.  The  learned  counsel  for  the  prosecution  told  you,  that  in 
order  to  obtain  this  collection  of  facts,  the  defendant  had  ransacked 
all  the  newspapers.  Unquestionably,  gentlemen,  he  had  ransacked 
the  papers;  and  if  he  had  not  brought  together  a  statement  of  facts 
— if  he  had  not  in  this  way  laid  the  groundwork  for  what  was  to 
follow — what  would  the  ingenuity  of  that  learned  gentleman  have 
suggested?  You  would  have  been  told  that  all  the  defendant  had 
said  was  mere  vindictive  turbulent  clamor  against  a  practice  long 
received,  yet  but  seldom  put  in  force,  and  that  the  author  had  found 
it  impossible  to  produce  any  instances  of  the  infliction  of  that  punish- 
ment. The  author  was  aware  that  ingenious  men  would  start  this 
objection  against  him,  and  that  it  would  have  been  a  fair  one — there- 
fore he  gets  rid  of  it  by  laying  the  groundwork  of  his  argument  in  a 
statement  of  facts.  The  language  of  what  he  has  done  is  then 
simply  this. — "  Do  not  think  that  what  I  am  writing  about  is  a  mere 
chimera.  You  have  the  real  existence  of  it  before  your  eyes.  It  is 
taking  place  every  day." 

Gentlemen,  the  manner  in  which  he  states  these  facts  deserves 
particular  attention.  Had  it  been  his  desire  to  put  the  thing  in  the 
worst  point  of  view,  in  order  to  support  his  opinion,  he  would  not 
have  written  as  he  has  done:  for  when  a  man  is  heated  by  his  subject, 
and  is  looking  out  for  arguments,  he  seldom  finds  those  that  are  un- 
favorable to  his  opinion;  if  they  are  of  that  complexion,  he  turns  his 
eyes  away  from  them;  and  I  might  refer  you  to  the  speech  of  the 
learned  counsel  for  the  prosecution  as  a  proof  of  this.  That  learned 
gentleman  very  carefully  turned  his  eyes  off  from  those  passages 
which  would  have  given  a  different  character  to  the  piece  from  that 
which  he  imputes  to  it;  or  if  he  did  not  entirely  omit  them,  he  read 
them  over  to  you  in  a  low  tone  of  voice,  which  was  certainly  not  the 
general  pitch  of  his  speech.  It  does  appear,  then,  that  this  gentle- 
man is  not  without  the  very  fault  which  he  charges,  but  charges 
wrongfully,  upon  my  client.  Had  the  defendant  been  anxious  to  im- 
press the  opinion  upon  his  readers,  that  the  punishments  which  he 
instances  were  inflicted  without  cause;  had  he  wished  to  raise  forcibly 
the  indignation  of  his  readers  against  such  punishments — punishments 
which  he  thinks  injurious  to  the  army — he  would  not  have  dwelt  as 
he  has  done  on  the  faults  of  the  offenders.  But  he  lias  not  taken 
such  an  advantage  of  the  question  he  was  agitating  as  my  friend  has 
taken  of  him.  He  has  told  the  circumstances  which  made  against 
the  offenders,  and  lias,  in  so  doing,  offered  a  justification  of  the  uunisli- 

4* 


42  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

ment.  In  the  first  instance,  it  must  be  notorious  to  all  of  you,  gentle- 
men, that  in  the  case  of  corporal  Curtis,  the  world  was  ignorant  of  the 
transaction,  but  that  rumors  of  so  unfriendly  a  kind  were  abroad,  as 
to  induce  a  patriotic  and  honorable  member  to  bring  the  case  before 
the  House  of  Commons.  He  conceived  its  circumstances  to  be  diffe- 
rent from  what  they  really  were,  and  that  great  blame  attached  to  the 
persons  who  sat  on  the  court-martial.  Now,  might  not  the  writer  of 
this  article  have  availed  himself  of  the  ignorance  of  the  people,  in 
order  to  give  point  to  his  case,  and  a  false  interpretation  to  the  con- 
duct of  the  court-martial?  But  he  does  nothing  of  the  kind;  for  being 
ignorant  of  the  true  state  of  the  case,  he  avows  his  ignorance.  The 
case  was  unknown  till  Colonel  Wardle  brought  it  before  Parliament 
nine  or  ten  days  ago.  The  defendant  could  not,  therefore,  have  told 
you  why  the  sentence  was  passed  upon  Curtis,  but  he  could  have  told 
you  the  rumors  that  were  then  in  circulation,  and  which  now  appear 
to  have  been  ill-founded,  but  which  were  then  so  feasible,  as  to  have 
become  the  subject  of  a  motion  in  Parliament.  This  case,  then,  the 
defendant  left  on  its  own  merits;  in  all  the  other  cases  he  has  told  you 
distinctly  the  occasion  that  gave  rise  to  the  punishment,  and  so 
explicitly,  that  my  learned  friend,  with  his  usual  ingenuity,  was  desi- 
rous of  founding  a  charge  upon  his  statement.  Of  Clifford  he  observes, 
that  he  was  sentenced  to  receive  a  thousand  lashes,  for  repeatedly  strik- 
ing and  kicking  his  superior  officer,  "Onethosand  lashes!"  Forwhat? 
Might  he  not  have  stopped  here?  Had  he  been  disposed  to  arraign 
the  sentence  of  the  court-martial  as  any  thing  rather  than  candid  and 
fair,  he  would  have  stopped  here,  and  not  advanced  to  mention  the 
occasion  of  the  punishment;  but,  by  the  mention  of  it,  he  fritters  away 
the  whole  force  of  the  case  that  my  learned  friend  would  feign  make 
out.  He  says  "  for  kicking  and  striking  his  officer;"  and  for  such  an 
offence  no  punishment  can  be  too  severe,  although  a  particular  mode 
of  punishment  may  be  improper.  In  one  point  of  view  the  author 
loses  by  this  statement,  and  undoes  what  he  had  been  attempting  to 
do;  but  the  subject  is  taken  up  again  in  the  course  of  his  discussion, 
and  then  he  tells  you,  with  apparent  reasonableness,  that  whatever 
the  demerit  of  the  offender  may  be,  though  he  may  deserve  death, 
though  he  may  deserve  worse  than  death,  yet  the  punishment  appoint- 
ed for  him  is  wrong  in  point  of  policy,  though  not  in  point  of  justice. 
Other  cases  also  he  mentions  in  his  motto,  where  the  men  had  been 
found  guilty  of  all  the  charges  against  them;  and,  in  the  last  case, 
instead  of  stopping  short  when  he  mentions  the  sentence,  which 
would  have  aggravated  the  statement,  and  left  the  presumption  that 
it  had  been  executed,  he  fairly  tells  you  that  the  lashes  were  not 
inflicted,  and  that  the  man  was  marched  to  Chatham.  It  appears, 
then,  that  these  instances  are  necessarily  given  as  the  groundwork  of 
the  discussion,  and  are  given  in  the  fairest  manner. 

Then  comes  the  discussion  itself.  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with  again 
reading  much  of  it,  because  it  has  been  repeated  to  you  so  often.  On 
the  perusal  you  will  find  that  the  writer  supports  his  opinion  by  argu- 
ments which  are  present  to  the  mind  of  every  man  who  has  consid- 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  43 

ered  the  subject.  If  they  were  not  so  now,  they  might  be  by  a  little 
recollection,  because  they  have  been  so  forcibly  urged  out  of  Parlia- 
ment and  in  Parliament,  where  many  members  have  eloquently 
spoken  against  that  mode  of  punishment  which  prevails  in  our  army, 
and,  it  is  a  melancholy  truth,  in  our  army  alone.  The  statement  made 
by  this  writer  is  copied,  but  not  copied  closely,  after  that  which  has 
proceeded  from  the  pens  of  some  of  the  ablest  officers  that  have  adorn- 
ed our  service.  It  is  an  echo,  but  not  a  full  one,  of  what  has  been 
repeatedly  said  in  the  House  of  Commons.  His  arguments  have 
been  used  over  and  over  again,  and  are,  in  fact,  embodied  in  the  sys- 
tem which  the  late  administration  carried  into  practice.  The  argu- 
ments then  used  are  now  employed  by  the  writer,  but  in  a  mitigated 
form,  in  support  of  an  opinion  which  he  deems  it  incumbent  on  him 
to  state  strongly  to  his  countrymen.  These  arguments  are  various, 
and  are  not  only  applicable  to  his  discussion,  but  I  might  state  that 
his  discussion  could  not  have  been  carried  on  without  them.  Some  of 
them  may  be  dangerous,  but  the  subject  required  that  the  danger 
should  be  incurred.  One  of  them  is  founded  on  a  comparison  of  ours 
with  the  French  service.  Gentlemen,  it  is  true,  and  it  is  a  deplorable 
truth,  that  the  latter  is  one  of  the  first  services  in  the  woild  in  point 
of  discipline,  in  point  of  valor,  and  of  every  thing  that  constitutes  a 
great  army.  Next  to  our  army,  there  is  none  in  the  world  that  has 
gained  so  many  victories,  that  has  been  so  constantly  sure  of  success; 
none  in  which  the  discipline  is  so  well  observed,  and  where  more  is 
made  out  of  the  discipline.  This  is  a  deplorable  fact,  and  every  Euro- 
pean power  but  our  own  has  suffered  grievously  from  its  truth.  Now, 
was  it  not  natural,  nay,  necessary  to  the  argument  of  this  writer,  that 
he  should  appeal  to  the  French  discipline,  and  ask  in  the  outset,  if  such 
punishments  as  he  condemns  are  inflicted  by  it?  If  he  had  not  said 
that  in  the  French  army  the  practice  of  flogging  is  unknown,  nothing 
could  have  made  up  for  so  great  and  obvious  a  deficiency  in  his  state- 
ment. Would  not  the  answer  have  been  ready  in  the  mouth  of  every 
one,  u  Do  not  other  armies  flog  as  well  as  we?"  Would  any  who 
approves  of  flogging  in  our  army,  and  is  capable  of  reading  two  lines, 
read  thus  far,  and  not  stop  to  exclaim,  "  Ours  is  not  the  only  army 
that  flogs  its  soldiers.  France  does  the  same,  and  a  great  deal  worse; 
it  is  a  necessary  measure;  it  isvlhe  lot  of  a  soldier,  he  must  submit  to 
it;  there  is  no  arguing  against  it."  This  would  have  been  the  answer 
of  all  the  military  men,  and  of  all  others  who  are  favorable  to  the 
practice. 

After  the  writer  of  this  discourse  had  introduced  his  statement, 
aware  that  it  was  of  a  delicate  nature,  that  he  had  got  upon  danger- 
ous ground,  and  that  his  motives  might  be  abused,  he  limits  his  asser- 
tions by  the  plainest  qualifications.  "  Here,"  said  he,  "  I  enter  my 
protest  against  any  unfair  deduction  from  what  I  have  advanced;" — 
and  if  anything  surprised  me  more  than  the  rest  in  the  speech  of  my 
learned  friend,  it  was  the  manner  in  which  he  passed  over  the  limita- 
tions of  the  writer.  I  shall  not  go  through  the  whole  of  them,  but 
will  give  you  a  specimen  or  two.  He  says,  "Let  it  not  be  supposed 


44  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

that  we  intend  these  remarks  to  excite  a  vague  and  indiscriminating 
sentiment  against  punishment  by  military  law;  no,  when  it  is  consi- 
dered that  discipline  forms  the  soul  of  an  army,  without  which  it 
would  at  once  degenerate  into  a  mob — when  the  description  of  persons 
which  compose  the  body  of  what  is  called  an  army,  and  the  situations 
in  which  it  is  frequently  placed,  are  also  taken  into  account,  it  will,  we 
are  afraid,  appear  but  too  evident,  that  the  military  code  must  still  be 
kept  distinct  from  the  civil,  and  distinguished  by  greater  promptitude 
and  severity." 

Thus  it  is  that  he  vindicates  himself,  and  I  should  have  thought  he 
had  protected  himself  from  misrepresentation,  had  I  not  heard  the 
remarks  of-the  learned  counsel,  who,  with  his  usual  ingenuity,  twisted 
against  him  the  whole  of  his  argument  respecting  the  hardships  to 
which  the  soldier  is  exposed.  What  could  he  by  this  proviso  have 
thought  to  protect  himself  against,  if  not  against  the  insinuation  that 
he  was  exciting  the  soldiers  to  mutiny,  by  telling  them  that  they  are 
hardly  dealt  by  in  being  placed  under  military  law,  in  having  no  trial 
by  jury,  and  in  being  subject  to  such  punishments  as  are  known  in 
our  army  alone?  He  had  this  in  his  eye;  he  was  aware  of  the  pro- 
bability of  the  charge;  and  to  protect  himself  from  it,  he  protests 
in  plain  terms  against  such  a  construction  being  put  upon  his  asser- 
tions. 

In  like  manner,  he  was  aware  of  a  certain  class  of  men  ever  ready 
to  cry  out,  that  he  was  one  of  those  persons  who  are  ever  officious 
in  promoting  the  wishes  of  the  enemy,  who  are  always  dissatisfied 
with  what  is  done  at  home,  who  love  nothing  but  what  is  French, 
and  who  are  fond  of  raising  a  comparison,  that  they  may  exhibit 
French  customs  in  a  favorable  light.  In  order  to  caution  his  readers 
against  such  a  construction  of  his  words,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
guard  them  on  the  other,  against  entertaining  such  wrong,  such  un- 
English  sentiments,  he  proceeds  in  the  words  I  shall  now  read  to 
you.  "Buonaparte  is  no  favorite  of  ours,  God  wot!  But  if  we  were 
to  balance  accounts  with  him  on  this  particular  head,  let  us  see  how 
matters  will  stand."  lie  might  have  appealed  to  his  general  conduct 
since  he  edited  this  newspaper;  he  might  have  appealed  to  the  bold 
and  manly  tone  with  which  lie  has  frequently  guarded  his  readers 
against  the  designs  and  character  of  Buonaparte;  but  not  satisfied  with 
this,  he  says  explicitly,  "  Do  not  think  that  I  am  holding  up  the 
enemy  to  your  approbation;  it  is  upon  this  one  subject,  and  on  this 
one  alone,  that  1  am  of  opinion  there  is  not  so  great  a  difference 
against  his,  and  in  favor  of  our  system."  This  is  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  his  argument,  and  this  it  is  both  loyal  and  laudable  in  him 
to  maintain.  Had  he  been  the  evil-minded,  seditious,  libellous  person 
he  is  described  to  be,  would  he  have  taken  occasion  to  state  this? 
Had  he  been  disposed  to  hold  up  Buonaparte's  conduct  to  the  admira- 
tion of  the  soldiers,  would  he,  in  the  passage  which  I  am  now  going 
to  read  to  you,  have  dwelt  unnecessarily  on  the  severities  of  the 
French  discipline?  Alluding  to  the  French  ruler's  treatment  of  his 
soldiers,  he  observes,  "  It  may  be  said,  that  he  punishes  them  in 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  45 

some  manner — that  is  very  true;  he  imprisons  his  refractory  troops, 
occasionally  in  chains,  and  in  aggravated  cases  he  puts  them  to 
death."  Need  this  writer  have  told  his  readers  all  this?  Might  he 
not  have  stopped  when  he  said  that  it  was  true  the  French  soldier 
was  punished  in  some  manner?  Need  he  have  particularised  the 
awful  punishments  which  are  inflicted  upon  that  soldier  in  proportion 
to  his  crime?  He  does,  in  fact,  mention  punishments  existing  under 
the  French  discipline,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  majority,  will,  I 
am  afraid,  appear  more  severe  than  Hogging.  Although  it  may  he 
his  idea  that  hogging  is  worse  than  death,  yet  I  believe,  were  we  to 
poll  the  country  around,  we  should  find  but  few  who  would  not 
rather  take  the  punishment  of  the  lash  than  be  sent  out  to  be  shot. 
It  may  be  very  well  in  talk  to  give  the  preference  to  death,  but  if  it 
come  to  the  point,  I  believe  that  there  are  but  few  men,  nay,  but  few 
soldiers,  who  would  not  gladly  commute  it  for  flogging.  How,  then, 
can  it  be  said  of  this  writer,  that  he  holds  up  to  admiration  the  system 
Buonaparte?  Not  content  with  stating  that  he  punishes  his  troops  in 
some  manner,  he  must  add,  and  unnecessarily  for  his  argument,  that 
he  imprisons  them  in  chains,  and  puts  them  to  death;  that  is  to  say, 
he  inflicts  upon  them  the  most  awful  of  human  punishments. 

One  would  have  thought,  gentlemen,  that  this  might  have  been 
enough  to  vindicate  the  writer's  intentions,  and  save  him  from  misre- 
presentation. Even  supposing  he  had  no  other  readers  than  soldiers, 
one  would  have  thought  that  he  had  taken  precaution  enough  to  pre- 
vent mistakes;  but  ho  adds  another  passage,  which  puts  his  intentions 
beyond  all  doubt,  "  We  despise  and  detest  those  who  would  tell  us 
that  there  is  as  much  freedom  now  enjoyed  by  France  as  there  is  left 
in  this  country."  This,  gentlemen,  I  will  read  again,  because  it  was 
hurried  over  by  the  learned  counsel.  "  We  despise  and  detest  those 
who  would  tell  us  that  there  is  as  much  liberty  now  enjoyed  in  France 
as  there  is  left  in  this  country.  We  give  all  credit  to  the  wishes  of 
some  of  our  great  men,  yet  while  anything  remains  to  us  in  the  shape 
of  free  discussion,  it  is  impossible  that  we  can  sink  into  the  abject 
slavery  in  which  the  French  people  are  plunged."  Gentlemen,  can 
this  writer  be  called  a  favorer  of  France?  Could  stronger  language 
against  the  system  of  the  French  government  have  been  used?  He 
speaks  of  the  "  abject  slavery"  in  which  the  French  people  are  plunged; 
and  he  adds  in  the  same  strain,  and  indeed  as  a  very  natural  conse- 
quence, "  we  do  not  envy  the  general  condition  of  French  subjects." 
There  are  many  other  passages  in  this  publication,  the  general  pur- 
port of  which  is,  that  if  ever  a  man  had  a  strong  opinion  against  the 
character  and  measures  of  the  ruler  of  France,  at  the  same  time 
thinking  highly  of  his  military  discipline — an  opinion  which  many  of 
our  greatest  men  have  held  equally  and  conscientiously — if  ever  a 
man  sent  such  an  opinion  forth  to  the  world  guarded  by  explanation, 
and  coupled  with  undeniable  facts  to  support  and  illustrate  it — it  is 
the  person  on  whose  conduct  you  are  now  to  pronounce  your  judg- 
ment. 

With  respect  to  the  passage  in  the  middle  of  this  publication,  on 


46  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

which  much  stress  has  been  laid  by  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution, 
because  it  was  not  included  in  the  article  for  publishing  which  the 
Hunts  were  tried;  it  contains  a  statement  of  the  whole  of  the  general 
arguments  usually  urged  against  punishment  by  flogging,  as  applied 
to  the  case  of  the  militia  force.  These  arguments  have  been  often 
discussed;  they  have  been  heard  from  the  month  of  a  Windham 
downwards;  and  it  has  been  usually  admitted,  that  whatever  may  be 
said  for  the  punishment  of  flogging  in  the  line,  it  is  peculiarly  inappli- 
cable to  the  militia  service.  The  usual  arguments  on  this  subject  are 
forcibly  stated  by  the  writer  of  this  piece.  In  order  to  illustrate  them, 
lie  takes  an  instance,  and  as  the  name  of  Chilman  came  in  his  way, 
he  makes  use  of  it.  But  he  guards  his  readers  against  supposing  that 
he  imputes  any  blame  to  the  court-martial  which  tried  this  man.  The 
writer  has  no  sooner  stated  a  case,  and  traced  the  description  of  it, 
than  he  represents  it,  not  as  an  individual  instance,  but  "  as  being  the 
probable  effects  of  the  system."  His  language  is  this,  "  Do  not 
imagine  that  I  have  held  up  to  your  particular  notice  the  court-martial 
which  has  thus  sentenced  Chilman.  I  do  not  mean  to  confine  your 
attention  to  this  particular  instance.  I  take  him  as  I  should  John-a- 
Noakes,  or  anyone  of  the  militia  who  is  exposed  to  the  same  tempta- 
tion, who,  having  been  taken  from  his  family  by  force,  after  commit- 
ting certain  irregularities,  is  punished  in  this  dreadful  and  impolitic 
way.-''  And  by  so  doing  the  writer  has  only  followed  the  example 
of  all  the  great  authorities  that  have  gone  before  him;  their  arguments 
have  turned  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  militiamen  are  taken  from 
their  homes,  and  the  hardship  of  exposing  them  to  this  odious  and 
cruel  punishment,  when  it  was  not  their  choice  to  enter  or  not  to  enter 
the  service;  men  who,  having  been  accustomed  to  live  under  the 
privileges  of  the  civil  law,  are  dragged  away  from  its  protection.  And 
worse  words  than  these  have  been  applied  to  the  practice  by  our  own 
authorities.  The  writer,  following  the  example  of  others,  asks  you 
whether  it  be  fair  and  humane  to  treat  such  men  with  the  same  severity 
for  a  venial  offence  committed  with  a  friend  and  companion,  as  you 
inflict  on  him  who  enters  voluntarily  into  the  service,  and  him  who 
chooses  to  abandon  for  the  rigors  of  the  military,  the  mercies  of  the 
civil  law? — Whether  it  is  equal  and  just  to  visit  both  these  with  the 
same  cruel  punishment?  This  is  the  drift  and  jet  of  this  writer's  argu- 
ment. This  is  the  way  in  which  he  was  obliged  to  treat  his  subject; 
and  in  this  way  he  has  followed  the  steps  of  the  great  characters  in 
our  army  who  have  written  before  him. 

Gentlemen,  before  I  go  any  farther,  I  will  ask  you  to  consider  how  far 
we  have  already  got  in  the  case  you  are  trying?  It  is  admitted,  indeed 
it  cannot  be  denied,  that  an  Englishman  has  a  right,  which  no  power 
on  earth  can  take  away  from  him,  to  form  an  opinion,  I  do  not  say 
on  the  measures  and  character  of  our  rulers;  that  right  he  certainly 
has,  but  it  is  not  involved  in  the  present  question,  for  this  author  has 
done  no  such  thing;  it  cannot,  I  say,  be  denied  that  an  Englishman 
has  the  privilege  of  forming  his  own  opinion  upon  the  policy,  expe- 
diency, and  justice  of  the  system  that  is  adopted  by  his  rulers.  Having 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  47 

formed  this  opinion,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  has  a  right  to  promul- 
gate it;  and  surely  it  can  no  more  be  denied  than  the  two  first  proposi- 
tions can  be  disputed,  that  he  has  a  right  to  support  his  own  opinion 
by  his  own  arguments,  and  to  recommend  its  adoption  in  what  he  may 
deem  the  most  efficacious  manner.  And,  gentlemen,  let  me  ask  you  fur- 
ther, if  you  will  withhold  from  him  the  privilege  of  appealing  to  such 
topics  as  suggest  themselves  to  his  mind  for  the  enforcement  of  his  opin- 
ion, and  even  for  the  ornament  of  his  discourse?  Are  you  to  tie  him 
down  to  any  particular  set  of  subjects?  Will  you  say  to  him,  "  Have 
your  opinion,  but  take  care  how  yon  make  it  known  to  the  world?" 
Will  you  say  to  him,  "  Support  your  argument,  but  in  so  doing,  you 
must  choose  those  we  shall  point  out  to  you;  you  must  steer  clear  of 
every  thing  that  we  do  not  approve  of;  you  must  take  care  to  state  no- 
thing forcibly,  to  argue  dully,  to  support  your  argument  feebly,  to  illus- 
trate it  stupidly."  Is  this  free  discussion?  Is  this  the  way  in  which  you 
would  have  that  which  is  done  in  this  country  compared  with  that 
which  is  done  in  France?  If  we  have  any  privilege  more  important 
than  another,  gentlemen,  it  is,  that  we  may  discuss  freely.  And  is  it 
by  this  straitened — this  confined — this  emasculated  mode  of  discuss- 
ing subjects,  that  every  one  of  us  must  be  regulated,  who,  when  he 
looks  first  at  home,  and  then  looks  to  France,  is  so  thankful  for  being 
born  in  this  country? 

But,  gentlemen,  I  should  like  to  ask,  if  this  is  to  be  the  extent  of 
privilege  which  we  are  to  enjoy?  I  have  hitherto  merely  inquired 
how  far  a  man  may  go  in  support  of  his  arguments  by  illustrating 
them;  but  if  I  were  to  go  a  step  farther,  I  should  not  much  exceed 
the  bounds  of  my  duty.  Has  not  a  person  in  this  country  a  right  to 
express  his  feelings  too?  Since  when  is  it  (I  would  ask,  that  we  may 
know  the  era  for  the  purpose  of  cursing  it!  by  whom  was  the  change 
brought  about,  that  we  may  know  the  author  and  execrate  his 
memory),  that  an  Englishman,  feeling  strongly  on  interesting  subjects, 
is  prevented  from  strongly  and  forcibly  expressing  his  feelings?  And 
are  the  sufferings  of  British  soldiers  the  only  subject  from  which  the 
feelings  of  compassion  should  be  excluded?  Living  as  we  do  in  an 
age  when  charity  has  a  wide  and  an  undisputed  dominion;  in  an  age 
when  we  see  nothing  but  monuments  of  compassionate  feeling  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other;  in  which,  not  only  at  home,  but 
as  though  that  was  too  confined  a  sphere,  we  are  ransacking  foreign 
climes  for  new  objects  of  relief;  when  no  land  is  so  remote,  no  place 
so  secluded,  as  not  to  have  a  claim  on  our  assistance;  no  people  so 
barbarous  or  so  strange  as  not  to  excite  our  sympathy:  is  this  a  period 
in  which  we  are  to  be  told  that  our  own  soldiers  may  not  claim  our 
mercy?  Granting  that  they  arc  not  barbarians— granting  that  they 
are  not  strangers,  but  are  born  among  us,  that  they  are  our  kinsmen, 
our  friends,  inhabiting  the  same  country,  and  worshiping  at  the  same 
altars — granting  that  far  from  being  unknown  to  us,  we  know  them 
by  the  benefits  they  have  rendered  us,  and  by  the  feeling  that  we 
owe  them  a  debt  of  gratitude  never  to  be  repaid — I  put  it  to  you, 
gentlemen,  whether  wo  are  to  exclude  them  from  what  we  give  to  all 


48  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

mankind;  from  the  benefit  of  our  feelings  and  our  sympathy;  from 
that  universal  law  of  nature  which  gives  to  all  the  victims  of  cruelty, 
however  distant,  however  estranged,  a  home,  a  settlement,  in  every 
compassionate  heart?  Is  this  a  discovery  of  the  present  time?  But 
it  is  unnecessary  to  put  it  more  home  to  your  bosoms.  If  any  one 
subject  is  nearer  to  our  hearts  than  another,  or  ought  to  be  so  to 
British  subjects,  it  is  the  condition  and  treatment  of  our  brave  troops, 
to  whom  we  owe  so  much,  to  whom  we  owe  a  load  of  gratitude  which 
was  never  so  heavy  as  it  is  at  present,  and  in  whom  now  all  our 
hopes  aie  centered.  How,  gentlemen,  can  you  visit  a  person  with 
two  years'  imprisonment  in  a  dungeon,  who,  feeling  strongly  upon  a 
subject  of  so  much  interest,  expresses  his  feelings  with  that  warmth 
which  he  cannot  but  feel,  and  which  it  becomes  him  to  show?  If  he 
had  no  such  feeling  he  would  have  been  unworthy  of  his  subject,  and 
having  such  feeling,  had  he  shrunk  from  giving  vent  to  it,  he  would 
have  proved  his  cowardice;  he  has,  however,  been  particularly  cautious; 
he  has  done  little  more  than  reason  the  point;  he  has  not  given  full 
vent  to  his  sentiments,  but  in  as  much  as  he  has  connected  his  emo- 
tions with  his  argument,  you  are  to  take  what  he  has  said  as  a  proof 
of  a  sincere  and  an  honest  heart. 

I  have  already  stated  to  you  that  the  opinions  expressed  in  this 
publication  are  not  the  sentiments  of  this  author  alone;  but  that  they 
were  originally  broached  by  the  ablest  men  of  the  country;  men 
whose  high  rank  in  the  army  render  them  not  the  worst  witnesses 
for  the  defendant.  I  have  now  in  my  hand  a  work  by  Sir  Robert 
Wilson — an  officer  whom  to  name  is  to  praise— but  who,  to  describe 
him  in  proper  colors,  ought  to  be  traced  through  his  whole  career  of 
service,  from  the  day  he  first  entered  the  army,  up  to  the  present  time; 
whose  fame  stands  upon  record  in  almost  every  land  where  a  battle 
has  been  fought  by  the  English  troops,  whether  in  this  or  in  the  last 
war.  It  is  perfectly  well  known  to  you  that  on  one  occasion  by  his 
own  personal  prowess  he  saved  the  life  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
for  which  service  he  received  the  honor  of  knighthood.  You  must 
all  know  that  afterwards  through  the  campaign  in  Germany,  when 
serving  with  the  allied  armies,  he  rendered  himself  celebrated  by  his 
skill  and  courage,  as  well  as  with  our  gallant  army  in  Egypt.  Bat 
not  merely  is  he  an  ardent  friend  to  the  British  cause;  ho  is  known 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  British  army  as  one  of  its  most  enthu- 
siastic defenders.  Far  from  being  a  friend  to  Buonaparte — of  whom 
and  of  his  friends  you  have  heard  so  much  to-day — nothing  more 
distinguishes  him  than  an  implacable  hatred  to  that  enemy  of  his 
country.  To  so  great  a  length  has  he  carried  this,  that  I  believe  there 
is  no  spot  of  European  ground,  except  England  and  Portugal,  in 
which  he  would  be  secure  of  his  life;  so  hostile  has  been  his  conduct 
and  so  plain  and  direct  his  charges  against  Buonaparte,  that  from  the 
period  when  he  published  his  well-known  work  (containing  aspersions 
against  that  person,  which  for  the  honor  of  human  nature  one  would 
fain  hope  are  unfounded)  he  has  been  held  in  an  abhorrence  by  the 
ruler  of  France,  equal  to  that  which  Sir  Robert  Wilson  has  displayed 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  49 

against  him.  From  1816,  when  the  plans  for  the  regulation  of  the 
army  were  in  agitation,  and  when  he  published  those  opinions  which 
the  defendant  has  now  republished,  up  to  the  present  time,  he  lias 
not  received  any  marks  of  the  displeasure  of  the  government,  but  on 
the  contrary  has  been  promoted  to  higher  and  to  higher  honors;  and 
has  at  length  been  placed  in  a  distinguished  situation  near  the  king 
himself.  During  the  discussions  on  our  military  system,  when  all 
men  of  liberal  minds  were  turning  their  attention  to  the  subject,  with 
laudable  promptitude  and  public  spirit,  he  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Pitt,  and  entitled  it,  "An  Inquiry  into  the  present  State  of  the  Military 
Force  of  the  British  Empire,  with  a  view  to  its  Reorganisation" — 
that  is  to  say,  with  a  view  to  its  improvement,  Sir  Robert  Wilson, 
with,  perhaps  objectionable  taste,  using  the  word  reorganisation, 
which  is  derived  from  the  French.  In  this  publication,  the  gallant 
officer,  animated  by  love  for  the  army,  and  zeal  for  the  cause  of  his 
country,  points  out  what  he  conceives  to  be  the  great  defects  of  our 
military  system;  and  the  greatest  of  all  these  lie  holds  to  be  the  prac- 
tice of  flogging.  He  describes  this  punishment  to  be  the  great  cause 
which  prevents  the  recruiting  of  the  army,  and  which  in  one  word, 
produces  all  manner  of  mischief  to  the  service — ruining  the  character 
of  the  soldier,  and  chilling  his  zeal.  I  dare  say,  gentlemen,  that  you 
already  begin  to  recollect  something  which  you  have  heard  this  day; 
I  dare  say  you  recollect  that  the  defendant  is  expressly  charged  with 
a  wish  to  deter  persons  from  enlisting,  and  to  create  dissatisfaction  in 
the  minds  of  the  soldiery  because  he  wrote  against  flogging.  But  Sir 
Robert  Wilson,  you  now  see,  thinks  that  very  opposite  effects  are  to 
be  produced  by  altering  the  system.  There  are  fifteen  or  twenty 
pages  of  the  pamphlet  in  my  hand  which  contain  an  argument  to 
support  this  opinion.  And  when  you  shall  hear  how  the  subject  is 
treated  by  Sir  Robert,  you  will  perceive  how  impossible  it  is  for  a 
person  who  feels,  to  avoid,  in  such  a  discussion,  the  use  of  strong 
expressions.  You  will,  as  I  read,  see  that  Sir  Robert  comes  from 
generals  to  particulars  at  once,  and  describes  all  the  mimitix  of  mili- 
tary punishment.  He  first  states  that,  "corporal  punishment  is  a 
check  upon  the  recruiting  of  the  army;"  he  then  goes  on,  "My  appeal 
is  made  to  the  officers  of  the  army  and  the  militia,  for  there  must  be 
no  marked  discrimination  between  these  two  services,  notwithstanding 
there  maybe  a  great  difference  in  their  different  modes  of  treating  the 
soldiery.  I  shall  sedulously  avoid  all  personal  allusion,"  (and,  gen- 
tlemen, you  will  observe  the  present  defendant  has  been  equally 
cautious — not  a  single  personal  allusion  is  to  be  found  throughout  his 
discussion.)  "The  object  in  view  is  of  greater  magnitude  than  the 
accusation  of  individual  malefactors."  (Malefactors,  gentlemen,  a 
much  stronger  word  than  can  be  found  in  the  publication  of  the 
defendant.)  "I  shall  not  enter  into  particulars  of  that  excess  of  punish- 
ment, which  in  many  instances  has  been  attended  with  the  most  fatal 
consequences.  I  will  not,  by  quoting  examples,  represent  a  picture 
in  too  frightful  a  coloring  for  patient  examination."  Sir  Robert  Wil- 
son then  alludes  to  the  crimes  for  which  this  dreadful  punishment  is 
VOL.  i. — 5 


50  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

inflicted.  He  says,  "How  many  soldiers  whose  prime  of  life  has  been 
passed  in  the  service,  and  who  have  behaved  with  unexceptionable 
conduct,  have  been  whipped  eventually  for  an  accidental  indiscretion. 
Intoxication  is  an  odious  vice,  and,  since  the  Duke  of  York  has  been 
at  the  head  of  the  army,  officers  have  ceased  to  pride  themselves  upon 
the  insensate  capability  of  drinking;  but,  nevertheless,  flogging  is  too 
severe  as  a  general  punishment  for  what  has  been  the  practice  of 
officers."  Here,  you  see,  gentlemen,  the  gallant  writer  brings  in  aid 
of  his  argument  an  allusion  of  a  much  more  delicate  nature  than  any 
that  has  been  made  by  the  defendant.  He  speaks  of  the  misconduct 
of  officers,  and  leads  the  mind  to  contrast  the  trivial  consequences  of 
misconduct  to  them  with  the  severe  punishment  that  awaits  the  sol- 
dier guilty  of  the  same  offence.  A  more  delicate  subject  than  this 
cannot  be  imagined.  It  is  as  much  as  if  he  said,  "Do  not  punish  the 
poor  private  so  cruelly  for  a  fault  which  his  superior  does  not  scruple 
frequently  to  permit,  and  for  which  no  chastisement  is  awarded  to 
him."  Sir  Robert  proceeds — "Absence  from  quarters  is  a  great  fault 
and  must  be  checked:  but  is  there  no  allowance  to  be  made  for 
young  men,  and  the  temptations  which  may  occur  to  seduce  such  an 
occasional  neglect  of  duty?"  Gentlemen,  do  you  not  immediately, 
on  hearing  this,  recur  to  the  language  used  by  the  defendant  when 
describing  the  imaginary  case  of  Robert  Chilman?  This  is  exactly 
his  argument;  he  too,  thinks  that  allowance  ought  to  be  made  for  a 
young  man,  particularly  one  forced  into  the  service,  who  may,  as  he 
says,  after  a  hard  day's  exercise,  meet  with  some  of  his  companions, 
and  indulge  somewhat  beyond  the  bounds  of  sobriety;  and  he  also 
thinks  what  Sir  Robert  Wilson  has  thought  and  published  before  him, 
that  flogging  is  a  very  improper  punishment  to  be  inflicted  on  such  a 
person  for  such  an  indiscretion.  The  pamphlet  then  in  glowing  lan- 
guage— language  much  more  forcible  than  that  of  the  publication 
which  you  have  to  try — describes  the  ill  effects  of  flogging.  "Cor- 
poral punishments  never  yet  reformed  a  corps,  but  they  have  totally 
ruined  many  a  man,  who  would  have  proved,  under  milder  treatment, 
a  meritorious  soldier.  They  break  the  spirit  without  amending  the 
disposition."  And  now,  I  beseech  you,  mark  the  high  coloring  of 
this  officer,  after  all  you  have  heard  denounced  against  the  description 
of  the  defendant.  "  Whilst  the  lash  strips  the  back,  despair  writhes 
round  the  heart,  and  the  miserable  culprit  viewing  himself  as  fallen 
below  the  rank  of  his  fellow  species,  can  no  longer  attempt  the  re- 
covery of  his  station  in  society.  Can  the  brave  man,  and  he  endowed 
with  any  generosity  of  feeling,  forget  the  mortifying,  vile  condition  in 
which  he  was  exposed?  Does  not,  therefore,  the  cat-o-nine-tails 
defeat  the  chief  object  of  punishment?" 

Sir  Robert  Wilson  then  comes  to  the  comparison  between  the 
French  military  discipline  and  ours,  on  which  so  much  stress  has 
been  laid  in  support  of  the  prosecution,  and  you  will  hear  that  this 
defendant  has  said  nothing  on  this  subject  which  had  not  before 
appeared  in  the  pamphlet  I  have  now  in  my  hand.  He  says.  "  Gen- 
tlemen who  justly  boast  the  most  liberal  education  in  the  world,  have 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  51 

familiarised  themselves  to  a  degree  of  punishment  which  characterises 
no  other  nation  in  Europe,"  thus,  in  fact,  supplying  the  defendant 
with  the  words  of  this  publication:  "  Here  alone  is  still  perpetrated," 
&c.  In  a  subsequent  paragraph  Sir  Robert  Wilson  specifies  France 
by  name,  so  essential  was  the  notice  of  the  French  discipline  to  his 
argument.  He  says,  "  England  should  not  be  the  last  nation  to  adopt 
humane  improvements.  France  allows  of  flogging  only  in  her  ma- 
rine." In  conclusion,  the  gallant  officer  appeals  to  the  character  of 
the  present  age.  which  he  says,  "  is  a  remarkable  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Civilisation  is  daily  making  the  most  rapid  progress, 
and  humanity  is  triumphing  hourly  over  the  last  enemies  of  mankind. 
But  whilst  the  African  excites  the  compassion  of  the  nation,  and 
engages  the  attention  of  the  British  legislature — the  British  soldier — 
their  fellow-countryman — the  gallant,  faithful  protector  of  their 
liberties,  and  champion  of  their  honor,  is  daily  exposed  to  suffer  under 
an  abuse  of  that  power,  with  which  ignorance  or  a  bad  disposition 
may  be  armed." 

Gentlemen,  I  think,  I  may  venture  to  say,  that  in  this  passage  also 
you  recognise  something  which  you  have  this  day  heard  before.  You 
may  recollect  the  humble  attempt  of  the  humble  individual  who  now 
addresses  you,  and  who  asked  you  whether  those  who  feel  so  much 
for  strangers,  might  not  be  allowed  to  feel  a  little  for  the  defenders  of 
their  country.  The  only  difference  is,  that  Sir  Robert  Wilson's  lan- 
guage is  more  forcible — more  impressive.  His  picture  stands  more 
boldly  out,  his  language  throughout  is  more  glowing  than  that  used 
by  the  defendant,  or  by  his  advocate. 

[Mr.  Brougham  then  alluded  to  the  opinions  of  General  Stewart, 
of  the  95th  regiment,  who,  when  a  brigadier-general,  published 
a  pamphlet,  entitled,  "  Outlines  of  a  Plan  for  the  General  Reform 
of  the  British  Land  Forces."] 

This  officer  first  asks, "  How  will  the  several  parts  of  our  present 
military  discipline  be  reconciled  to  common  sense,  or  to  any  insight 
into  men  and  things?"  and  then  proceeds  to  specify  the  errors  in  our 
system  which  cannot  be  so  reconciled.  The  chief  of  these  is  the 
mode  of  punishment,  which,  it  should  seem,  every  friend  to  the 
British  army  unites  to  condemn.  He  says,  "The  frequent  infliction 
of  corporal  punishment  in  our  armies  tends  strongly  to  debase  the 
minds  and  destroy  the  high  spirit  of  the  soldiery;  it  renders  a  system 
of  increasing  rigor  necessary;  it  deprives  discipline  of  the  influence 
of  honor,  and  destroys  the  subordination  of  the  heart,  which  can 
alone  add  voluntary  zeal  to  the  cold  obligations  of  duty."  Again — 
"The  perpetual  recurrence  to  the  infliction  of  infamy  on  a  soldier  by 
the  punishment  of  flogging,  is  one  of  the  most  mistaken  modes  for 
enforcing  discipline  which  can  be  conceived."  And  then,  gentlemen, 
as  if  there  were  some  fatality  attending  the  discussion  of  this  question 
— as  if  there  was  something  which  prevented  any  one's  touching  the 
subject  without  comparing  the  military  discipline  of  France;  with  our 
own — General  Stewart  is  scarcely  entered  on  his  argument  before  he 
is  in  the  middle  of  this  comparison,  lie  says,  '•  In  the  French  army 


52  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

a  soldier  is  often  shot,  but  he  rarely  receives  corporal  punishment, 
and  in  no  other  service  is  discipline  preserved  on  truer  principles." 
You  thus  hear,  gentlemen,  what  General  Stewart  says  upon  the 
superior  discipline  of  the  French  army;  he  holds  it  up  as  a  pattern  to 
our  service — a  service  in  which  he  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
individuals. 

But  lest  it  should  be  said  that  these  were  young  officers  (although 
were  we  to  reckon  their  campaigns,  or  even  their  victories,  we  might 
esteem  them  old) — lest  deference  may  be  denied  to  their  opinions 
because  deficient  inexperience — and,  above  all,  to  show  you  that  this 
subject,  the  more  it  is  considered,  the  more  does  it  teem  with  vindi- 
cations of  the  defendant — to  show  you,  that  it  is  a  subject  calculated 
not  only  to  animate  the  feelings  of  the  young,  but  even  to  melt  the 
chill  of  age — to  satisfy  you  that  although  emotion  may  have  gene- 
rally become  blunt  under  the  pressure  of  years,  yet  this  is  more  than 
compensated  for  by  the  longer  experience  of  the  mischiefs  which 
arise  from  the  horrible  system  of  flogging,  an  experience  which  occa- 
sions the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  old  to  rival  the  indignation  of 
the  youthful — I  will  now  produce  to  you  the  publication  of  a  veteran 
— a  publication  also  intended  to  point  out,  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
away  with  them,  these  defects  which  tarnish  our  military  discipline. 
I  allude  to  a  work  from  the  pen  of  an  officer  in  the  highest  ranks  of 
the  service — Lieutenant-general  Money — who,  since  the  writing  of 
that  work,  has  been  promoted  to  the  station  of  a  full  general.  You 
shall  now  hear  what  he  says  on  the  subject  of  flogging;  he  whose 
years  are  numerous  as  his  services,  and  who  is  esteemed  one  of  the 
strictest  disciplinarians  on  the  staff:  an  officer  to  whom  the  command 
of  a  district  has  been  entrusted,  a  signal  proof  of  the  confidence  reposed 
by  government  in  his  honor  and  military  skill.  You  have  been  told 
that  attacking  the  scourge  as  applied  to  the  backs  of  our  soldiers,  has 
a  tendency  to  injure  the  army,  and  to  deter  persons  from  entering 
into  it;  General  Money,  you  will  find,  speaks  directly  to  these  points, 
and  you  will  find  him  declaring,  that  this  practice  which  our  author 
condemns,  does  itself  occasion  desertion,  and  deters  persons  from  en- 
tering into  the  military  service  of  their  country.  The  publication  to 
which  I  allude  is,  "  A  letter  to  the  right  honorable  William  Windham, 
on  the  defence  of  the  country  at  the  present  crisis,  by  Lieutenant-ge- 
neral Money."  He  says,  '•'  I  beg  leave,  Sir,  to  submit  to  you,  and 
to  his  Majesty's  ministers  a  measure,  the  adoption  of  which  will,  in 
the  opinion  of  every  military  man  I  have  conversed  with  on  the  sub- 
ject, bid  fair  to  put  a  stop  to  desertion."  This  measure,  which  in  the 
opinion  of  every  military  man  is  likely  to  produce  so  desirable  an 
effect,  you  will  find  to  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  measure 
which  this  defendant  recommends,  and  has  exerted  himself  to  bring 
about,  namely  the  discontinuance  of  flogging.  He  goes  on — "When 
a  man  deserts,  and  he  is  taken,  he  is  liable  to  be  shot:  that,  indeed, 
is  seldom  inflicted  for  the  first  offence,  but  he  is  punished  in  a  manner 
that  is  not  only  a  disgrace  to  a  nation  that  boasts  of  freedom  and  its 
humanity,  but  is  an  injury  to  the  recruiting  our  army.  It  strikes  such 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  53 

a  terror  into  the  peasantry  of  the  country.  The  culprit  is  tied  up  to 
the  halberis,  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  regiment,  and  receives  six 
or  eight  hundred  lashes,  sometimes  a  thousand.  He  faints! — he 
recovers,  and  faints  again!! — and  some  expire  soon  after  the  punish- 
ment! It  wounds  my  feelings  when  I  rellect  on  the  dreadful  suffer- 
ings of  men  I  have  seen  and  been  obliged  to  see,  thus  cruelly  punished; 
and  what  other  epithet  can  be  used  than  cruel?  I  have  told  men 
that  I  wished  the  sentence  had  been  death;  and  true  it  is,  that  there 
are  men  who  have  preferred  death  to  the  disgrace  and  punishment." 

Gentlemen,  I  put  to  you  these  passages  out  of  the  different  publi- 
cations, published  by  those  gallant,  distinguished,  and  experienced 
officers;  and  I  ask  you,  whether  you  will  send  the  defendant  to  a 
dungeon  for  doing  that  which  has  procured  them  the  highest  honors 
— the  favor  of  their  sovereign,  and  the  approbation  of  their  country? 

I  inlreat  you  to  reflect  on  the  publication  which  is  charged  in  the 
indictment  with  being  libellous;  and  which  has  been  commented  on 
by  the  gentleman  opposite;  and  I  beg  you  would  recall  to  mind  the 
comments  he  lias  made  upon  it.  He  has  told  you  it  lias  a  tendency, 
and  must  have  been  published  with  an  intention  to  excite  mutiny 
and  disaffection  in  our  army,  by  drawing  a  contrast  unfavorable  to 
our  service  when  compared  with  the  French;  that  it  will  induce  the 
soldiers  to  join  the  standard  of  France  and  to  rebel  against  their  offi- 
cers; and  lastly,  that  it  will  prevent  persons  from  entering  into  the 
service.  Can  Sir  Robert  Wilson,  gentlemen,  can  General  Stewart,  or 
can  the  veteran  officer  whose  very  expressions  the  writer  has  used, 
by  any  stretch  of  fancy,  be  conceived  to  have  been  actuated  by  such 
intentions?  Were  they  such  madmen  as  to  desire  to  alienate  the  men 
from  their  officers,  and  to  disincline  others  from  entering  into  the  army 
of  which  they  were  commanders,  and  of  which  they  were  the  firmest 
friends;  to  indispose  men  towards  the  defence  of  their  own  country,  and 
lead  them  to  wish  fora  foreign  and  a  French  yoke?  Can  you  stretch 
your  fancy  to  the  thought  of  imputing  to  them  such  motives  as  these? 
You  see  the  opinions  they  have  given  to  the  world;  with  what  argu- 
ments, and  with  what  glowing,  I  will  even  say  violent  language,  they 
have  expressed  themselves.  And  shall  it  be  said  that  this  defendant, 
who  uses  language  not  nearly  so  strong,  has  published  a  work  which 
has  such  a  fatal  tendency,  or  that  he  was  actuated  by  so  infernal  an 
intention?  An  intention  which  in  these  officers  would  ar§ue  down- 
right madness;  but  an  intention  which,  in  the  author  of  this  publi- 
cation, would  show  him  fit  only  for  the  society  of  demons!  Unless 
you  are  convinced,  not  only  that  what  is  innocent  at  Westminster  is 
libellous  here,  but,  that  what  is  commendable  in  these  officers  is  dia- 
bolical in  the  defendant,  you  cannot  sentence  him  to  a  dungeon  for 
doing  that  which  has  obtained  the  kindness  of  the  sovereign  and  the 
gratitude  of  the  country  for  those  distinguished  men. 

I  have  just  heard  so  much  about  invidious  topics,  about  dangerous 
subjects  of  discussion;  I  have  seen  so  much  twisting  of  expressions 
to  give  them  a  tendency  to  produce  disaffection,  and  1  know  not  what 
besides,  in  the  people  of  this  country — that  I  am  utterly  at  u  loss  to 

5* 


54  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

conceive  any  one  subject,  whether  it  relate  to  military  discipline  or  to 
civil  polity,  that  is  not  liable  to  the  same  objection.  I  will  put  my 
defence  on  this  ground:  If  any  one  of  those  subjects  which  are  com- 
monly discussed  in  this  country,  and  particularly  of  those  relative  to 
the  army,  can  be  handled  in  a  way  to  prevent  expressions  from  being 
twisted  by  ingenuity,  or  conceived  by  some  to  have  a  tendency  to 
produce  discontent — if  any  mode  of  treating  such  subjects  can  be 
pointed  out  to  me,  in  which  we  shall  be  safe,  allowing  the  argument 
of  my  learned  friend  to  be  just — I  will  give  up  this  case,  and  confess 
that  the  intention  of  the  defendant  was  that  which  is  imputed  to  him. 
Is  there,  to  take  an  obvious  instance,  a  subject  more  common-place 
than  that  of  the  miserable  defects  which  now  exist  in  the  commissa- 
riat of  our  army?  I  only  select  this  because  it  comes  first  to  my 
thoughts.  Has  it  not  always  happened  that  in  the  unfortunate  ne- 
cessity of  a  retreat,  all  mouths  have  resounded  with  the  ill  conduct 
of  the  commissary?  Has  it  not  been  said  in  the  hearing  of  the  army 
and  of  the  country,  that  the  distresses  of  our  troops  on  a  retreat  were 
increased  by  their  want  of  food,  owing  to  the  inadequacy  of  our  com- 
missariat staff?  But  we  have  not  only  been  in  the  habit  of  blaming 
particular  instances  of  neglect — we  have  also  taken  upon  ourselves 
to  blame  the  system  itself.  Nay,  we  have  gone  farther;  we  have 
placed  our  commissariat  in  comparison  with  that  of  France,  and 
we  have  openly  and  loudly  given  the  preference  to  the  enemy's  sys- 
tem. And  why  may  not  the  defendant  do  the  same  with  reference 
to  another  point  of  military  discipline?  Can  you  fancy  a  subject 
more  dangerous,  or  which  is  more  likely  to  occasion  mutiny  and 
revolt,  than  that  of  provisions,  if  you  tell  the  soldier  that  through  the 
neglect  of  his  government  he  runs  the  risk  of  being  starved,  while  in 
the  same  breath  you  add,  that  Bounaparte's  troops  are  well  supplied, 
through  the  attention  which  he  pays  to  this  most  important  branch  of 
a  general's  duty?  Yet,  gentlemen,  no  one  has  ever  been  censured, 
nor  has  it  been  said  that  it  was  his  intention  to  excite  confusion,  be- 
cause he  has  condemned  that  delicate  part  of  our  military  system 
which  relates  to  providing  the  soldiers  with  food. 

In  truth,  we  must  submit  to  these  discussions,  if  we  would  have 
any  discussion  at  all.  Strong  expressions  may,  indeed,  be  pointed 
out  here  and  there  in  a  publication  on  such  topics,  and  one  may  be 
more  strong  than  another.  When  he  is  heated,  a  man  will  express 
himself  warmly.  And,  am  I  to  be  told,  that  in  discussing  a  subject 
which  interests  all  men,  no  man  is  to  express  himself  with  force?  Is 
it  the  inflammatory  tendency  of  this  publication,  or  is  it,  in  one  word, 
the  eloquence  with  which  the  writer  has  treated  his  subject,  that  has 
excited  alarm  and  instigated  the  present  prosecution?  If  he  had 
handled  the  matter  dully,  coldly,  stupidly,  he  might  have  gone  on  to 
the  end  of  time;  he  would  never  have  heard  a  breath  of  censure, 
seen  a  line  of  information,  or  produced  an  atom  of  effect.  If  warmth 
is  not  to  be  pardoned  in  discussing  such  topics,  to  what  are  the  feel- 
ings of  men  to  be  confined? 

I  shall,  perhaps,  hear — Confine  yourselves  to  such  subjects  as  do 


MILITARY  FLOGGING.  55 

not  affect  the  feelings — to  matters  that  are  indifferent  alike  to  all  men; 
go  to  arithmetic — take  up  abstract  points  of  law — "tear  passion  to 
tatters"  upon  questions  in  addition  and  subtraction — be  as  warm  as 
you  please  on  special  pleading — there  is  time  sufficient  for  the  work- 
ings of  the  heart:  but  beware  of  what  interests  all  mankind,  more 
especially  your  own  countrymen;  touch  not  the  fate  and  fortune  of  the 
British  army.  Beware  of  those  subjects  which  concern  the  men  who 
advance  but  to  cover  themselves  with  victory,  and  who  retreat  but  to 
eclipse  the  fame  of  their  valor  by  the  yet  higher  glory  of  their  patient 
endurance;  men  who  then  return  to  their  homes  clothed  in  laurels,  to 
receive  the  punishment  of  the  lash,  which  you  inflict  on  the  meanest 
and  most  unnatural  malefactors!  Let  us  hear  nothing  of  the  "  charnel 
houses  of  the  West  Indies,"  as  Sir  Robert  Wilson  calls  them,  that 
yawn  to  receive  the  conquerors  of  Corunna!  Beware  of  touching 
on  these  points;  beware  of  every  thing  that  would  animate  every 
heart;  that  would  make  the  very  stones  shudder  as  they  re-echo  your 
sound,  and  awaken  the  rocks  to  listen  and  to  weep!  You  must  not 
treat  such  subjects  at  all,  or  else  you  must  do  it  coolly,  regularly,  gra- 
dually, allowing  yourselves  to  glow  by  some  scale,  of  which  my 
learned  friend  is  no  doubt  in  possession;  you  must  keep  to  a  line 
which  is  so  fine  that  no  eye  but  his  can  perceive  it. 

This  may  not  be!  this  must  not  be!  While  we  continue  to  live  in 
England  it  may  not  be,  while  we  remain  unsubdued  by  that  egregious 
tyrant,  who  persecutes  all  freedom,  with  a  rancor  which  only  op- 
pressors can  know;  that  tyrant  against  whom  the  distinguished 
officers  I  have  been  quoting,  wage  a  noble  and  an  efficient  resistance, 
and  against  whom  this  defendant,  in  his  humbler  sphere,  has  been 
zealous  in  his  opposition; — that  tyrant  whose  last  and  most  highly 
prized  victory  is  that  which  he  has  gained  over  the  liberty  of  discus- 
sion. Yes,  gentlemen,  while  that  tyrant  enslaves  his  own  subjects, 
and  turns  them  loose  to  enslave  others,  no  man  under  his  sway  dares 
attempt  more  than  calmly  and  temperately  to  discuss  his  measures. 
Writers  in  his  dominions  must  guage  their  productions  according  to 
the  standard  established  by  my  learned  friend,  of  which  he  has  one 
duplicate  and  Buonaparte's  Attorney-general  the  other;  they  must 
square  their  argument  according  to  that  rule;  and  adjust  the  warmth 
of  their  language  to  a  certain  defined  temperature.  When  they  treat 
of  the  tyrant's  ambitious  and  oppressive  policy;  when  they  treat  of 
the  rigors  of  his  military  conscription;  they  must  keep  to  the  line 
which  has  this  day  been  marked  out  in  this  court.  Should  they  go 
beyond  that  line — should  they  engage  in  their  subject  with  an  honest 
zeal,  and  treat  it  with  a  force  likely  to  gain  conviction — that  is  to 
say,  should  they  treat  it  after  the  manner  of  the  writer  of  this  com- 
position which  is  now  before  you — they  may  lay  their  account  with 
being  dragged  forth  to  be  shot  without  a  trial,  like  the  unhappy  book- 
seller of  Nuremberg,  or  with  being  led  in  mockery  to  a  court,  and 
after  the  forms  of  a  judicial  investigation  are  gone  through,  consigned 
by  the  decision  of  the  judges  to  years  of  imprisonment. 

And  yet,  gentlemen,  there  is  some  excuse  for  Buonaparte,  when  he 


56  MILITARY  FLOGGING. 

acts  in  this  manner.  His  government,  as  he  well  knows,  is  bottomed 
in  injustice  and  cruelty.  If  you  search  and  lay  bare  its  foundation, 
you  must  necessarily  shake  it  to  its  centre — its  safety  consists  in  silence 
and  obscurity!  Above  all,  is  it  essential  to  its  power  that  the  cruelty 
of  his  military  system  should  not  be  attacked,  for  on  it  does  he  rest  his 
greatness.  The  writer,  therefore,  who  should  treat  in  a  nervous  style 
of  the  rigor  of  his  conscription,  could  expect  nothing  but  severe  pun- 
ishment. 

But  happily,  things  in  this  country  are  a  little  different.  Our  con- 
stitution is  bottomed  in  law  and  in  justice,  and  in  the  great  and  deep 
foundation  of  universal  liberty!  It  may,  therefore,  court  inquiry.  Our 
establishments  thrive  in  open  day — they  even  flourish  surrounded  and 
assailed  by  the  clamor  of  faction.  Our  rulers  may  continue  to  dis- 
charge their  several  duties,  and  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  state, 
while  their  ears  are  dinned  with  tumult.  They  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  the  inquiries  of  men.  Let  the  public  discuss— so  much  the  bet- 
ter. Even  uproar  is  wholesome  in  England,  while  a  whisper  may  be 
fatal  in  France. 

But  you  must  take  it  with  you,  in  deciding  on  the  merits  of  this 
publication,  that  it  is  not  upon  our  military  system  that  the  defendant 
has  passed  his  reflections — it  is  not  our  military  system  that  he  con- 
demns. His  exertions  are  directed  to  remove  a  single  flaw  which 
exists  on  the  surface  of  that  system — a  speck  of  rottenness  which 
mars  its  beauty,  and  is  destructive  of  its  strength.  Our  military  sys- 
tem in  general,  he  admires  in  common  with  us  all;  he  animadverts 
upon  a  taint  and  not  upon  its  essence;  upon  a  blot  which  disfigures 
it,  and  not  upon  a  part  of  its  structure.  He  wishes  you  to  remove  an 
excrescence  which  may  be  pulled  away  without  loosening  the  founda- 
tion, and  the  rest  will  appear  the  fairer,  and  remain  so  much  the 
sounder  and  more  secure. 

You  are  now,  gentlemen,  to  say  by  your  verdict  whether  the  mere 
reading  of  this  publication — taking  all  its  parts  together — not  casting 
aside  its  limitations  and  qualifications,  but  taking  it  as  it  appears  in 
this  paper,  you  are  now  to  say,  whether  the  mere  perusal  of  it  in  this 
shape  is  likely  to  produce  those  effects  which  have  been  described  by 
the  counsel  for  the  prosecution — effects  which  have  never  yet  been 
produced  by  the  infliction  of  the  punishment  itself.  This  considera- 
tion, gentlemen,  seems  to  deserve  your  very  particular  attention.  If 
you  can  say  aye  to  this,  you  will  then  bring  your  verdict  against  the 
defendant — and  not  only  against  him,  but  against  me.  his  advocate, 
who  have  spoken  to  you  much  more  freely  than  he  has  done — and 
against  those  gallant  officers  who  have  so  ably  condemned  the  practice 
which  he  condemns — and  against  the  country  which  loudly  and  right- 
fully demands  an  attention  to  its  best  interests — and  against  the  stabi- 
lity of  the  British  Constitution! 


SPEECHES 


IN   DEFENCE  OF 


HER  MAJESTY  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 


INTRODUCTION. 

STATE  OP  PUBLIC  OPINION. — THE  MILAN  COMMISSION. 

FEW  events  have  excited  a  more  deep  and  general  interest  among  the  people  of 
England,  than  the  arrival  of  Queen  Caroline  in  June  1820,  and  the  proceedings 
which  the  king,  her  hushand,  immediately  compelled  his  ministers,  most  reluctantly, 
most  clearly  against  their  own  fixed  opinions,  and  therefore  most  certainly  against 
their  duty,  to  institute  against  Her  Majesty,  for  the  purpose  of  degrading  her  and 
dissolving  the  marriage.  Nor  was  there  the  least  difference  of  opinion  in  the  coun- 
try, whether  among  those  who  sided  with  the  Queen,  or  those  who  blamed  her 
most,  upon  the  injustice  and  intolerable  cruelty  of  this  conduct  on  the  King's  part. 
No  one  pretended  to  doubt  that,  from  the  time  of  her  first  coming  to  England,  and 
her  marriage  with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  she  had  been  treated  as  no  wife  before  ever 
was,  and  that  afterti  few  months'  permission  to  reside  nominally  under  the  same  roof, 
but  without  enjoying  any  other  rights  of  a  wife,  she  had  been  compelled  to  live 
apart  from  her  husband,  and  had  even  received  a  written  notice  from  him  that  this 
separation  must  be  considered  as  for  life.  That  every  engine  of  annoyance  had 
been  set  in  motion  to  render  her  life  miserable  was  also  universally  known; 
and  every  one  was  aware,  that,  after  all  temptations  had  been  thrown  in  the  way  to 
seduce  her  from  her  conjugal  duty,  that  a  pretext  might  be  obtained  for  justifying 
the  continual  ill  treatment  of  which  she  was  the  victim,  she  had  triumphed  over 
all  those  arts,  escaped  those  snares,  and  been  declared  guiltless  by  a  secret  tribunal 
appointed  in  1800,  to  try  her  behind  her  back,  without  any  one  present  on  her  part, 
and  composed  of  the  political  and  personal  friends  of  the  Prince. 

Wherefore,  when  it  was  asserted  that  during  her  residence  on  the  continent, 
whither  she  had  by  a  continuance  of  the  same  persecution  been  at  last  driven,  her 
conduct  had  been  watched  and  found  incorrect,  all  men  said,  that  if  blame  there 
was,  a  far  larger  share  of  it  fell  on  her  royal  husband  than  on  herself.  15ut  when 
it  was  found  that  he,  the  wrong-doer,  was  resolved  to  vent  upon  his  victim  the  con- 
sequences of  his  own  offences — wheu  it  was  known  that  he  whose  whole  life 
since  his  marriage,  had  been  a  violation  of  his  marriage  vows,  was  determined  to 
destroy  his  consort  after  deserting  and  ill-using  her — and  when  it  was  announced 
that  his  design  was,  to  obtain  a  release  from  the  nuptial  ties,  which  had  never  for 
an  hour  held  him  fast,  on  the  pretence  of  the  party  so  deeply  injured  by  his  incon- 
stancy and  his  oppressions  having  at  length  fallen  into  the  snares  set  for  her — the 
public  indignation  knew  no  bounds,  and  all  the  people  with  ono  voice  exclaimed 
against  a  proceeding  so  indecently  outraging  every  principle  of  humanity  and  of 
justice.  Whether  the  facts  alleged  were  true  or  false,  the  people  never  gave  them- 
selves a  moment's  trouble  to  inquire;  and  if  the  whole  case  should  be  confessed  or 
should  be  proved,  it  was  quite  the  same  thing;  he  who  had  done  the  wrong  had  no 
right  to  take  advantage  of  it,  and  if  every  one  tittle  of  the  charges  made,  had  liecn 
admitted  by  the  party  accused,  the  peoplo  were  resolved  to  stand  between  her  and 
her  persecutor's  injustice. 


58  INTRODUCTION. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  hurry  the  House  of  Commons  into  the  consideration  of 
the  subject,  before  time  could  be  given  for  that  expression  of  feeling  in  the  country, 
which  the  King's  friends  were  well  aware  must  speedily  become  loud  and  general. 
But  the  Queen's  friends  were  not  to  be  thrown  off  their  guard.  Messrs.  Broug- 
ham and  Denman,  her  Attorney  and  Solicitor-general,  were  fully  prepared  for  this 
sudden  movement.  It  was  most  signally  discomfited.  A  delay  of  some  days  was 
forced  upon  the  government  by  the  Queen's  Attorney-general  entering  unexpectedly 
at  large  into  the  whole  case;  and  Mr.  Canning,  to  his  infinite  honor,  bore  such  testi- 
mony to  the  virtues  and  accomplishments  of  the  illustrious  princess,  whose  honor, 
whose  station,  and  indeed  whose  life  was  assailed,  that  a  division  among  the 
ministers  was  plainly  indicated. 

The  temper  and  disposition  of  the  house  on  this  memorable  occasion,  was 
observed  to  be  anxiously  watched  by  the  King's  friends;  and  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington sat  the  whole  night  under  the  gallery  an  attentive  listener,  and  with  frequent 
communications  to  and  from  those  more  immediately  engaged  in  the  conflict.  All 
men  now  felt  deep  regret  that  this  illustrious  person  had  only  of  late  betaken  him- 
self to  the  pursuits  of  civil  life;  for  his  penetrating  sagacity,  as  well  as  his 
honorable  feelings,  would  have  been  an  ample  security  against  suffering  such  a 
course  as  the  King  seemed  bent  upon  pursuing,  had  his  Grace  been  in  a  position 
to  exercise  his  proper  authority  over  his  colleagues  and  his  master,  and  to  sway 
their  councils  as  he  has  since  done  upon  the  most  important  occasions.  Nor  would 
the  same  security  have  been  wanting  for  the  country,  had  Lord  Wellesley  fortu- 
nately been  in  his  appropriate  position,  at  the  helm  of  affairs.  No  one  was 
calculated  to  have  such  influence  over  the  royal  mind;  and  no  one  would  more 
certainly  have  exerted  it  in  the  direction  which  the  best  interests  of  the  country,  as 
well  as  the  King's  own  honor,  so  plainly  pointed  out.  But  the  counsels  of  inferior 
men  prevailed;  or  rather,  the  resistance  of  inferior  minds  only  was  opposed  to  the 
vehemence  of  the  royal  will;  and  it  was  determined  that  a  hill  of  pains  and  penal- 
ties should  he  introduced  with  all  the  influence  of  the  crown,  for  the  purpose  of 
dissolving  the  marriage  and  degrading  the  Queen-consort  from  her  exalted  station. 
The  offence  alleged  against  her,  being  adultery,  would  have  *een  high  treason 
had  it  been  committed  within  the  realm.  There  were  doubts  among  lawyers 
whether  or  not  it  could  be  so  considered  if  committed  abroad,  and  certainly  the 
whole  proceeding  was  sufficiently  encumbered  with  difficulties  to  make  its  authors 
anxious  that  whatever  provision  loaded  it  with  additional  obstacles  should  be 
avoided.  Accordingly  no  question  was  made  of  higher  penalties  than  degradation 
and  divorce. 

It  would  be  needless  to  enter  into  the  details  of  this  unparalleled  and  most  dis- 

fraceful  affair.  It  is  enough  if  we  run  over  the  heads  merely  of  its  history.  The 
ecided  repugnance  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  whole  proceeding,  compelled 
the  ministers  to  defer  the  appointment  of  a  select  committee,  for  which  they  had 
moved  in  both  houses.  Mr.  Wilberforce,  whose  patriotism,  matured  wisdom,  and 
superiority  to  all  factious  views,  pointed  him  out  as  the  fit  person  to  resist  the 
threatened  mischief,  and  dictate  the  terms  which  should  bind  all  parties,  brought 
forward  a  proposition  for  addressing  the  Queen,  after  the  negotiation  between  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Castlereagh  on  the  King's  part,  Messrs.  Brougham 
and  Denman  on  Her  Majesty's,  had  failed;  and  the  House  having  agreed  to  the 
motion,  he  as  mover,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Stuart  Wortly,*  the  seconder,  Mr.  Bankes, 
and  Sir  T.  Acland,  proceeded  to  wait  upon  her  with  the  House's  resolutions,  declar- 
ing its  opinion  that  the  Queen  might,  without  any  sacrifice  of  her  honor,  accede  to  the 
King's  proposal  of  leaving  the  country,  upon  full  security  being  given  of  enjoying 
her  revenue  under  the  sanction  of  parliament.  Her  Majesty  received  the  deputa- 
tion of  the  Commons  with  that  great  dignity  of  demeanor  which  was  so  habitual 
to  her  upon  proper  occasions,  and  was  altogether  unmixed  with  haughtiness  or 
insolence;  but  she  declined  in  decided,  though  kindly  terms,  acceding  to  a  request 
which  must  leave  her  conduct  exposed  to  suspicion.  "As  a  subject  of  the  state," 
she  said  "  I  shall  bow  with  deference,  and,  if  possible,  without  a  murmur,  to  every 
act  of  the  sovereign  authority.  But  as  an  accused  and  injured  Queen,  I  owe  to  the 

*  Now  Lord  Wharncliffc. 


INTRODUCTION.  59 

King,  to  myself,  and  to  all  my  fellow-subjects,  not  to  consent  to  tho  sacrifice  of 
any  essential  privileges,  or  withdraw  my  appeal  to  those  principles  of  puhlic 
justice,  which  are  alike  the  safeguard  of  the  highest  and  the  humblest  individuals." 
It  now  became  apparent  that  the  inquiry  preparatory  to  the  bill  must  proceed. 
Her  Miijestj'  petitioned  the  House  of  Lords  to  be  heard  by  her  counsel  against  a 
secret  committee  being  appointed  to  examine  her  conduct  in  her  absence;  and  the 
counsel  were  at  half  an  hour's  notice  heard,  but  in  vain.  It  was  on  this  occasion 
that  Mr.  Denman,  in  allusion  to  the  well-known  adviser  of  the  Milan  Commission, 
Sir  John  Leach,  whose  counsels,  so  pleasing  to  the  King,  were  supposed  to  be 
guided  by  the  desire  of  supplanting  Lord  Eldon  and  obtaining  the  Great  Seal, 
made  that  memorable  quotation  from  Shakspoare,  which  was  so  manifestly  delight- 
ful to  Lord  Eldon,  and  certainly  as  distasteful  to  Sir  John. 

Some  busy  and  insinuating  rogue, 

Some  cogging  cozening  knave,  to  get  some  office, 

Hath  devised  this  slander. 

The  lords  then  appointed  a  secret  committee,  to  whom  papers  in  a  sealed  green 
bag  were  delivered.  After  examining  these  in  secret,  they  reported  that  a  Bill  of 
Degradation  and  Divorce  should  be  brought  in,  which  was  accordingly  done;  and  it 
was  read  a  first  time  on  the  5th  of  July.  After  rejecting  an  application  from  the 
Queen  to  be  furnished  with  lists  of  the  witnesses  against  her,  the  17th  of  August 
was  fixed  for  proceeding  with  the  case. 

On  that  day  this  unexampled  proceeding  commenced — a  proceeding  in  which  the 
forms  of  the  constitution  were  observed,  while  its  spirit  was  outraged  at  every  step 
— a  proceeding  over  which  the  ferocious  tyranny  of  Henry  VIII  presided,  although 
the  customs  of  parliament  were  observed  throughout,  and  which  afforded  a  practical 
proof,  that  influence  may,  with  a  little  delay,  effect  in  the  nineteenth  century 
almost  all  that  undisguised  and  unmitigated  prerogative  could  accomplish  in  the 
sixteenth. 

The  first  movement  of  the  Queen's  counsel  was  to  demur,  as  it  were,  to  the  bill, 
and  called  upon  the  House  to  reject  it  upon  the  ground  of  justice  and  of  all  con- 
stitutional principles,  whether  the  statements  in  the  preamble  were  true  or  false. 
In  this  preliminary  argument,  Mr.  Denman  was  universally  allowed  to  have  prin- 
cipally distinguished  himself;  and  his  great  display  of  eloquence  raised  high  ex- 
pectations of  what  might  be  accomplished  by  him  during  the  subsequent  stages  of 
the  cause — expectations  which,  however  high,  were  surpassed  by  the  performance. 
Every  effort,  however,  was  for  the  present  unavailing,  either  to  stop  the  government 
in  its  course,  or  animate  and  alarm  the  peers  into  a  resistance  on  behalf  of  the  con- 
stitution and  the  country.  All  without  perhaps  one  exception,  both  of  the  govern- 
ment and  of  both  Houses,  abhorred  the  measure;  and  if  they  could  have  been  sure 
that  throwing  it  out  immediately,  would  not  have  occasioned  a  change  of  ministry, 
assuredly  the  bill  never  would  have  remained  one  hour  in  existence.  But  then,  as 
in  much  later  times,  the  great  fear  was  of  letting  in  the  opposition;  and  Tories  were 
daily  seen  abandoning  their  whole  principles,  upon  the  pretence  that  they  had  no 
other  way  of  preventing  what,  to  their  eyes,  seemed  the  most  formidable  of  all 
events — exactly  as  in  the  present  day  we  have  seen  Whigs  giving  up  their  most 
sacred  opinions  one  after  another,  and  attaching  not  the  weight  of  a  feather  to 
retrenchment,  and  popular  rights,  and  the  progress  of  reform,  and  the  rights  of 
colonies,  and  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  the  extinction  of  Slavery,  and  the  pre- 
vention of  the  Slave  Trade  itself,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against  the  one 
evil  of  a  change  Which  should  let  in  their  adversaries,  and  turn  out  their  patrons 
from  the  dispensation  of  court  favor. 

The  preliminary  objection,  in  the  nature  of  a  demurrer,  being  overruled,  tho  bill 
proceeded;  that  is,  the  case  against  the  Queen  was  opened,  and  witnesses  WHO 
examined  to  prove  it,  after  tho  Attorney-general  had  opened  the  charge  in  a  long 
speech  of  minute  detail — a  course  which  was  extremely  ill  considered  by  the  advo- 
cates of  the  bill,  who  could  not  ntall  trust  their  foreign  witnesses:  for  being  guided 
in  their  detailed  statements  wholly  by  the  result  of  the  Milan  commission,  the 
manifest  discrepancies  between  the  answers  which  their  questions  showed  that 


60  INTRODUCTION. 

they  expected  to  get,  and  those  actually  given,  afforded  constant  occasion  to  their 
adversaries  to  cast  discredit  upon  the  testimony.  It  ought  to  be  mentioned,  as  one 
of  the  manifold  irregularities  of  this  proceeding,  that  now  for  the  first  time  mem- 
bers of  one  house  acted  as  counsel  at  the  bar  of  the  other,  in  a  bill  on  which  they 
must,  if  it  passed  that  other,  themselves  come  to  sit  as  judges.  But  the  extreme 
inconvenience  of  the  Attorneys  and  Solicitors-general  of  both  King  and  Queen 
going  out  of  Parliament  during  so  many  months  as  the  case  might  last,  suggested 
the  expediency  of  the  House  of  Commons  passing  a  resolution  which  permitted  its 
members  to  appear  as  counsel  in  this  bill;  and  Mr.  Williams  and  Dr.  Lushington, 
who  were  of  counsel  for  her  Majesty,  availed  themselves  of  this  leave,  as  well  as 
Mr.  Brougham  and  Mr.  Denman.  Mr.  Sergeant  Wilde  was  not  then  a  member  of 
Parliament. 

There  is  no  occasion  to  characterise  the  evidence  which  was  produced  for  the 
bill,  otherwise  than  as  it  has  been  since  described,  in  colors  which,  though  they 
may  be  strong,  are  only  so  because  they  are  so  strong  as  to  retain  their  likeness  to 
the  original  they  represent. 

"The  Milan  Commission  proceeded  under  this  superintendence;  and  as  its  labors 
so  were  their  fruits  exactly  what  might  have  been  expected.  It  is  the  first  impres- 
sion always  arising  from  any  work  undertaken  by  English  hands  and  paid  for  by 
English  money,  that  an  inexhaustible  fund  is  employed,  and  with  boundless  pro- 
fusion; and  a  thirst  of  gold  is  straightway  excited  which  no  extravagance  of  libe- 
rality can  slake.  The  knowledge  that  a  board  was  sitting  to  collect  evidence 
against  the  Queen,  immediately  gave  such  testimony  a  high  value  in  the  market  of 
Italian  perjury;  and  happy  was  the  individual  who  had  ever  been  in  her  house  or 
admitted  to  her  presence:  his  fortune  was  counted  to  be  made.  Nor  were  they 
who  had  viewed  her  mansion,  or  had  only  known  the  arrangements  of  her  villa, 
without  hopes  of  sharing  in  the  golden  prize.  To  have  seen  her  pass,  and  noted 
who  attended  her  person,  was  a  piece  of  good  luck.  In  short,  nothing,  however 
remotely  connected  with  herself,  or  her  family,  or  her  residence,  or  her  habits,  was 
•without  its  value  among  a  poor,  a  sanguine,  and  an  imaginative  people.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  no  more  ready  way  of  proving  a  case,  like  the  charge  of  criminal  inter- 
course, can  be  found,  than  to  have  it  first  broadly  asserted  for  a  fact;  because  this 
being  once  believed,  every  motion,  gesture,  and  look  is  at  once  taken  as  proof  of  the 
accusation,  and  the  two  most  innocent  of  human  beings  may  be  overwhelmed  with 
a  mass  of  circumstances,  almost  all  of  which,  as  well  as  the  inferences  drawn 
from  them,  are  really  believed  to  be  true  by  those  who  recount  or  record  them.  As 
the  treachery  of  servants  was  the  portion  of  this  testimony  which  bore  the  highest 
value,  that,  of  course,  was  not  difficult  to  procure;  and  the  accusers  soon  possessed 
what,  in  such  a  case,  may  most  truly  be  said  to  be  accusatori  maxime  optandum — 
not  indeed  confitentes  reos,  but  the  man-servant  of  the  one,  and  the  maid-servant  of 
the  other  supposed  paramour.  Nor  can  we  look  back  upon  these  scenes  without 
some  little  wonder  how  they  should  not  have  added  even  the  confiteniem  reum;  for 
surely  in  a  country  so  fertile  of  intriguing  men  and  abandoned  women — where  false 
oaths,  too,  grow  natural!}*,  or  with  only  the  culture  of  a  gross  ignorance  and  a 
superstitious  faith — it  might  have  been  easy,  we  should  imagine,  to  find  some 
youth,  like  Smeatton  in  the  original  Harry  the  Eighth's  time,  ready  to  make  his 
fortune,  both  in  money  and  female  favors,  by  pretending  to  have  enjoyed  the  affec- 
tions of  one  whose  good  nature  and  easy  manners  made  the  approach  to  her  person 
no  difficult  matter  at  any  time.  This  defect  in  the  case  can  only  be  accounted  for 
by  supposing  that  the  production  of  such  a  witness  before  the  English  public  might 
have  appeared  somewhat  perilous,  both  to  himself  and  to  the  cause  he  was  brought 
to  prop  with  his  perjuries.  Accordingly,  recourse  was  had  to  spies,  who  watched 
all  the  parties  did,  and  when  they  could  not  find  a  circumstance,  would  make  one; 
men  who  chronicled  the  dinners  and  the  suppers  that  were  eaten,  the  walks  and  the 
sails  that  were  enjoyed,  the  arrangements  of  rooms  and  the  position  of  bowers,  and 
who,  never  doubting  that  these  were  the  occasions  and  the  scenes  of  endearment 
and  of  enjoyment,  pretended  to  have  witnessed  the  one,  in  order  that  the  other 
might  be  supposed;  but  with  that  inattention  to  particulars  which  Providence  has 
appointed  as  the  snare  for  the  false  witness,  and  the  safeguard  of  innocence,  pre- 
tended to  have  seen  in  such  directions  as  would  have  required  the  rays  of  light  to 


INTRODUCTION.  61 

move  not  straightforward,  but  round  about.  Couriers  that  pried  into  carriages  where 
the  travellers  were,  asleep  at  gray  day-light,  or  saw  in  the  dusk  of  dewy  eve  what 
their  own  fancy  pictured — sailors  who  believed  that  all  persons  could  gratify  their 
animal  appetites  on  the  public  deck,  where  themselves  had  so  often  played  the 
beast's  part — lying  waiting-women,  capable  of  repaying  the  kindness  and  charity 
that  had  laid  the  foundation  of  their  fortune,  with  the  treachery  that  could  rear  it  to 
the  height  of^their  sordid  desires — chambermaids,  the  refuse  of  the  streets,  and  the 
common  food  of  wayfaring  licentiousness,  whose  foul  fancy  could  devour  every 
mark  that  beds  might  but  did  not,  present  to  their  practised  eye — lechers  of  either 
sex,  who  would  fain  have  gloated  over  the  realities  of  what  their  liquorish  imagina- 
tion alone  bodied  forth — pimps  of  hideous  aspect,  whose  prurient  glance  could 
penetrate  through  the  keyhole  of  rooms  where  the  rat  shared  with  the  bug  the 
silence  of  the  deserted  place — these  were  the  performers  whose  exploits  the  com- 
missioners chronicled,  whose  narratives  they  collected,  and  whose  exhibition  upon 
the  great  stage  of  the  first  tribunal  of  all  the  earth,  they  sedulously  and  zealously 
prepared  by  frequent  rehearsal.  Yet  with  all  these  helps  to  success — with  the  un- 
limited supply  of  fancy  and  of  falsehood  which  the  character  of  the  people  furnished 
— with  the  very  body-servants  of  the  parties  hired  by  their  wages,  if  not  bought 
with  a  price — such  an  array  could  only  be  produced,  as  the  whole  world  pronounced 
insufficient  to  prove  any  case,  and  as  even  the  most  prejudiced  of  assemblies  in  the 
accuser's  favor  turned  from  with  disgust." — Edinburgh  lleview,  vol.  Ixvii.  41 — 13. 

On  the  9th  of  September  an  adjournment  was  resolved  on  of  about  three  weeks, 
and  on  the  3d  of  October  the  House  again  met,  when  the  counsel  for  the  Queen 
were  heard,  and  witnesses  called  on  her  part.  The  following  speech  is  Mr.  Broug- 
ham's defence  of  her  Majesty,  which  he  opened  on  the  first  day  after  the  adjourn- 
ment, and  finished  on  the  next.  Mr.  Uenman's  summing  up  of  the  evidence,  and 
application  of  it  to  answer  the  charges,  was  a  magnificent  effort  of  genius.  But 
there  is  no  possibility  of  giving  more  than  the  justly  celebrated  peroration,  and  one 
or  two  other  passages.  The  last  sentence  of  all  was  the  subject  of  much  misre- 
presentation at  the  time,  and  has  been  occasionally  since.  Nor  can  it  be  denied 
that  the  want  of  a  few  words,  especially  in  a  spoken  composition  on  such  a  subject, 
rendered  this  unavoidable.  Whoever  attentively  considers  the  structure  of  the 
sentence,  and  weighs  the  force  of  the  words,  can  have  no  doubt  of  the  sense;  but 
it  is  not  safe  to  throw  so  much  upon  a  single  particle,  as  was  thus  cast  upon  the 
word  "  even;"  and  a  sentence  was  wanting  to  bring  home  the  meaning,  by  pointing 
the  hearer's  attention  to  the  contrast  exhibited  by  our  Savior  towards  convicted 
guilt,  and  human  injustice  towards  proved  innocence. 

The  proceedings  of  1820,  though  they  ended  in  the  signal  discomfiture  of  the 
Queen's  enemies,  by  no  means  put  an  end  to  their  persecutions.  Although  declared 
innocent  by  the  fate  of  the  bill,  which  was  withdrawn  on  the  10th  of  November, 
after  the  second  reading  had  been  carried  by  only  nine  votes,  and  when  it  became 
manifest  that  it  must  he  Hung  out  on  the  next  stage,  the  usual  insertion  of  her 
Majesty's  name  in  the  liturgy  was  still  withheld,  and  a  motion  on  the  subject  sug- 
gested by  Sir  Charles  Wetherel,  a  determined,  but  most  honest  and  consistent,  as 
well  as  highly-gifted  member  of  the  Tory  party,  was  rejected  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. In  the  following  summer,  the  coronation  of  George  IV  was  proceeded  with, 
and  of  course  the  Queen  claimed  to  be  crowned,  as  all  her  royal  predecessors  had 
been;  but  this,  too,  was  peremptorily  refused,  and  the  annoyance  occasioned  by 
these  vexatious  proceedings,  coining  after  so  long  a  life  of  ill-treatment,  is  generally 
believed  to  have  hastened  her  end.  The  mournful  inscription  which  she  desired  to 
have  plaord  upon  her  coflin  is  well  known — "  Caroline  of  Brunswick,  the  murdered 
Queen  of  Knoland." 

The  last  of  the  following  speeches  relates  to  the  subject  of  the  coronation,  her 
Majesty's  claim  having  been  referred  to  the  Privy  Council,  which  heard  tlio  argu- 
ment at  a  very  crowded  meeting,  attended  by  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor-general 
for  the  King,  as  well  as  those  for  the  Queen,  the  former  law-officers,  however, 
acting  as  assessors  to  the  board,  the  latter  appearing  at  the  bar.  The  Karl  of 
Harrowby,  as  Lord  President,  was  in  the  chair;  but  besides  many  lay  lords,  he 
was  assisted  by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Chief  Justices,  and  other  heads  of  the 
law  who  belonged  to  the  Privy  Cumu-il. 
VOL.  I. 0 


SPEECH 


CASE  OF  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  LORDSHIPS: — The  time  is  now  come  when  I 
feel  that  I  shall  truly  stand  in  need  of  all  your  indulgence.  It  is  not 
merely  the  august  presence  of  this  assembly  which  embarrasses  me, 
for  I  have  oftentimes  had  experience  of  its  condescension — nor  the 
novelty  of  this  proceeding  that  perplexes  me,  for  the  mind  gradually 
gets  reconciled  to  the  strangest  things — nor  the  magnitude  of  this  cause 
that  oppresses  me,  for  I  am  borne  up  and  cheered  by  that  conviction 
of  its  justice,  which  I  share  with  all  mankind;  but,  my  lords,  it  is  the 
very  force  of  that  conviction,  the  knowledge  that  it  operates  univer- 
sally, the  feeling  that  it  operates  rightly,  which  now  dismays  me  with 
the  apprehension,  that  my  unworthy  mode  of  handling  it,  may,  for  the 
first  time,  injure  it;  and,  while  others  have  trembled  for  a  guilty  client, 
or  been  anxious  in  a  doubtful  case,  or  crippled  with  a  consciousness  of 
some  hidden  weakness,  or  chilled  by  the  influence,  or  dismayed  by 
the  hostility,  of  public  opinion,  I,  knowing  that  here  is  no  guiltiness  to 
conceal,  nor  anything,  save  the  resources  of  perjury,  to  dread,  am 
haunted  with  the  apprehension  that  my  feeble  discharge  of  this  duty 
may  for  the  first  time  cast  that  cause  into  doubt,  and  may  turn  against 
me  for  condemnation  those  millions  of  your  lordships'  countrymen 
whose  jealous  eyes  are  now  watching  us,  and  who  will  not  fail  to 
impute  it  to  me,  if  your  lordships  should  reverse  the  judgment  which 
the  case  for  the  charge  has  extorted  from  them.  And  I  feel,  my  lords, 
under  such  a  weight  so  troubled,  that  I  can  hardly  at  this  moment, 
with  all  the  reflection  which  the  indulgence  of  your  lordships  has 
accorded  to  me,  compose  my  spirits  to  the  discharge  of  my  professional 
duty,  under  the  pressure  of  that  grave  responsibility  which  accompa- 
nies it.  It  is  no  light  addition  to  this  feeling,  that  I  foresee,  though 
happily  at  some  distance,  that  before  these  proceedings  close,  it  may 
be  my  unexampled  lot  to  discharge  a  duty,  in  which  the  loyalty  of 
a  good  subject  may,  among  the  ignorant,  among  the  thoughtless — 
certainly  not  with  your  lordships  for  a  moment — suffer  an  impeach- 
ment. 

My  lords,  the  Princess  Caroline  of  Brunswick  arrived  in  this  country 
in  the  year  1795 — the  niece  of  our  sovereign,  the  intended  consort  of 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  63 

his  heir-apparent,  and  herself  not  a  very  remote  heir  to  the  crown  of 
these  realms.  But  I  now  go  back  to  that  period,  only  for  the  purpose 
of  passing  over  all  the  interval  which  elapsed  between  her  arrival 
then  and  her  departure  in  1814.  I  rejoice  that,  for  the  present  at 
least,  the  most  faithful  discharge  of  my  duty  permits  me  to  draw  this 
veil;  but  I  cannot  do  so  without  pausing  for  an  instant,  to  guard 
myself  against  a  misrepresentation  to  which  I  know  this  cause  may 
not  unnaturally  be  exposed,  and  to  assure  your  lordships  most  solemnly, 
that  if  I  did  not  think  that  the  cause  of  the  Queen,  as  attempted  to 
be  established  by  the  evidence  against  her,  not  only  does  not  require 
recrimination  at  present — not  only  imposes  no  duty  of  even  uttering  one 
whisper,  whether  by  way  of  attack,  or  by  way  of  insinuation,  against 
the  conduct  of  her  illustrious  husband;  but  that  it  rather  prescribes  to 
me,  for  the  present,  silence  upon  this  great  and  painful  head  of  the 
case — I  solemnly  assure  your  lordships,  that  but  for  this  conviction, 
my  lips  on  that  branch  would  NOT  be  closed;  for,  in  discretionally  aban- 
doning the  exercise  of  the  power  which  I  feel  I  have,  in  postponing 
for  the  present  the  statement  of  that  case  of  which  I  am  possessed,  I 
feel  confident  that  I  am  waiving  a  right  which  I  possess,  and  abstain- 
ing from  the  use  of  materials  which  are  mine.  And  let  it  not  be 
thought,  my  lords,  that  if  either  now  I  did  conceive,  or  if  hereafter  I 
should  so  far  be  disappointed  in  my  expectation  that  the  case  against 
me  will  fail,  as  to  feel  it  necessary  to  exercise  that  right — let  no  man 
vainly  suppose,  that  not  only  I,  but  that  any,  the  youngest  member 
of  the  profession  would  hesitate  one  moment  in  the  fearless  discharge 
of  his  paramount  duty.  I  once  before  took  leave  to  remind  your 
lordships — which  was  unnecessary,  but  there  are  many  whom  it  may 
be  needful  to  remind — that  an  advocate,  by  the  sacred  duty  which  he 
owes  his  client,  knows,  in  the  discharge  of  that  office,  but  one  person 
in  the  world,  THAT  CLIENT  AND  NONE  OTIIEK.  To  save  that  client  by 
all  expedient  means — to  protect  that  client  at  all  hazards  and  costs  to 
all  others,  and  among  others  to  himself — is  the  highest  and  most 
unquestioned  of  his  duties;  and  he  must  not  regard  the  alarm — the 
suffering — the  torment — the  destruction — which  he  may  bring  upon 
any  other.  Nay,  separating  even  the  duties  of  a  patriot  from  those 
of  an  advocate,  and  casting  them,  if  need  be,  to  the  wind,  he  must  go 
on  reckless  of  the  consequences,  if  his  fate  it  should  unhappily  be,  to 
involve  his  country  in  confusion  for  his  client's  protection! 

But,  rny  lords,  I  am  not  reduced  to  this  painful  necessity.  I  feel 
that  if  I  were  to  touch  this  branch  of  the  case  now,  until  any  event 
shall  afterwards  show  that  unhappily  I  am  deceiving  myself — I  feel 
that  if  I  were  now  to  approach  the  great  subject  of  recrimination,  I 
should  seem  to  give  up  the  higher  ground  of  innocence  on  which  I 
rest  my  cause;  I  should  seem  to  be  justifying  when  I  plead  Not  Guilty; 
I  should  seem  to  argue  in  extenuation  and  in  palliation  of  offences, 
or  levities,  or  improprieties,  the  least  and  the  lightest  of  which  I  stand 
here  utterly  to  deny.  For  it  is  false,  as  has  been  said — it  is  foul  and 
false  as  those  have  dared  to  say,  who,  pretending  to  discharge,  the 
higher  duties  to  God,  have  shown,  that  they  know  not  the  first  ol  their 


64  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

duties  to  their  fellow-creatures — it  is  foul,  and  false,  and  scandalous 
in  those  who  have  said  (and  they  know  that  it  is  so  who  have  dared 
to  say),  that  there  are  improprieties  admitted  in  the  conduct  of  the 
Queen.  I  deny  that  the  admission  has  been  made.  I  contend  that 
the  evidence  does  not  prove  them.  I  will  show  you  that  the  evidence 
disproves  them.  One  admission,  doubtless,  I  do  make;  and  let  my 
learned  friends  who  are  of  counsel  for  the  Bill  take  all  the  benefit  of 
it,  for  it  is  all  that  they  have  proved  by  their  evidence.  I  grant  that 
her  Majasty  left  this  country  and  went  to  reside  in  Italy.  I  grant  that 
her  society  was  chiefly  foreign.  I  grant  that  it  was  an  inferior  society 
to  that  which  she  once  enlightened  and  graced  with  her  presence  in 
this  country.  I  admit,  my  lords,  that  while  here,  and  while  happy 
in  the  protection — not  perhaps  of  her  own  family,  after  the  fatal  event 
which  deprived  it  of  its  head;  but  while  enjoying  the  society  of  your 
lordships  and  the  families  of  your  lordships — I  grant  that  the  Queen 
moved  in  a  more  choice,  in  perhaps  a  more  dignified  society,  than  she 
afterwards  adorned  in  Italy.  And  the  charge  against  her  is,  that  she 
has  associated  with  Italians,  instead  of  her  own  countrymen  and 
countrywomen;  and,  that  instead  of  the  peeresses  of  England,  she 
has  sometimes  lived  with  Italian  nobility,  and  sometimes  with  persons 
of  the  commonalty  of  that  country.  But,  who  are  they  that  bring 
this  charge,  and  above  all,  before  whom  do  they  urge  it?  Others  may 
accuse  her — others  may  blame  her  for  going  abroad— others  may  tell 
tales  of  the  consequences  of  living  among  Italians,  and  of  not  associ- 
ating with  the  women  of  her  country,  or  of  her  adopted  country:  but  it 
is  not  your  lordships  that  have  any  right  to  say  so.  It  is  not  yon,  my 
lords,  that  can  fling  this  stone  at  Her  Majesty.  You  are  the  last  persons 
in  the  world — you,  who  now  presume  to  judge  her,  are  the  last  persons 
in  the  world  so  to  charge  her;  for  you  are  the  witnesses  whom  she  must 
call  to  vindicate  her  from  that  charge.  You  are  the  last  persons  who 
can  so  charge  her;  for  you,  being  her  witnesses,  have  been  also  the  insti- 
gators of  that  only  admitted  crime.  While  she  was  here,  she  courteously 
opened  the  doors  of  her  palace  to  the  families  of  your  lordships.  She 
graciously  condescended  to  mix  herself  in  the  habits  of  most  familiar 
life,  with  those  virtuous  and  distinguished  persons.  She  condescended 
to  court  your  society,  and,  as  long  as  it  suited  purposes  not  of  hers — as 
long  as  it  was  subservient  to  views  not  of  her  own — as  long  as  it  served 
interests  in  which  she  had  no  concern — she  did  not  court  that  society 
in  vain.  But  when  changes  took  place — when  other  views  arose — 
when  that  power  was  to  be  retained  which  she  had  been  made  the 
instrument  of  grasping — when  that  lust  of  power  and  place  was  to 
be  continued  its  gratification,  to  the  first  gratification  of  winch  she  had 
been  made  the  victim — then  her  doors  were  opened  in  vain;  then 
that  society  of  the  peeresses  of  England  was  withholden  from  her; 
then  she  was  reduced  to  the  alternative,  humiliating  indeed,  for  I  say 
that  her  condescension  to  you  and  yours  was  no  humiliation. — She 
was  only  lowering  herself,  by  overlooking  the  distinctions  of  rank  to 
enjoy  the  first  society  in  the  world — but  then  it  pleased  you  to  reduce 
her  to  what  was  really  humiliation — either  to  acknowledge  that  you 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  65 

had  deserted  her — to  seek  the  company  of  those  who  now  made  it  a 
favor  which  she  saw  they  unwillingly  granted,  or  to  leave  the  country 
and  have  recourse  to  other  society  inferior  to  yours.  I  say,  then,  my 
lords,  that  this  is  not  the  place  where  I  must  be  told — it  is  not  in  the 
presence  of  your  lordships  I  must  expect  to  hear  any  one  lift  his  voice 
to  complain — that  the  Princess  of  Wales  went  to  reside  in  Italy,  and 
associated  with  those  whose  society  she  neither  ought  to  have  chosen, 
nor  would  have  chosen — certainly  would  not  have  chosen,  perhaps 
ought  not  to  have  chosen — had  she  been  in  other  and  happier  cir- 
cumstances. 

In  the  midst  of  this,  and  of  so  much  suffering  as  to  an  ingenious 
mind  such  conduct  could  not  fail  to  cause,  she  still  had  one  resource, 
and  which,  for  a  space,  was  allowed  to  remain  to  her — I  need  hardly 
say  I  mean  the  comfort  of  knowing  that  she  still  possessed  the  undi- 
minished  attachment  and  grateful  respect  of  her  justly  respected  and 
deeply  lamented  daughter.  An  event  now  took  place  which,  of  all 
others,  most  excites  the  feelings  of  a  parent:  that  daughter  was  about 
to  form  a  union  upon  which  the  happiness — upon  which  alas!  the 
Queen  knew  too  well  how  much  the  happiness,  or  the  misery,  of  her 
future  life  must  depend.  No  announcement  was  made  to  her  Majesty 
of  the  projected  alliance.  All  England  occupied  with  the  subject — 
Europe  looking  on  with  an  interest  which  it  certainly  had  in  so  great 
an  event — England  had  it  announced  to  her;  Europe  had  it  announc- 
ed to  her — each  petty  German  prince  had  it  announced  to  him;  but 
the  one  person  to  whom  no  notice  of  it  was  given,  was  the  mother 
of  the  bride  who  was  to  be  espoused;  and  all  that  she  had  done  then 
to  deserve  this  treatment  was,  with  respect  to  one  of  the  illustrious 
parties,  that  she  had  been  proved,  by  his  evidence  against  her,  to  be 
not  guilty  of  the  charge  he  launched  at  her  behind  her  back;  and, 
with  respect  to  his  servants,  that  they  had  formerly  used  her  as  the 
tool  by  which  their  ambition  was  to  be  gratified.  The  marriage  itself 
was  consummated.  Still,  no  notice  was  communicated  to  the  Queen. 
She  heard  it  accidentally  by  a  courier  who  was  going  to  announce  the 
intelligence  to  the  Pope,  that  ancient,  intimate,  much-valued  ally  of 
the  Protestant  Crown  of  these  realms,  and  with  whose  close  friendship 
the  title  of  the  Brunswicks  to  our  crown  is  so  interwoven.  A  pros- 
pect grateful  to  the  whole  nation,  interesting  to  all  Europe,  was  now 
afforded,  that  the  marriage  would  be  a  fruitful  source  of  stability  to 
the  royal  family  of  these  realms.  The  whole  of  that  period,  painfully 
interesting  to  a  parent  as  well  as  to  a  husband,  was  passed  without 
the  slightest  communication;  arid  if  the  Princess  Charlotte's  own  feel- 
ings had  prompted  her  to  open  one,  she  was  in  a  state  of  anxiety 
of  mind  and  of  delicacy  of  frame,  in  consequence  of  that  her  first 
pregnancy,  which  made  it  dangerous  to  have  maintained  a  struggle 
between  power  and  authority  on  the  one  hand,  and  affection  and  duty 
on  the  other.  An  event  most  fatal  followed  which  plunged  the  whole 
of  England  into  grief;  one  in  which  all  our  foreign  neighbors  sympa- 
thised, and  while,  with  a  due  regard  to  the  feelings  of  those  fon-iirn 
allies,  and  even  of  strange  powers  and  princes  with  whom  we  had 


66  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

no  alliance,  that  event  was  speedily  communicated  by  particular  mes- 
sengers to  each,  the  person  in  all  the  world  who  had  the  deepest 
interest  in  the  event — the  person  whose  feelings,  above  those  of  all 
the  rest  of  mankind,  were  most  overwhelmed  and  stunned  by  it — 
was  left  to  be  stunned  and  overwhelmed  by  it  accidentally;  as  she 
had,  by  accident,  heard  of  the  marriage.  Bat  if  she'  had  not  heard 
of  the  dreadful  event  by  accident,  she  would,  ere  long  have  felt  it; 
for  the  decease  of  the  Princess  Charlotte  was  communicated  to  her 
mother,  by  the  issuing  of  the  Milan  Commission  and  the  commence- 
ment of  the  proceedings  for  the  third  time  against  her  character  and 
her  life. 

See,  my  lords,  the  unhappy  fate  of  this  illustrious  woman!  It  has 
been  her  lot  always  to  lose  her  surest  stay,  her  best  protector,  when 
the  dangers  most  thickened  around  her;  and,  by  a  coincidence  almost 
miraculous,  there  has  hardly  been  one  of  her  defenders  withdrawn 
from  her,  that  his  loss  has  not  been  the  signal  for  an  attack  upon 
her  existence.  Mr.  Pitt  was  her  earliest  defender  and  friend  in  this 
country.  He  died  in  1806;  and,  but  a  few  week  safterwards,  the  first 
inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  Her  Royal  Highness  began.  He  left  her  a 
legacy  to  Mr.  Percival,  her  firm,  dauntless,  and  most  able  advocate. 
And,  no  sooner  had  the  hand  of  an  assassin  laid  Mr.  Percival  low,  than 
she  felt  the  calamity  of  his  death,  in  the  renewal  of  the  attacks,  which 
his  gallantry,  his  skill,  and  his  invariable  constancy  had  discomfitted. 
Mr.  Whitbread  then  undertook  her  defence;  and,  when  that  catastro- 
phe happened,  which  all  good  men  lament  without  any  distinction 
of  party  or  sect,  again  commenced  the  distant  growling  of  the  storm; 
for  it  then,  happily,  was  never  allowed  to  approach  her,  because  her 
daughter  stood  her  friend,  and  some  there  were  who  worshipped  the 
rising  sun.  But,  when  she  lost  that  amiable  and  beloved  child,  all 
which  might  have  been  expected  here — all  which  might  have  been 
dreaded  by  her  if  she  had  not  been  innocent — all  she  did  dread — 
because,  who,  innocent  or  guilty,  loves  persecution?  who  delights  in 
trial,  even  when  character  and  honor  are  safe? — all  was  at  once 
allowed  to  burst  upon  her  head;  and  the  operations  began  with  the 
Milan  Commission.  And,  as  if  there  were  no  possibility  of  the  Queen 
losing  a  protector  without  some  most  important  scene  against  her 
being  played  in  this  too  real  drama,  the  day  which  saw  the  venera- 
ble remains  of  our  revered  sovereign  consigned  to  the  tomb — of  that 
sovereign  who,  from  the  first  outset  of  the  Princess  in  English  life, 
had  been  her  constant  and  steady  defender — that  same  sun  ushered 
the  ringleader  of  the  band  of  perjured  witnesses  into  the  palace  of  his 
illustrious  successor!  Why  do  I  mention  these  things!  Not  for  the 
sake  of  making  so  trite  a  remark,  as  that  trading  politicians  are  sel- 
fish— that  spite  is  twin-brother  to  ingratitude — that  nothing  will  bind 
base  natures — that  favors  conferred,  and  the  duty  of  gratitude  neglect- 
ed, only  make  those  natures  the  more  spiteful  and  malignant.  My 
lords,  the  topic  would  be  trite  and  general,  and  I  should  be  ashamed 
to  trouble  you  with  it;  but  I  say  this,  in  order  to  express  once  more 
my  deep  sense  of  the  un worthiness  with  which  I  now  succeed  such 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  67 

powerful  defenders,  and  my  alarm  lest  my  exertions  should  fail  to  do 
what  theirs  must  have  accomplished  had  they  survived. 

My  lords,  I  pray  your  attention  for  a  few  moments,  to  what  all  this 
has  resulted  in.  It  has  ended  in  the  getting  up  of  a  story,  to  the  general 
features  of  which  I  am  now  first  about  to  direct  the  attention  of  your 
lordships.  But  I  must  begin  by  praying  you  to  recollect  what  the 
evidence  has  not  only  not  proved,  but  is  very  likely  to  have  discharged 
from  the  memory  of  your  lordships — I  mean  the  opening  of  my 
learned  friend,  the  Attorney-general.  Now,  he  shall  himself  describe, 
in  his  own  words,  the  plan  and  the  construction  of  that  opening  state- 
ment. It  is  most  material  for  your  lordships  to  direct  your  attention 
to  this;  because  much  of  the  argument  rests  on  this  comparative  view. 
He  did  not,  then,  make  a  general  speech,  without  book,  without  di- 
rection or  instruction;  but  his  speech  was  the  spoken  evidence;  it 
was  the  transcript  of  that  which  he  had  before  him;  and  the  way  in 
which  that  transcript  was  prepared,  I  leave  your  lordships  to  conjec- 
ture, even  uninformed  to  a  certain  degree  as  you  now  must  needs  be. 
"  I  will,"  said  my  learned  friend — and  every  one  who  heard  him  make 
the  promise,  and  who  knows  his  strictly  honorable  nature,  must  have 
expected  its  exact  fulfilment — "I  will  most  carefully  state  nothing 
which  I  do  not,  in  my  conscience,  believe  I  shall  be  able  to  substan- 
tiate in  proof;  but  I  will  also  withhold  nothing,  upon  which  I  have 
that  conviction."  I  believed  the  Attorney-general  when  I  heard  him 
promise.  I  knew  that  he  spoke  from  his  conscience;  and  now  that  I  see 
he  has  failed  in  the  fulfilment,  I  equally  well  know  that  there  is  but 
one  cause  for  the  failure — that  he  told  you  what  he  had  in  his  brief, 
and  what  had  found  its  way  into  his  brief  from  the  mouths  of  the 
witnesses.  He  could  get  it  in  no  other  way  but  that.  The  witnesses 
who  had  told  falsehoods  before  in  private,  were  scared  from  repeating 
them  here,  before  your  lordships.  Now,  I  will  give  your  lordships 
one  or  two  specimens  of  this;  because  I  think  these  samples  will 
enable  you  to  form  a  pretty  accurate  estimate,  not  only  of  the  value 
of  that  evidence,  where  it  comes  not  up  to  rny  learned  friend's  open- 
ing, but  also  to  form  a  pretty  good  guess  of  the  manner  in  which  that 
part  of  it  which  did  succeed  was  prepared  for  the  purpose.  I  will 
merely  take  one  or  two  of  the  leading  witnesses,  and  compare  one 
or  two  of  the  matters  which  my  learned  friend  opened,  and  will  not 
tire  you  with  the  manner  in  which  they  told  you  the  story. 

First,  my  learned  friend  said,  that  the  evidence  of  the  Queen's 
improper  conduct  would  come  down  almost  "to  the  time  at 
which  I  have  now  the  honor  of  addressing  your  lordships."  I  am 
quoting  the  words  of  my  learned  friend,  from  the  short-hand  writer's 
notes.  In  fuct,  by  the  Evidence,  ihsit  "  a/most"  means  up  to  the 
present  time,  all  but  three  years;  that  is  to  say,  all  but  a  space  of 
time  exactly  equal  to  that  space  of  time  over  which  the  other  parts 
of  the  evidence  extend.  At  Naples,  where  the  scene  is  laid  which 
is  first  so  sedulously  brought  before  your  lordships,  as  if  the  first  con- 
nection between  the  two  parties  began  upon  that  occasion — as  if  that 
were  the  night  when  the  guilty  intentions,  which  they  long  had  been 


68  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

harboring,  but  for  want  of  opportunity  had  not  been  able  to  fulfil, 
were  at  length  gratified — at  Naples,  I  pray  your  lordships  to  attend 
to  the  manner  in  which  he  opened  this  first  and  most  important 
of  his  whole  case,  and  which  if  it  fails,  that  failure  must  affect  the 
statement  of  circumstances,  not  only  in  this  part  of  the  evidence,  but 
in  all  the  subsequent  stages  of  it.  How  does  my  learned  friend  open 
that  part  of  his  case?  "  I  shall  show  you,"  says  he,  "  that  there  are 
clear,  decisive  marks  of  two  persons  having  slept  in  the  bed,  the 
night  that  the  Queen  came  home;  the  second  night  she  was  at  Naples, 
she  returned  early  from  the  opera;  she  went  to  her  own  room,  from 
thence  she  repaired  to  Bergami's  room,  where  Bergami  himself  was; 
the  next  day  she  was  not  visible  till  an  unusually  late  hour,  and  was 
inaccessible  to  the  nobility  of  Naples."  Every  one  of  these  asser- 
tions, rising  one  above  another  in  succession  and  importance,  but 
even  the  lowest  of  them  of  great  moment  to  the  case  against  her 
Majesty — every  one  of  them  not  only  is  false,  but  is  negatived  by 
the  witness  produced  to  support  them.  Demont  gives  no  "decisive 
marks," — she  gives  a  doubtful  and  hesitating  story.  With  one  ex- 
ception, there  is  nothing  specific,  even  in  what  she  swears;  and  with 
that  I  shall  afterwards  come  to  deal.  But  she  denies  that  she  knew 
where  the  Queen  went  when  she  first  left  her  own  bed-room.  She 
denies  that  she  knew  where  Bergami  was  at  the  time.  She  says 
affirmatively  that  the  next  morning  the  Queen  was  up  and  alert  by 
the  usual  time.  Not  one  tittle  of  evidence  does  she  give,  or  any  body 
else,  of  her  having  refused  access  to  any  one  person  who  called:  nor 
is  any  evidence  given  (to  make  the  whole  more  complete)  that  any 
body  called  that  morning  at  all. 

Then  come  we  to  that  which  my  learned  friend  opened  with  more 
than  even  his  wonted  precision.  We  know  that  all  the  rest  was  from 
his  instructions.  It  could  be  from  no  other  source.  He  had  never 
been  in  Italy.  Neither  he  nor  my  learned  friend,  the  Solicitor-gene- 
ral, have  given  us  any  idea  of  their  knowing  what  sort  of  country  it 
is;  that  they  know  any  thing  of  a  masquerade;  that  they  know  any 
thing  of  a  cassino.  My  learned  friend  has  represented  as  if  the 
being  black-balled  at  that  cassino  were  ruin  to  a  person's  character; 
forgetting  who  may  be  the  members  of  the  society  at  that  cassino;  that 
there  may  be  a  Colonel  Brown;  that  it  is  held  at  the  very  place  where 
the  Milan  Commission  was  held.  "But,"  says  my  learned  friend, 
the  Solicitor-general,  "  who  ever  heard  of  the  wife  of  a  royal  prince 
of  this  country  going  disguised  to  a  masquerade?"  Who  would 
have  thought  that,  being  disguised,  and  on  her  way  to  a  masquerade, 
she  did  not  go  in  her  own  state  coach,  with  her  livery  servants,  with 
a  coachman  bedizened,  with  lacqueys  plastered,  with  all  the  "pomp, 
pride,  and  circumstance"  of  a  court  or  a  birth-day,  but  that  she  went 
in  a  common  hired  carriage,  without  the  royal  arms,  without  splendor 
or  garb,  coming  out  at  the  back  door,  instead  of  issuing  out  at  the 
front  door,  with  all  the  world  spectators?  Nay,  I  only  wonder  that 
my  learned  friend  did  not  state,  as  an  enormity  unheard  of  and  inex- 
plicable, that  she  went  to  a  masquerade  in  a  domino  and  with  a  false 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  69 

face!  My  lords,  it  was  not,  therefore,  from  their  own  personal 
observation,  certainly  not  from  having  been  present  at  these  royal 
recreations  of  Murat's  conrt,  that  my  learned  friends  obtained  their 
knowledge  of  this  cause;  they  have  it  from  Detnont  or  Mujoochi,  the 
witnesses  who  have  been  examined  again  and  again;  and  who  have 
again  and  again  told  the  same  story;  but  which  story  being  in  part 
founded  in  fact,  they  now  recollect  only  the  portion  that  is  true,  and 
forget  what  is  untrue. 

"Then,"  says  my  learned  friend,  in  this  instance  which  I  am  now 
going  to  state,  leaving  us  to  our  general  suspicions  as  to  where  he 
got  his  knowledge  upon  the  other  circumstances,  and  coming  to  some- 
thing more  specific  "  I  am  instructed  to  state,"  and  in  another  instance, 
"the  witness  says"  so  and  so,  showing  he  was  reading  the  witness's 
deposition.  "  I  am  instructed  to  state,  that  the  dress  which  the  Prin- 
cess had  assumed,  or  rather  the  want  of  it  in  part,  was  extremely 
indecent  and  disgusting;"  and  lie  adds  afterwards,  in  commenting 
upon  it,  that  it  was  of  the  "most  indecent  description;"  so  that  she 
was,  on  account  of  that  indecency,  on  account  of  the  disgusting 
nature  of  it,  by  those  who  actually  saw  it,  hooted  from  the  public 
theatre.  Your  lordships  will  recollect  what  it  came  to — that  the 
Princess  was  there  in  a  dress  that  was  exceedingly  ugly — the  maid 
Demont  said,  in  a  "  very  ugly"  dress;  and  that  was  all  my  learned 
friend  could  get  her  now  to  assert — that  it  was  without  form  and 
ugly;  masques  came  about  her  and  she,  unknown  in  her  own  masque, 
—  for  strange  as  it  may  appear  to  my  learned  friend,  a  personal  a 
masquerade  endeavors  to  be  disguised — was  attacked  from  joke  or  from 
spite — oftener  from  joke  than  from  spite;  her  own  dress  being  of  that 
ugly  description — for  what  reason  is  left  to  this  moment  unexplained. 

My  lords,  I  should  fatigue  your  lordships  if  I  were  to  go  over  other 
instances — I  shall  only  mention  that  at  Messina.  Voices  are  said  to 
have  been  heard.  The  Attorney-general  opened,  that  at  Messina  he 
should  prove  the  Princess  and  Bergami  to  have  been  locked  up  in 
the  same  room,  and  to  have  been  heard  speaking  together.  That  is 
now  reduced,  by  the  evidence,  to  certain  voices  being  heard,  the 
witness  cannot  say  whose.  At  Savona,  where  my  learned  friend 
gives  you,  as  he  generally  does  in  his  speech,  the  very  day  of  the 
month,  the  12th  of  April,  he  stated  that  the  only  access  to  the  Prin- 
cess's room  was  through  Bergarni's,  where  there  was  no  bed,  but  that 
in  the  Princess's  room  there  was  a  large  bed.  The  witness  proved 
only  one  of  those  particulars  out  of  three. 

Passing  over  a  variety  of  particulars,  I  shall  give  only  one  or  two 
instances  from  Majoochi's  and  Sacchi's  evidence.  "  The  Princess 
remained  in  Bcrgami's  room  a  very  considerable  time,"  the  night  that 
Majoochi  swore  she  went  into  his  room,  "  and  there  the  witness  heard 
them  kissing  each  other,"  says  the  Attorney-general.  Majoochi  says, 
she  remained  there  one  of  the  times  ten  minutes,  the  other  fifteen;  and 
that  he  only  heard  a  whispering.  Now,  as  to  Sacchi.  The  story  as 
told  by  my  learned  friend,  from  the  brief  in  his  hand,  and  which 
therefore  Sacchi  must  have  told  before  at  Milan,  is,  that  a  courier  one 


70  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

night  returned  from  Milan,  that  is,  that  he,  Sacchi,  returned  as  a  cou- 
rier from  Milan,  for  it  was  he  whom  he  meant — that  finding  Bergami 
out  of  his  own  room,  he  looked  about  and  saw  him  come  out  of  the 
Queen's  room  undressed — that  all  the  family  were  in  bed — that  he 
observed  him — that  he  spoke  to  him — and  that  Bergami  explained  it 
by  saying  he  had  gone,  hearing  his  child  cry,  to  see  what  was  the 
matter,  and  desired  him  not  to  mention  any  thing  about  it.  Sacchi 
negatives  this,  as  far  as  a  man  speaking  to  so  unusual  a  circumstance, 
which,  if  it  had  happened,  must  have  forcibly  impressed  his  recollec- 
tion, can  do  so.  He  denies  it  as  strongly  as  a  man  can,  by  denying 
all  recollection  of  any  such  particulars,  although  not  for  want  of 
examination;  for  my  learned  friend,  the  Solicitor-general,  questions'him 
over  and  over  again,  and  he  cannot  get  him  to  come  within  a  mile  of 
such  a  fact. 

Then  come  we  to  the  disgraceful  scenes,  as  the  Attorney-general 
describes  them,  at  the  Barona,  which  he  said — and  if  they  had  been 
as  they  were  represented  to  him,  1  doubt  not  he  used  a  very  fair  ex- 
pression— he  did  not  tell  us  what  they  were,  but  "  they  were  so  dis- 
graceful, that  it  rather  made  that  house  deserve  the  name  of  a  brothel, 
than  of  a  palace,  or  a  place  fit  for  the  reception  of  Her  Majesty,  or 
any  person  of  the  least  virtue  or  delicacy."  Here  there  is  a  most 
entire  failure  of  proof  from  all  the  witnesses. 

Then  we  are  told  that  at  Naples  the  attendants  were  shocked  and 
surprised  by  the  conduct  of  the  Queen — that  in  Sicily  no  doubt  was 
entertained  by  them,  from  what  they  saw  of  the  familiarities  between 
the  parties,  that  a  criminal  intercourse  was  going  on  there.  Not  one 
of  those  attendants  describes  that  effect  to  have  been  produced  upon 
their  minds  by  what  they  saw.  I  shall  afterwards  come  to  what  they 
did  see;  but  they  do  not  tell  you  this,  though  frequently  urged  and 
kindly  prompted  to  do  it.  Then,  as  to  the  visiting  of  the  nobility — 
that  the  Queen's  society  was  given  up  by  the  ladies  of  rank  of  her 
own  country,  from  the  moment  she  left  this  country — that  they  all 
fell  away — in  short,  that  she  was  treated  abroad,  I  know  not  from 
what  motive,  with  something  of  the  same  abandonment  with  which 
she  was  treated  in  this  country — I  well  know  from  what  motive. 
All  this  is  disproved  by  the  evidence.  How  came  my  learned  friend 
to  forget  the  fact  of  that  most  respectable  woman,  Lady  Charlotte 
Lindsay,  joining  her  at  Naples,  after  her  conduct  had  been  obser- 
ved by  all  the  servants;  with  which  servants  Lady  Charlotte 
Lindsay's  waiting  woman  naturally  lived  on  terms  of  intimacy,  and 
between  which  servants  and  her,  I  have  no  idea  that  any  thing  of  that 
grave-like  secrecy  existed  which  each  of  them  has  represented  to 
have  existed  between  themselves  up  to  the  time  they  came  to  the 
Cotton  Garden  depot,  and  up  to  the  moment  that  they  conveyed  from 
that  depot  to  your  lordships'  bar,  the  resources  of  their  perjury.  Lady 
Charlotte  Lindsay,  Lord  and  Lady  Glenbervie,  Mrs.  Falconet,  and 
others,  had  no  doubt  some  intercourse  with  those  Neapolitanjservants, 
either  directly  or  through  their  own  attendants,  all  of  whom  are  rep- 
resented as  having  been  perfectly  astounded  with  the  impropriety, 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  71 

nay,  the  indecency  of  the  conduct  of  their  royal  mistress;  and  yet 
those  noble  and  virtuous  persons  are  proved  to  have  joined  her,  some 
at  Naples  some  at  Rome  some  at  Leghorn,  and  to  have  associated  with 
her,  in  spite  of  all  his  open  and  avowed  and  ostentatious  indecorum. 

But,  even  to  a  much  later  period,  and  in  higher  quarters,  the 
Queen's  company  has  been  proved,  by  my  learned  friend's  case,  not 
to  have  been  treated  abroad  with  the  neglect  which  it  experienced 
here.  She  has  been,  in  the  first  place,  courteously  received,  even  after 
her  return  from  the  long  voyage,  by  the  legitimate  sovereign  prince  of 
Baden,  a  prince  with  a  very  legitimate  origin,  though  with  a  some- 
what revolutionary  accession  to  his  territory.  Equally  well  received 
was  she  by  the  still  more  legitimate  Bourbons  at  Palermo;  but  court- 
ed was  her  society  by  the  legitimate  Stuarts  of  Sardinia,  the  heirs 
legitimate,  as  contra-distinguished  from  the  heirs  of  liberty  and  of 
right,  to  the  throne  of  this  realm — the  illegitimate  and  ousted  heirs 
I  call  them;  but  the  true  legitimates  of  the  world,  as  some  are  dis- 
posed to  term  them,  who  do  not  hold  that  allegiance,  at  least  who 
disguise  that  allegiance  to  the  house  of  Brunswick,  which,  as  good 
subjects,  we  all  cherish.  Nay,  even  a  prince  who,  I  doubt  not,  will 
rank  in  point  of  antiquity  and  family  even  higher  than  the  legitimate 
Bourbons  and  legitimate  Stuarts — I  mean  his  highness  the  Dey  of 
Tunis,  the  paragon  of  Moorish  legitimacy — received  her  Majesty  as 
if  she  was  respected  by  all  his  lighter-colored  brethren  in  the  other 
parts  of  the  globe.  And  she  was  also  received  in  the  same  respectful 
manner  by  the  representative  of  the  King  at  Constantinople.  So  that 
wherever  she  has  gone,  she  has  met  with  respect  from  all  ranks,  and 
has  associated  with  the  only  persons  of  authority  and  note  whom  she 
could  have  had  as  her  vindicators.  She  was  received  by  all  those  per- 
sons of  authority  and  note,  not  only  not  as  my  learned  friend  expected 
to  prove,  but  in  the  very  reverse  manner,  and  as  from  the  evidence 
I  have  now  described  her  reception  and  her  treatment. 

Suffer  me  now,  my  lords,  to  solicit  your  indulgence,  while  I  look  a 
little  more  narrowly  into  the  case  which  was  thus  opened,  and  thus 
partly  not  proved,  partly  disproved,  by  the  Attorney-general.  The 
first  remark  which  must  strike  any  one  who  attends  to  this  discussion 
is  one  which  pervades  the  whole  case,  and  is  of  no  small  importance. 
Is  it  not  remarkable,  that  such  a  case,  possessed  as  they  are  of  such 
witnesses,  should  have  been  left  so  lame  and  short  as  they  must  admit 
it  to  be  left,  when  contrasted  with  their  opening?  Was  ever  a  cause  of 
criminal  conversation  brought  into  court  under  such  favorable  auspi- 
ces? Who  are  your  witnesses?  The  very  two  who,  of  all  men  and 
womankind,  must  know  most  of  this  oflence,  not  only  if  it  were  in 
the  daily  course  of  being  committed,  but  if  committed  at  all — I  mean, 
the  body  servants  of  the  two  parties,  the  valet  of  the  man,  and  the 
lady's  own  waiting  maid.  Why,  in  common  cases,  these  are  the  very 
witnesses  the  counsel  are  panting  to  have  and  to  bring  into  court. 
From  tho  form  of  the  action,  they  can  hardly  ever  venture  to  bring 
the  man's  servant;  but  if  they  can  get  hold  of  one  by  good  fortune, 
they  consider  their  case  must  be  proved;  and  then  the  only  question 


72  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

comes  to  be  as  to  mitigation  of  damages,  for  as  to  the  fact,  no  defen- 
dant would  any  longer  hold  out  and  resist.  And  if  you  believe  any 
part  of  their  case,  it  was  not  from  over  caution  of  the  parties;  it  was 
not  from  any  great  restraint  they  impose  on  themselves;  it  was  not 
that  knowing  they  were  watched,  they  took  care  to  give  the  world 
nothing  to  see;  because,  if  you  believe  the  evidence,  they  had  flung 
off  all  regard  to  decorum,  all  trammels  of  restraint,  all  ordinary  pru- 
dence, and  had  given  up  the  reins  to  this  guilty  passion,  as  if  they 
were  still  in  the  hey-day  of  youthful  blood,  and  as  if  they  were  justified 
by  those  ties  which  render  its  indulgence  a  virtue  rather  than  a  crime. 
Yet,  with  all  this  want  of  caution,  all  these  exhibitions  of  want  of 
circumspection,  the  man's  serving  man,  and  the  lady's  waiting  woman 
have  not  been  able  to  prove  more  than  these  meagre  facts,  which,  it 
is  pretended,  make  out  the  charge.  When  I  said,  however,  there  was 
no  caution  or  circumspection,  I  mis-stated  the  case.  If  you  believe  the 
evidence — and  it  is  the  great  circumstance  of  improbability  to  which 
I  solicit  your  attention — if  you  believe  the  evidence,  there  was  every 
caution  used  by  the  parties  themselves,  to  insure  discovery,  which  the 
wishes  and  ingenuity  of  their  most  malignant  adversary  could  have 
devised  to  work  their  ruin  and  promote  his  own  designs.  Observe 
how  every  part  of  the  case  is  subject  to  this  remark;  and  then  I  leave 
to  your  lordships  confidently  the  inference  that  must  arise  from  the 
observation.  You  will  even  find,  that  just  in  proportion  as  the  dif- 
ferent acts  alleged  are  of  a  doubtful,  or  of  a  suspicious,  or  of  an  atro- 
cious nature,  in  exactly  the  same  proportion  do  the  parties  take  especial 
care  that  there  shall  be  good  witnesses,  and  many  of  them,  in  order 
to  prove  it.  It  would  be  a  horrible  case,  if  such  features  did  not 
belong  to  it;  but  such  features  we  have  here  abundantly;  and  if  the 
witnesses  are  to  be  believed,  no  mortal  ever  acted  as  the  Queen  is 
represented  to  have  done.  Walking  arm  in  arm  is  a  most  light  thing; 
it  seldom  takes  place  except  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  and  of  those 
some  speak  most  accurately  respecting  it;  but  sitting  together  in  an 
attitude  of  familiar  proximity,  which  is  somewhat  less  equivocal,  is 
proved  by  several  witnesses;  and  those  who  slate  it  to  have  been  done 
by  the  aid  of  placing  the  arms  round  the  neck,  or  behind  the  back, 
and  which  accordingly  raises  it  a  step  higher — the  witnesses  show 
you  that  this  happened  when  the  doors  were  open,  in  the  height  of 
the  sun,  in  a  villa  where  hundreds  of  persons  were  walking,  and 
when  the  house  and  the  grounds  were  filled  with  common  workmen. 
Several  salutes  were  given;  and,  as  this  stands  still  higher  in  the  scale, 
it  appears  that  never  was  a  kiss  to  pass  between  these  lovers  without 
especial  pains  being  taken  that  a  third  person  should  be  by  to  tell  the 
story  to  those  who  did  not  see  the  deed  done.  One  witness  is  out  of 
the  room  while  Bergami  is  about  to  take  his  departure  on  a  journey 
from  the  Queen,  while  in  Sicily.  They  wait  until  he  comes  in,  and 
then  they  kiss.  When  at  Terracina,  Bergami  is  going  to  land;  the 
whole  party  are  on  deck;  the  Princess  and  Bergami  retire  to  a  cabin; 
but  they  patiently  wait  till  Majoochi  enters,  and  then  the  act  is  per- 
petrated. Sitting  on  a  gun  or  near  the  mast  of  the  ship,  on  the  knees 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  73 

of  the  paramour,  is  an  act  still  higher  in  the  scale  of  licentiousness. 
It  is  only  proved  scantily  by  one  witness;  but  of  that  hereafter.  Care 
is  taken  that  it  should  be  perpetrated  before  eleven  persons.  But 
sitting  upon  a  gun  with  the  arms  entwined,  is  such  an  act  as  leaves 
nothing  to  the  imagination,  except,  the  granting  of  the  last  favor — the 
full  accomplishment  of  the  purposes  of  desire — this  must  be  done  in 
the  presence  of  all  the  crew,  of  all  the  servants,  and  all  the  compa- 
nions, both  by  day  and  in  the  evening.  The  parties  might  be  alone 
at  night — then,  of  course,  it  is  not  done;  but  at  all  other  times  it  is 
done  before  all  the  passengers  and  all  the  crew. 

But  the  case  is  not  left  here.  As  your  lordships  might  easily  sup- 
pose, with  persons  so  wary  against  themselves — such  firm  and  useful 
allies  of  their  accusers— such  implacable  enemies  to  themselves — 
indisputable  proofs  of  the  case  against  them  are  not  wanting  to  prove 
the  last  favor  in  the  presence  of  good  witnesses;  and  accordingly, 
sleeping  together  is  not  only  said  to  have  taken  place  habitually, 
nightly  in  the  presence  of  all  the  company  and  all  the  passengers  on 
board,  but  always,  by  land  as  well  as  by  sea,  did  every  body  see  it, 
that  belonged  to  the  party  of  pilgrims  to  Jerusalem.  Nay,  so  far  is 
this  carried,  that  Bergarni  cannot  retire  into  the  anti-chamber  where 
the  Princess  is  to  change  her  clothes,  or  for  any  other  purpose,  without 
special  care  being  taken,  that  the  trusty,  silent,  honest,  unintriguing 
Swiss  waiting-maid  shall  be  placed  at  the  door  of  that  anti-room,  and 
told,  "  You  wait  here;  we  have  occasion  to  retire  for  an  hour  or  two, 
and  be  naked  together;"  or  at  least  she  is  at  liberty  to  draw  what 
inferences  she  pleases  from  the  fact. 

But,  my  lords,  I  wish  I  could  stop  here.  There  are  features  of 
peculiar  enormity  in  the  other  parts  of  this  case;  and  in  proportion  as 
these  disgusting  scenes,  are  of  a  nature  to  annoy  every  one,  however 
unconcerned  in  the  case,  who  hears  them;  to  disgust  and  almost  con- 
taminate the  mind  of  every  one  who  is  condemned  to  listen  to  them; 
in  that  proportion  is  especial  care  taken  that  they  shall  not  be  done  in 
a  corner.  The  place  for  them  is  not  chosen  in  the  hidden  recesses  of 
those  receptacles  of  abomination  with  which  the  continent  abounds, 
under  the  debased  and  vilified  name  of  palaces;  the  place  is  not  chosen 
in  the  hidden  haunts  which  lust  has  degraded  to  its  own  purposes, 
some  island  where  vice  concealed  itself  from  the  public  eye  of  ancient 
times;  it  is  not  in  those  palaces,  in  those  Capreas  of  old,  that  the 
parties  choose  to  commit  such  abominations;  but  they  do  it  before 
witnesses,  in  the  light  of  open  day,  when  the  sun  is  at  the  meridian. 
And  that  is  not  enough;  the  doing  those  deeds  of  unnatural  sin  in  the 
public  high-ways  is  not  enough;  but  they  must  have  a  courier  of  their 
own  to  witness  them,  without  the  veil  of  any  one  part  of  the  furniture 
of  a  carriage,  or  of  their  own  dress,  to  conceal  from  his  eye  their  dis- 
graceful situation!  My  lords,  I  ask  your  lordships  whether  vice  was 
ever  known  before  so  unwary;  whether  folly  was  ever  known  so 
extravagant;  whether  unthinking  passion,  even  in  the  most  youthful 
period,  when  the  passions  swell  high,  and  the  blood  boils  in  the  veins, 
was  ever  known  to  act  so  thoughtlessly,  so  recklessly,  so  madly,  as 
VOL.  i. — 7 


74  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

this  case  compels  me  to  fancy,  as  these  shameless  witnesses  pretend 
to  represent?  And  when  you  have  put  the  facts  to  your  minds,  let 
this  consideration  dwell  there,  and  let  it  operate  as  a  check  when  you 
come  to  examine  the  evidence  hy  which  the  case  is  supported. 

But  all  this  is  nothing.  Their  kindness  to  the  enemy — their  faith- 
fulness to  the  plot  against  themselves — their  determination  to  work 
their  own  ruin — would  be  left  short  indeed,  if  it  had  gone  no  further 
than  this;  for  it  would  then  depend  upon  the  good  fortune  of  their 
adversary  in  getting  hold  of  the  witnesses;  at  least  it  might  be  ques- 
tionable, whether  the  greater  part  of  their  precautions  for  their  own 
destruction  might  not  have  been  thrown  away.  Therefore,  every  one 
of  these  witnesses,  without  any  exception,  is  either  dismissed  without 
a  cause,  for  I  say  the  causes  are  mere  flimsiness  personified,  or  is 
refused  to  be  taken  back,  upon  his  earnest  and  humble  solicitations, 
when  there  was  every  human  inducement  to  restore  them  to  favor. 
Even  this  is  not  all.  Knowing  what  she  had  done;  recollecting  her 
own  contrivances;  aware  of  all  these  cunning  and  elaborate  devices 
towards  her  own  undoing;  having  before  her  eyes  the  picture  of  all 
those  schemes  to  render  detection  inevitable  and  concealment  impos- 
sible; reflecting  that  she  had  given  the  last  finishing  stroke  to  this 
conspiracy  of  her  own,  by  turning  off  these  witnesses  causelessly, 
and  putting  them  into  the  power  of  her  enemy;  knowing  that  that 
enemy  had  taken  advantage  of  her;  knowing  the  witnesses  were  here 
to  destroy  her,  and  told  that  if  she  faced  them  she  was  undone;  and 
desired,  and  counselled,  and  implored,  again  and  again,  to  bethink 
her  well  before  she  ran  so  enormous  a  risk:  the  Queen  comes  to 
England,  and  is  here,  on  this  spot,  and  confronts  those  witnesses 
whom  she  had  herself  enabled  to  undo  her.  Menaced  with  degra- 
dation and  divorce — knowing  it  was  not  an  empty  threat  that  was 
held  out — and  seeing  the  denunciation  was  about  to  be  accomplished 
— up  to  this  hour  she  refuses  all  endeavors  towards  a  compromise  of 
her  honor  and  her  rights;  she  refuses  a  magnificent  retreat  and  the 
opportunity  of  an  unrestrained  indulgence. in  all  her  criminal  propen- 
sities, and  even  a  safeguard  and  protection  from  the  court  of  England, 
and  a  vindication  of  her  honor  from  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament. 
If,  my  lords,  this  is  the  conduct  of  guilt;  if  these  are  the  lineaments 
by  which  vice  is  to  be  traced  in  the  human  frame;  if  these  are  the 
symptoms  of  that  worst  of  all  states,  dereliction  of  principle  carried 
to  excess,  when  it  almost  becomes  a  mental  disease;  then  I  have 
misread  human  nature;  then  I  have  weakly  and  groundlessly  come 
to  my  conclusion;  for  1  have  always  uu  lerstood  that  guilt  was  wary, 
and  innocence  alone  improvident. 

Attend  now,  my  lords,  I  beseech  you,  with  these  comments  upon 
the  general  features  of  the  case,  to  the  sort  of  evidence  by  which  all 
these  miracles,  these  self-contradictions,  these  impossibilities,  are 
attempted  to  be  established.  I  should  exhaust  myself,  besides  fatigu- 
ing your  lordships,  if  I  were  to  pause  here  and  make  a  few  of  the 
cogent  remarks  which  so  readily  offer  themselves,  upon  the  connec- 
tion of  that  part  of  the  case  which  I  have  now  gone  through,  with 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  75 

the  part  I  am  coming  to.  But  there  are  one  or  two  points  so  mate- 
rial, that  I  cannot  omit  all  mention  of  them  before  I  proceed  further. 
I  will  make  this  observation,  that  if  an  ordinary  case  could  not  be 
proved  by  such  evidence  as  I  am  now  to  comment  upon;  if  it  would 
require  very  different  proofs  in  the  most  common  story;  if  there  were 
even  none  of  the  improbabilities  which  I  have  shown — a  case,  such 
as  that  I  have  now  described,  ought  to  be  proved  by  the  most  con- 
vincing, the  most  pure,  the  most  immaculate  testimony. 

My  lords,  I  do  not  intend  to  assert,  I  have  no  interest  in  stating  it, 
that  a  conspiracy  has  been  forming  against  the  Queen,  by  those  who 
are  the  managers  of  the  present  proceeding.  I  say  not  such  a  thing. 
I  only  show  your  lordships,  that  if  there  had  been  such  a  measure 
resorted  to;  that  if  any  persons  had  been  minded  to  ruin  her  Majesty 
by  such  a  device:  they  could  not  have  taken  a  better  course,  and  pro- 
bably they  would  not  have  taken  a  different  course,  from  that  which 
I  think  the  case  of  the  prosecution  proves  them  already  to  have  pur- 
sued. In  any  such  design,  the  first  thing  to  be  looked  to  is  the  agents, 
who  are  to  make  attacks  against  the  domestic  peace  of  an  individual, 
and  to  produce  evidence  of  misconduct  which  never  took  place. 
Who  are  those  persons  I  am  fancying  to  exist,  if  their  existence  be 
conceivable — who  are  those  that  they  would  have  recourse  to,  to 
make  up  a  story  against  the  victim  of  their  spiteful  vengeance?  First 
of  all  they  would  get  the  servants  who  have  lived  in  the  house. 
Without  them,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  succeed:  with  them,  there  is 
the  most  brilliant  prospect  of  a  triumphant  result.  Servants  who 
have  lived  in  the  family  were,  in  fact,  all  that  could  be  desired.  But, 
if  those  servants  were  foreigners  who  were  to  be  well  tutored  in 
their  part  abroad,  and  had  to  deliver  their  story  where  they  were 
unknown,  to  be  brought  to  a  place  whither  they  might  never  return 
all  their  days,  and  to  speak  before  a  tribunal  who  knew  no  more  of 
them  than  they  cared  for  it;  whose  threat  they  had  no  reason  to 
dread,  whose  good  opinion  they  were  utterly  careless  of;  living  tem- 
porarily in  a  country  to  which  they  did  not  care  two  rushes  whether 
they  returned  or  not,  and  indeed  knew  they  never  could  return;  those 
were  the  identical  persons  such  conspirators  would  have  recourse  to. 
But,  there  is  a  choice  among  foreigners.  All  foreigners  are  not  made 
of  the  same  materials;  but,  if  any  one  country  under  heaven  is 
marked  out  more  than  all  the  rest  as  the  OJ/icina  gcntis  for  supply- 
ing such  a  race,  I  say  that  country  is  the  country  of  Augustus,  Clo- 
dius,  and  Borgia.  I  speak  of  its  perfidies,  without  imputing  them  to 
the  people  at  large;  but  there  in  all  ages  perfidy  could  be  had  for 
money,  while  there  was  interest  to  be  satisfied,  or  spite  to  bo  indulged. 

I  grant  that  there  are  in  Italy,  as  every  where  else,  most  respect- 
able individuals.  I  have  myself  the  happiness  of  knowing  many 
Italian  gentlemen  in  whose  hands  I  should  think  my  life  or  my  honor 
as  safe  as  in  the  hands  of  your  lordships.  But  I  speak  of  those  who 
have  not  been  brought  here,  when  I  make  this  favorable  admission. 
Those  who  have  been  brought  over  and  produced  at  your  bar,  are 
of  a  far  other  description: — "  Sunt  in  illo  numero  multi  boni,  docti, 


76  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

pudentes,  qni  ad  hoc  judicium  deducti  nou  sunt:  multi  irapudentes, 

iiliterati,  leves,  quos,  variis  de  causis,  video  concitatos.  Vernm  tamen 
hoc  dico  de  toto  genere  Grsecomm;  quibus  jusjurandum  jocus  est; 
testimonium  Indus;  existimatio  vestra  tenebrse;  laus,  merces,  gratia, 
gratulatio  proposita  est  omnis  in  impudent!  mendacio."  My  lords, 
persons  of  this  latter  description  were  to  be  gotten  by  various  means, 
which  the  carelessness  of  the  one  party,  which  the  wealth  and  power 
of  the  supposed  conspirators,  placed  within  their  reach.  Money, 
accordingly,  has  been  given,  with  a  liberality  unheard  of  in  any  other 
case,  even  of  conspiracy;  and  where,  by  some  marvel,  money  could 
not  operate,  power  has  been  called  in  to  its  aid. 

Having  thus  procured  their  agents;  having  thus  intrusted  them; 
how  were  they  to  be  marshalled  to  compass  the  common  design? 
Uniformity  of  statement  is  above  all  things  necessary  in  conspiracy. 
Accordingly,  they  are  taken,  one  by  one,  and  carefully  examined  be- 
fore one  and  the  same  person,  assisted  by  the  same  coadjutors  and 
even  the  same  clerks;  they  are  moved  in  bodies  along  the  country, 
by  even  the  same  couriers;  and  these  couriers  are  not  the  ordinary 
runners  of  the  Foreign  Office  of  a  country  which  shall  be  nameless, 
who  had  some  connection  with  the  spot,  but  special  messengers, 
whose  attention  is  devoted  peculiarly  to  this  department.  Many  of 
the  persons  intended  to  be  used  themselves  as  witnesses,  are  employ- 
ed as  messengers;  which  keeps  the  different  witnesses  in  the  duo 
recollection  of  their  lesson,  and  has  the  effect  of  encouraging  the  zeal 
of  those  witnesses,  by  giving  them  an  office,  an  interest  a  concern  in 
the  plot  that  is  going  on.  Observe,  then,  how  the  drilling  goes  on. 
It  is  not  done  in  a  day,  nor  in  a  week,  hardly  in  a  year:  but  it  extends 
over  a  long  space  of  time;  it  is  going  on  for  months  and  years.  The 
Board  is  sitting  at  Milan.  There  they  sit  at  the  receipt  of  perjury; 
there  they  carry  on  their  operations,  themselves  ignorant,  no  doubt, 
of  its  being  perjury;  but  then,  so  long  as  it  continues,  so  much  the 
more  likely  is  the  crop  of  gross  perjury  to  be  produced.  The  witnesses 
are  paid  for  their  evidence:  the  tale  is  propagated  by  the  person 
receiving  the  money  carrying  it  to  his  own  neighborhood:  and  he 
becomes  the  parent  of  a  thousand  tales,  to  be  equally  paid  as  they 
deserve;  and  of  which  one  is  as  false  as  the  other.  You  mark  the 
care  with  which  the  operation  is  conducted;  there  is  not  a  witness  (I 
mean  an  Italian  witness)  brought  to  this  country,  without  previously 
passing  through  the  Milan  drill;  because,  if  they  had  not  passed 
through  that  preparatory  discipline,  there  would  be  want  of  union 
and  agreement;  so  that  even  the  mate  of  the  polacca,  Paturzo,  who 
was  brought  here  to  be  examined  on  the  morning  after  his  arrival, 
was  brought  through  Milan,  and  passed  his  examination  before  the 
same  persons  who  had  taken  the  former  examinations.  Aye,  and  the 
captain  too,  who  was  examined  by  the  Board,  more  than  a  year  ago, 
is  carried  by  the  way  of  Milan,  to  have  a  conversation  with  his  old 
friends  there,  who  the  year  before  had  examined  him  to  the  same 
story.  Here,  then,  by  these  means  recruited — with  this  skill  mar- 
shalled, with  all  this  apparatus  and  preparation  made  ready  to  come  to 


QUEEN   CAROLINE.  77 

the  field  where  they  are  to  act — you  have  the  witnesses  safely  land- 
ed in  England;  and  in  order  that  they  may  be  removed  from  thence 
suddenly,  all  in  a  mass,  they  are  living  together  while  here;  then  they 
are  carried  over  to  Holland,  and  afterwards  returned  here;  and  finally 
deposited,  a  day  or  two  before  their  well-earned  sustenance  and  well- 
earned  money  require  them  to  appear  before  your  lordships.  They 
are  now  kept  together  in  masses;  formerly  they  lived  in  separate 
rooms;  it  was  necessary  not  to  bring  them  together  before;  but  those 
of  feeble  recollection  it  was  necessary  afterwards  to  keep  together, 
for  the  convenience  of  constant  mutual  communication.  There  they 
were,  communicating  to  each  other  their  experiences,  animated  by 
the  same  feelings  and  hopes,  prompted  by  the  same  motives  to  fur- 
ther the  same  common  cause.  But  not  only  this;  according  to  the 
parts  of  the  story  which  they  were  to  make  out  before  your  lordships, 
they  were  put  together.  There  are  two  Piedmontese:  they  did  not 
associate  together  in  this  contubcrnium,  (for  I  know  of  no  other 
name  by  which  to  denote  the  place  they  occupied,)  but  one  of  them 
kept  company  with  the  mate  and  captain  of  the  polacca,  because  lie 
tells  the  same  story  with  themselves.  It  is  needless  to  add,  that  they 
are  here  cooped  up  in  a  state  of  confinement;  here  they  are  without 
communicating  with  any  body  but  themselves,  ignorant  of  every 
thing  that  is  going  on  around  them,  and  brought  from  that  prison  by 
these  means,  in  order  to  tell  to  your  lordships  the  story  which  by  such 
means,  has  been  got  up  among  them. 

My  lords,  I  fear  I  may  appear  to  have  undervalued  the  character 
of  these  Italians.  Suffer  me,  then,  to  fortify  myself  upon  the  subject, 
by  saying,  that  I  am  not  the  person  who  has  formed  such  an  estimate 
of  the  lowest  orders  of  that  country.  And  perhaps  it  may  be  some 
assistance  to  your  lordships,  possibly  some  relief  from  the  tedium  of 
these  comments  on  the  character  of  the  evidence  in  support  of  the 
bill,  if  I  carry  you  back  to  a  former  period  of  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try, and  I  shall  take  care  not  to  choose  any  remote  period,  or  resort 
to  circumstances  very  dissimilar  from  those  which  mark  the  present 
day.  Your  lordships,  I  perceive,  anticipate  me.  I  naturally  go  back 
to  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  and  the  proceedings  against  Catharine 
of  Arragon.  And  I  shall  show  your  lordships  in  what  way  we  have 
a  right  to  view  Italian  testimony,  though  proceeding  from  sources 
calculated  to  beget  impressions  very  different  from  the  statements  of 
discarded  servants.  You  will  find  in  the  records  of  that  age,  in  Ry- 
mer's  Collection,  some  curious  documents  with  respect  to  the  process 
of  Henry  VIII.  The  great  object,  as  your  lordships  know,  was,  to 
procure  and  consult  the  opinions — the  free,  unbiassed  opinions — of 
the  Italian  jurists,  in  favor  of  his  divorce.  Rymer  gives  us  the  opin- 
ions of  the  professors  and  doctors  of  several  of  the  Italian  universities; 
and  from  them  you  will  sec  that,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  these  Docti 
gave  their  "  free,  unbiassed  opinions,"  in  nearly  the  same  words.  I 
shall  select  that  of  the  most  celebrated  city  of  the  whole,  which  is 
known  by  the  appellation  of  Hologna  the  Learned.  The  doctors  there 
say,  one  and  all,  that  in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  King,  they 

7* 


73  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

each  separately  and  unconnected  with  his  fellows,  had  examined  the 
case;  they  had  taken  all  the  care  which  your  lordships  are  taking 
on  the  present  occasion;  and  then,  having  well  weighed  the  matter, 
"  Censemus,  judicamus,  dicimus,  constantissime  testamur,  et  indubie 
affirmarnus,"  they  say,  that  having  sifted  the  question,  they  are  one 
and  all  of  opinion,  that  Henry  VIII  has  a  right  to  divorce  his  queen. 
But  it  seems  that,  from  the  great  similarity  of  the  opinions  of  the 
doctors,  and  of  the  language  in  which  these  were  expressed,  there 
existed  at  that  time  much  the  same  suspicion  of  a  previous  drilling, 
as  appears  to  have  prevailed  in  a  certain  other  case  which  I  shall  not 
now  mention;  and  that  to  repel  this  suspicion,  pretty  nearly  the  same 
precautions  were  used  as  in  the  other  case.  Indeed  by  a  singular  coin- 
cidence, these  Doctissimi  Doctores  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  di- 
rected to  swear,  which  they  might  do  with  a  safe  conscience,  that 
they  had  never  opened  their  mouths  to  one  another  on  the  subject,  in, 
the  same  manner  as  the  illiterati  et  impudentes  of  the  present  proceed- 
ing swore,  that  they  had  never  talked  to  one  another  on  the  subject 
of  what  each  had  to  swear.  The  doctors  and  divines  of  Italy  swore 
on  the  Holy  Gospel,  "  that  they  never  had,  directly  or  indirectly,  com- 
municated their  sentence,  or  any  word  or  thing  concerning  the  same, 
by  sign,  word,  deed,  or  hint,  until  a  certain  day;"  which  was  the  day 
they  all  came  to  understand  the  matter. 

Now,  my  lords,  all  this  appeared ^rz'wza  facie,  a  very  sound  and 
specious  case;  as  every  security  had  been  taken  to  guard  against  cap- 
tious objections;  and  with  that  character  it  would  probably  have  passed 
down  to  posterity,  if  there  had  been  no  such  thing  as  a  good  historian 
and  honest  man,  in  the  person  of  Bishop  Burnet;  and  he,  with  his 
usual  innocence,  being  a  great  advocate  of  Harry  VI II,  in  consequence 
of  his  exertions  in  support  of  the  Reformation,  tells  the  tale  in  the  way 
which  I  am  now  going  to  state;  still  leaning  towards  that  king,  but 
undoubtedly  letting  out  a  little  that  is  rather  against  himself.  Harry 
first  provided  himself  with  an  able  agent;  and  it  was  necessary  that  he 
should  also  be  a  learned  one.  He  took  one,  then,  to  whom  my  learned 
friend,  the  Solicitor-general's  eulogium  on  the  head  of  the  Milan  com- 
mission, would  apply  in  some  of  the  words;  a  man  of  great  probity, 
and  singularly  skilled  in  the  laws  of  his  country;  and,  by  a  still  more 
curious  coincidence,  the  name  of  Harry's  agent  happened  to  be  Cooke. 
"  He  went  up  and  down,"  says  Burnet,  "  procuring  hands;  and  he 
told  them  he  came  to,  that  he  desired  they  would  write  their  conclu- 
sions, according  to  learning  and  conscience,"  [as  I  hope  has  been  done 
at  Milan,]  "  without  any  respect  or  favor,  as  they  would  answer  it  at 
the  last  day;  and  he  protested,"  [just  as  I  have  heard  some  other  per- 
sons do,]  "  that  he  never  gave  nor  promised  any  divine  anything,  till 
he  had  first  freely  written  his  mind;"  and  he  says,  that  "  what  he  then 
gave,  was  rather  an  honorable  present  than  a  reward;"  a  compensation, 
not  a  recompense,  (to  use  the  language  of  a  right  reverend  interpreter.)* 

*  Bishop  Marsh,  being  a  great  Germanic  scholar,  aided  the  House  in  explaining 
this  distinction  taken  by  some  witnesses. 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  79 

These  were  the  very  words  used  in  that  country  at  that  time,  as  they 
have  been  recently  in  this. 

Then,  we  have  a  letter  from  this  agent,  as  who  knows  two  hun- 
dred years  hence,  there  may  not  be  letters  from  Milan?  There  is 
extant  a  letter  of  Cooke's  to" Henry  VIII,  dated  the  1st  of  July  1530, 
in  which  he  says,  "  My  fidelity  bindeth  me  to  advantage  your  high- 
ness, that  all  Lutherans  be  utterly  against  yonr  highness  in  this  cause, 
and  have  told  as  much,  with  their  wrelched  power,  malice  without 
reason  or  authority,  as  they  could  and  might;  but  I  doubt  not,"  says 
he,  "that  all  Christian  universities,"  (Christian  contradistinguished 
from  Lutheran!)  "  that  all  Christian  ministers,  if  they  be  well  handled, 
will  earnestly  conclude  with  yonr  highness.  Albeit,  gracious  lord," 
now  comes  he  to  expound  what  he  means  by  the  well-handling  of  the 
Christian  universities;  "  albeit,  gracious  lord,  if  that  I  had  in  time  been 
sufficiently  furnished  with  money;  albeit,  I  have,  beside  this  seal,  pro- 
cured unto  yonr  highness  110  subscriptions;  yet,  it  had  been  nothing, 
in  comparison  of  that  that  I  might  easily  and  would  have  done.  And 
herein  I  inclose  a  bill  specifying  by  whom  and  to  whom  I  directed  my 
said  letters,  in  most  humble  wise  beseeching  your  most  royal  clemency 
to  ponder  my  true  love  and  good  endeavoring,  and  not  sutler  me  to 
be  destitute  of  money,  to  my  undoing,  and  the  utter  loss  of  your  most 
high  causes  here."  Now  this,  my  lords,  undoubtedly  is  the  outward 
history  of  the  transaction;  but  we  have  only  seen  the  accounts  of  Bishop 
Burnet  and  of  the  agent  Cooke.  Happily,  however,  the  Italian  agent 
employed  by  Henry  VIII,  one  Peter  a  Ghinnuciis,  the  Vimercati  of 
that  day,  left  his  papers  behind  him,  and  we  are  furnished  with  the 
original  tariff,  by  which  the  value  of  the  opinions  of  these  Italian  doc- 
tors and  divines  was  estimated.  "Item,  to  a  Servate  friar,  when  he 
subscribed,  one  crown;  to  a  Jew,  one  crown;  to  the  doctor  of  the  Ser- 
vites,  two  crowns;  to  the  observant  friars,  two  crowns;  Item,  to  the 
prior  of  St.  John's  and  St.  Paul's  who  wrote  for  the  king's  cause,  fif- 
teen crowns,"  the  author  was  better  paid  than  the  advocate,  as  often 
happens  in  better  times.  "Item,  given  to  John  Maira,  for  his  expense 
of  going  to  Milan,  and  for  rewarding  the  doctors  there,  thirty  crowns." 
There  is  a  letter  also  from  the  bishop  of  Worcester  to  Cooke,  directing 
that  lie  should  not  promise  rewards,  "  except  to  them  that  lived  by 
them,  to  the  canonists  who  did  not  use  to  give  their  opinions  without 
a  fee."  The  others  he  might  get  cheaper,  those  he  must  open  his 
hand  to;  because,  he  says,  the  canonists,  the  civilians,  did  not  use  to 
give  an  opinion  without  a  fee.  Bishop  Burnet,  with  the  native  sim- 
plicity and  honesty  of  his  character,  sums  up  all  this  with  remarking, 
that  these  Italian  doctors  "  must  have  had  very  prostituted  consciences, 
when  they  could  be  hired  so  cheap.  It  is  true  that  Cooke,  in  many 
of  his  letters,  says,  that  if  he  had  had  money  enough,  he  could  get  the 
hands  of  all  the  divines  in  Italy;  for  he  found  the  greatest  part  of  them 
were  mercenary." 

My  lords,  the  descendants  of  those  divines  and  doctors,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  have  rather  improved  than  backslidden  from  the  virtues  of 
their  ancestors;  and,  accordingly,  I  trust  your  lordships  will  permit  me 


80  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

to  bring  the  tale  down  to  the  present  day,  and  to  connect  the  present 
proceeding  with  the  divorce  of  Harry  the  Eighth's  time.  I  trust  your 
lordships  will  allow  me  to  read  to  you  the  testimony,  given  in  the 
year  1792.  of  a  native  of  Italy,  of  distinguished  family,  who  was  em- 
ployed in  a  diplomatic  character,  by  an  august  individual,  who  was 
near  being  the  victim  of  an  Italian  conspiracy:  he  published  a  letter, 
and  it  is  evidence,  I  say,  because  it  was  published  before  the  whole 
Italian  nation  in  their  own  tongue,  and  it  states  what  Italian  evidence 
is  made  of;  and  he  addressed  it,  with  his  name,  to  the  prime  minister 
of  the  country,  that  minister  enjoying  the  highest  civil  and  military 
authority  there,  and  being  by  descent  a  subject  of  the  British  crown — 
I  mean  General  Acton.  "  To  the  dishonor  of  human  nature,"  says 
the  writer,  "  there  is  nothing  at  Naples  so  notorious  as  the  free  and 
public  sale  of  false  evidence.  Their  ordinary  tariff  is  three  or  four 
ducats,  according  to  the  necessities  of  those  wh  >  sell,  and  the  occasions 
of  those  who  buy  it.  If,  then,  you  would  support  a  suit,  alter  a  will, 
or  forge  a  hand-writing, you  have  only  to  castaway  remorse  and  open 
your  purse,  the  shop  of  perjury  is  ever  open  "  It  poured  in  upon  him 
in  a  full  tide:  he  made  his  appeal  in  such  words  as  I  have  now  read: 
he  and  his  royal  master,  who  was  implicated  in  the  charge,  were  ac- 
quitted by  such  an  appeal;  and  I  now  repeal  it,  when  such  evidence 
is  brought  to  support  charges  as  atrocious,  as  ruinous,  and  far  more 
incredible  in  themselves,  than  that  an  Italian  should  have  suborned  an 
agent  to  injure  a  fellow-creature. 

My  lords,  I  have  been  drawn  aside  from  the  observations  I  was 
making,  generally,  of  the  manner  in  which  this  case  has  been  prepared. 
I  pray  your  lordships  to  observe  how  these  witnesses  all  act  after  they 
come  into  court;  and  the  first  thing  that  must  strike  an  observer  here, 
is  the  way  in  which  they  mend  their  evidence — how  one  improves 
upon  the  other  after  an  interval  of  time — and  how  each  improves, 
when  required,  upon  himself.  I  can  only  proceed,  my  lords,  in  dealing 
with  this  subject  of  conspiracy  and  false  swearing,  by  sample:  but  I 
will  take  the  one  that  first  strikes  me;  and  I  think  it  will  effectually 
illustrate  my  proposition.  Your  lordships  must  remember  the  manner 
in  which  my  learned  friend,  the  Attorney-general,  opened  the  case  of 
Mahomet,  the  dancer.  Again,  I  take  his  own  words:  "  A  man  of  the 
most  brutal  and  depraved  habits,  who  at  the  Villa  d'Este  exhibited 
the  greatest  indecencies  at  various  times,  in  the  presence  of  her  Ma- 
jesty and  Bergami — exhibitions  which  are  too  disgusting  to  be  more 
than  alluded  to — the  most  indecent  attempts  to  imitate  the  sexual  in- 
tercourse. This  person  deserves  not  the  name  of  a  man,"  said  the 
Attorney-general.  Now,  my  lords,  I  take  this  instance,  because  it 
proves  the  proposition  which  I  was  stating  to  your  lordships,  better, 
perhaps,  than  any  other.  All  show  it,  to  a  degree;  but  this,  best  of  all; 
because  I  have  shown  your  lordships  how  careful  the  Attorney-gen- 
eral is  in  opening  the  case,  and  how  strong  his  expressions  are;  con- 
sequently, he  felt  the  importance  of  this  fact;  he  was  aware  how 
damaging  it  would  be  to  the  Queen;  he  knew  it  was  important  to 
state  this,  and  he  felt  determined  not  to  be  disappointed  when  he  had 


QUEEN   CAROLINE.  81 

once  and  again  failed — he  brought  three  witnesses;  and  if  one  would 
not  swear  the  first  time,  he  brought  him  again.  Now,  my  lords,  if  I 
show  the  symptoms  of  mending  and  patching  in  one  part  of  such  a 
case,  it  operates  as  volumes  against  the  whole  of  that  case;  if  your 
lordships  find  it  here,  you  may  guess  it  is  not  wanting  elsewhere. — 
But  here  it  is  most  manifestly  to  be  seen.  Your  lordships  plainly  per- 
ceived what  it  was  that  these  witnesses  were  intended  and  expected 
to  say.  You  no  sooner  heard  the  first  question  put — you  no  sooner 
heard  the  grossly  leading  questions  with  which  the  Solicitor-general 
followed  it — than  you  must  have  known  it  was  expected  that  an  in- 
decent act  would  be  sworn  to — that  an  exhibition  would  be  sworn  to 
of  the  most  gross  and  indecent  description;  and  one  part  of  the  evidence 
I  can  hardly  recount  to  your  lordships.  Now  see,  my  lords,  how  the 
first  witness  swore;  this  is  their  first  and  main  witness,  who  is  brought 
to  prove  their  whole  case — Majocchi.  He  will  only  allow — and  this 
is  the  first  stage  in  which  this  deity  of  theirs  is  brought  before  your 
lordships  — he  will  only  allow  it  was  a  dance.  "  Did  you  observe  any 
thing  else?"  the  usual  answer,  "  Noil  mi  ricordo;"  but  "  if  there  was, 
I  have  not  seen  it,"  and  l<  I  do  not  know."  Was  any  thing  done  by 
Mahomet,  upon  that  occasion,  with  any  part  of  his  dress?"  says  the 
Solicitor-general,  evidently  speaking  from  what  he  had  before  him 
written  down;  "  He  made  use  of  the  linen  of  his  large  pantaloons." 
How  did  he  use  his  trowsers?  Did  he  do  any  thing  with  the  linen  of 
his  pantaloons  or  trowsers?" — "  His  trowsers  were  always  in  the  same 
state  as  usual."  Here,  then,  was  a  complete  failure — no  shadow  of 
proof  of  those  mysteries  which  this  witness  was  expected  to  divulge. 
This  was  when  he  was  examined  on  the  Tuesday.  On  the  Friday, 
with  the  interval  of  two  days — and  your  lordships,  for  reasons  best 
known  to  yourselves,  but  which  must  have  been  bottomed  in  justice 
guided  by  wisdom — wisdom  never  more  seen  or  better  evidenced  than 
in  varying  the  course  of  conduct,  and  adapting  to  now  circumstances 
the  actions  we  perform — wisdom  which  will  not,  if  it  be  perfect  in  its 
kind,  and  absolute  in  its  degree,  ever  sustain  any  loss  by  the  devia- 
tion— for  this  reason  alone,  in  order  that  injustice  might  not  be  done, 
(for  what,  in  one  case,  may  be  injurious  to  a  defendant,  may  be  ex- 
pected mainly  to  assist  a  defendant  in  another) — your  lordships,  not 
with  a  view  to  injure  the  Queen — your  lordships,  with  a  view  to  fur- 
ther not  to  frustrate,  the  ends  of  justice — allowed  the  evidence  to  be 
printed,  which  afforded  to  the  witnesses,  if  they  wished  it,  means  to 
mend  and  improve  upon  their  testimony.  Your  lordships  allowed 
this,  solely  with  the  intention  of  gaining  for  the  Queen  that  unanimous 
verdict,  which  the  country  has  pronounced  in  her  favor,  by  looking 
at  the  case,  against  her;  your  lordships,  however,  whatever  might  be 
your  motive,  did,  in  point  of  fact,  allow  all  the  evidence  against  her 
to  he  published  from  day  to  day.  Accordingly,  about  two  days  inter- 
vened between  Majocchi's  evidence,  and  the  evidence  of  Uirollo;  dur- 
ing which  lime,  Dirollo  had  access  to  Majocchi's  deposition,  as  well  as 
to  his  person;  and  it  is  no  little  assistance,  if  we  have  not  only  access 
to  the  witness  but  to  his  testimony;  because  he  may  forget  what  ho 


83  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

has  sworn,  and  it  is  something  that  he  himself,  as  well  as  the  second, 
the  following,  the  mending,  the  patching  witness,  should  see  the  story 
first  told.  Accordingly,  with  the  facility  which  this  gave  him,  forward 
Birollo  comes,  after  two  days'  interval,  and  improves  upon  the  story; 
from  a  dance,  and  from  the  usual  handling,  or  ordinary  use  of  the 
trowsers,  he  first  makes  a  rotulo  or  roll.  The  witness  then  begins  to 
hint  at  some  indecency;  but  he  does  not  mention  it.  He  starts  and 
draws  back.  For  my  part  I  cannot  tell  what  he  meant;  and  he  really 
adds  something,  which  lie,  in  his  awn  wicked  imagination,  might  think 
indecent,  but  he  is  forced  to  admit  he  does  not  know  what  it  meant. 
But,  on  the  Wednesday  following,  a  third  witness  comes,  the  second 
of  the  patchers,  and  he  finishes  it  altogether.  He  improves  even  upon 
Birollo;  and  he  tells  you,  in  plain,  downright  terms,  that  which  I  have 
a  right  to  say  is,  because  I  can  prove  it  to  be,  false — which  I  have  a 
right  to  say,  before  proving  it,  is  false;  because  I  know  the  same  dance 
was  witnessed  by  wives  and  daughters,  as  modest  and  pure  as  any  of 
your  lordships  have  the  happiness  of  possessing — by  wives  and  daugh- 
ters of  your  lordships  in  those  countries. 

Now,  another  improvement,  and  mending,  and  patching,  suffer  me, 
my  lords,  to  advert  to;  for  it  runs  through  he  whole  case.  I  do  not 
even  stop  to  offer  any  comment  upon  the  non  mi  ricordovf  Majocchi; 
nor  on  the  extraordinary  fact  of  that  answer  being  regularly  dropped 
by  the  other  witnesses,  as  soon  as  the  impression  which  the  repetition 
had  made  on  the  public  mind  was  fully  understood;  but  I  wish  to 
call  your  lordships'  attention  to  the  more  important  point  of  money. 
No  sooner  had  Gargiuolo  the  captain,  and  Paturzo  the  mate  of  the 
polacca,  proved  that  they  were  brought  here  by  sums  so  dispropor- 
tioned  to  the  service,  by  sums  so  infinitely  beyond  the  most  ample 
remuneration  for  their  work;  that  they  were  bribed  by  sums  such  as 
Italians  in  their  situation  never  dreamed  of — no  sooner  had  this  fact 
dropped  out,  than  one  arid  all  of  them  are  turned  into  disinterested 
witnesses,  not  one  of  whom  ever  received  a  shilling  by  way  of  com- 
pensation for  what  they  did.  "  Half-a-crown  a  day  for  the  loss  of 
my  time  my  travelling  expenses  and  a  few  stivers  to  feed  my  family!" 
The  expectation  of  his  expenses  being  paid,  began  in  the  instance  of 
of  the  cook,  Birollo,  He  told  you  he  had  nothing  at  all  but  his 
trouble  for  coming  here.  "  Do  you  expect  nothing?" — "  I  hope  to 
go  soon  home  to  find  my  master."  The  cook  at  first  was  offered  and 
refused  money.  The  others  had  nothing  offered;  Demont  nothing! 
Sacchi  nothing!  though  true,  he,  a  courier,  turns  out  to  be  a  man  of 
large  property,  and  says,  "  thank  God!  I  have  always  been  in  easy 
circumstances;" — thank  God!  with  a  pious  gratitude  truly  edifying. 
A  man  who  must  have  a  servant  of  his  own — who  had  one  in  Eng- 
land— who  must  live  here  at  the  expense  of  four  or  five  hundred 
pounds  a  year,  which  is  equal  to  fourteen  or  fifteen  hundred  in  Italy 
— goes  to  be  a  courier,  is  angry  at  being  turned  off,  and  is  anxious 
to  return  to  that  situation!  I  believe  the  captain  and  the  mate.  They 
avowed  that  what  they  had  was  enormous  payment;  and  the  other 
witnesses,  hearing  of  the  effect  of  that  confession,  have  one  and  all 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  83 

denied  having  received  any  tiling,  and  would  not  even  confess  (hat 
they  had  any  expectations  for  the  fun  ire. 

The  last  of  these  general  observations  with  which  I  shall  trouble 
your  lordships,  and  which  I  own  I  think  your  lordships  must  have 
been  impatient  I  should  come  to,  regards  the  great  blanks  among  the 
witnesses  for  the  prosecution  —  I  mean  the  fewness  of  those  witnesses 
compared  with  whattl>eir  own  testimony,  and  their  own  statement  that 
introduced  it  show  your  lordships  the  advocates  of  the  Bill  ought  to 
have  called.  My  lords,  I  conjure  you  to  attend  to  this  circumstance, 
for  it  is  a  most  important  point  in  the  whole  of  the  case.  I  say,  that 
if  I  had  not  another  argument  to  urge  I  should  stand  confidently 
upon  this  ground.  If  the  case  were  as  ordinary  as  it  is  extravagant 
— if  it  were  as  probable  as  it  is  loaded  in  every  feature  with  the  gross- 
est improbabilities — if  it  were  as  much  in  the  common  course  of 
human  events,  that  such  occurrences  as  those  which  have  been  alleged 
should  have  happened,  as  it  is  the  very  reverse— I  should  still  stand 
confidently  and  firmly  upon  that  part  of  the  case  to  which  I  have 
now  happily  arrived.  I  know,  my  lords,  that  it  is  bold;  I  know 
that  it  is  bold  even  to  rashness,  to  say  so  much  of  any  point  before  I 
have  begun  even  to  hint  at  it;  but  I  feel  so  perfectly,  so  intimately 
convinced,  that  in  such  a  case  as  the  present,  the  circumstances  to 
which  I  refer  ought  to  be  fatal  to  the  Bill  before  your  lordships,  that 
I  consider  myself  as  even  acting  prudently,  in  declaring,  by  anticipa- 
tion, what  I  hold  to  be  its  character. 

My  lords,  the  Attorney-general  told  us  that  there  were  rumors  at 
Naples  pointing  to  reasons  why  the  Queen's  ladies  left  her;  it  turned 
out,  that  instead  of  leaving  her,  one  had  joined  her  at  Naples,  one 
had  joined  her  at  Leghorn,  and  another  at  Genoa,  afterwards;  but 
my  learned  friend  said,  that  one  left  her,  and  one  or  two  others 
stayed  behind,  and  rumors  were  not  wanting  that  their  doing  so  was 
owing  to  the  impropriety  of  her  Majesty's  conduct.  Humors!  My 
learned  friend  may  say,  that  these  were  rumors  which  he  was  unable 
to  prove.  But  if  they  were  rumors  which  had  any  foundation  what- 
ever; if  they  were  such  rumors  as  my  learned  friend  had  a  right  to 
allude  to,  (even  if  he  had  a  right  to  refer  to  rumor  at  all,  which  I 
deny);  if  there  was  a  shadow  of  foundation  for  those  rumors;  why 
did  he  not  call  the  obvious  witnesses  to  prove  it?  Where  were  those 
ladies,  women  of  high  rank  and  elevated  station  in  society,  well- 
known  in  their  own  country,  loved,  esteemed,  and  respected,  as  wo- 
men upon  whoso  character  not  a  vestige  of  imputation  has  ever 
rested — women  of  talents  as  well  as  character — the  very  persons  to 
have  brought  forward,  if  he  had  dared  to  bring  them  forward — why 
were  all  of  these  kept  back,  each  of  whom  formed  the  very  signal,  and 
I  had  almost  said  extravagant,  contrast  to  all  the  witnesses,  but  two, 
whom  my  learned  friend  did  venture  to  call  to  your  lordships'  bar? 
Why  were  those  noble  ladies  not  produced  to  your  lordships?  Why 
had  not  your  lordships,  why  had  not  we,  the  benefit  of  having  the 
case  proved  against  us  in  the  manner  in  which  any  judge  sitting  at 
the  Old  Bailey  would  command,  upon  pain  of  an  acquittal,  any  prose- 


84  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

cuter  to  prove  his  charge  against  an  ordinary  felon?  Certainly  they 
were  in  onr  employment;  they  were  in  some  way  connected  with  our 
interest;  they  received  salaries  from  the  Queen,  and  might  be  sup- 
posed to  be  amicably  disposed  towards  her.  My  lords,  is  there  in  all 
that  the  shadow  of  a  shade  of  a  reason  why  they  should  not  have 
been  adduced?  I  am  not  speaking  in  a  civil  action.  I  am  not  deal- 
ing with  a  plaintiff's  case,  in  a  suit  upon  a  bill  of  exchange  for 
twenty  pounds.  I  am  not  even  speaking  in  a  case  of  misdemeanor, 
or  a  case  of  felony,  or  the  highest  crime  known  in  the  law,  between 
which  and  the  act  alleged  to  have  been  committed  by  my  illustrious 
client  it  is  difficult  to  draw  even  a  technical  distinction.  But  I  stand 
here  on  a  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties,  which  your  lordships  are  not 
bound  to  pass;  which  you  may  give  the  go-by  to;  which  you  are  not 
bound  to  say  aye  or  no  to.  Your  lordships  are  not  sitting  as  commis- 
sioners of  Oyer  and  Terminer  to  try  a  case  of  high  treason.  Gracious 
God!  is  this  a  case  in  which  the  prosecutor  is  to  be  allowed  to  bring 
forward  half  a  case?  Is  this  an  occasion  on  which  the  prosecutor  is 
to  be  allowed  to  say,  "  These  witnesses  I  will  not  call.  True  it  is, 
that  they  are  respectable;  and  that  they  are  unimpeachable,  no  man 
can  deny.  If  they  swear  against  the  Queen  she  is  utterly  undone. 
But  I  will  not  call  them.  I  will  leave  them  for  you  to  call.  They 
are  not  my  witnesses,  but  yours.  You  may  call  them.  They  corne 
from  your  vicinity.  They  are  not  tenants  of  the  Cotton  Garden,  and 
therefore  I  dare  not,  I  will  not  produce  them;  but  when  you  call 
them,  we  shall  see  what  they  state;  and  if  you  do  not  call  them'-' — 
in  the  name  of  justice,  what?  Say! — Say! — For  shame  in  this  temple 
— this  highest  temple  of  Justice,  to  have  her  most  sacred  rules  so  pro- 
faned, that  I  am  to  be  condemned  in  the  plenitude  of  proof,  if  guilt 
is;  that  I  am  to  be  condemned  unless  I  run  counter  to  the  presump- 
tion which  bears  sway  in  all  courts  of  justice,  that  I  am  innocent  un- 
til I  am  proved  guilty;  and  that  my  case  is  to  be  considered  as  utterly 
ruined,  unless  I  call  my  adversary's  witnesses! — Oh  most  monstrous! 
— most  incredible! — My  lords,  rny  lords!  if  you  mean  ever  to  show 
the  face  of  those  symbols  by  which  Justice  is  known  to  your  country, 
without  making  them  stand  an  eternal  condemnation  of  yourselves,  I 
call  upon  you  instantly  to  dismiss  this  case,  and  for  this  single  reason; 
and  I  will  say  not  another  word  upon  the  subject. 

Having  gone  over  the  features  of  this  portentous  case,  I  am  now  to 
solicit  the  attention  of  your  lordships,  and  I  am  afraid  at  greater  length 
than  any  thing  could  justify  but  the  unparalleled  importance  of  the 
occasion,  to  a  consideration  more  in  detail,  of  the  evidence  by  which 
it  has  been  supported.  And  in  point  of  time  as  indeed  of  importance, 
the  first  figure  that  was  presented  to  your  lordships  in  the  group, 
must  naturally  have  arisen  to  your  recollection  the  moment  I  an- 
nounced my  intention  of  touching  upon  the  merits  of  the  different 
witnesses — I  mean  Theodore  Majocchi,  of  happy  memory,  who  will 
be  long  known  in  this  country,  and  every  where  else,  much  after  the 
manner  in  which  ancient  sages  have  reached  our  day,  whose  names 
are  lost  in  the  celebrity  of  the  little  saying  by  which  each  is  now  dis- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  85 

tinguished  by  mankind,  and  in  which  they  were  known  to  have  em- 
bodied the  practical  result  of  their  own  experience  and  wisdom;  and, 
as  long  as  those  words  which  he  so  often  used  in  the  practice  of  that 
art  and  skill  which  he  had  acquired  by  long  experience  and  much 
care — as  long  as  those  words  shall  be  known  among  men,  the  image 
of  Majocchi,  without  naming  him  will  arise  to  their  remembrance. 
My  lords,  this  person  is  a  witness  of  great  importance;  he  was  the 
first  called,  and  the  latest  examined;  beginning  with  the  case  continu- 
ing by  it,  and  accompanying  it  throughout.  His  evidence  almost 
extended  over  the  whole  of  the  period  through  which  the  case  and 
the  charge  itself  extends.  If  indeed  you  believe  him,  he  was  only 
dismissed  or  rather  retired  from  the  Queen's  service  and  refused  to 
be  taken  back,  about  the  time  when  the  transactions  in  the  charge 
closed.  He  and  Demont  stand  aloof  from  the  rest  of  the  witnesses, 
and  resemble  each  other  in  this  particular,  that  they  go  through  the 
whole  case.  They  are,  indeed,  the  great  witnesses  to  prove  it;  they 
are  emphatically  the  witnesses  for  the  Bill,  the  others  being  confirma- 
tory only  of  them;  but,  as  willing  witnesses  are  wont  to  do — as 
those  who  have  received  much  and  been  promised  more,  may  be 
expected  to  do — they  were  zealous  on  behalf  of  their  employers,  and 
did  not  stop  short  of  the  two  main  witnesses,  but  they  each  carried 
the  case  a  great  deal  further.  This  is  generally,  with  a  view  to  their 
relative  importance,  the  character  of  all  the  witnesses. 

Now,  only  let  me  entreat  your  lordships'  attention,  while  I  enter 
on  this  branch  of  the  subject  a  little  more  in  detail.  I  have  often 
heard  it  remarked,  that  the  great  prevailing  feature  of  Majocchi's 
evidence — his  want  of  recollection — signifies,  in  truth,  but  little; 
because  a  man  may  forget — memories  differ.  I  grant  that  they  do. 
Memory  differs,  as  well  as  honesty,  in  man.  I  do  not  deny  that. 
But  I  think  I  shall  succeed  in  showing  your  lordships,  that  there  is  a 
sort  of  memory  which  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  any  degree  of 
honesty  in  any  man,  which  I  can  figure  to  myself.  But  why  do  I 
talk  of  fancy?  for  I  have  only  to  recollect  Majocchi;  and  I  know 
cases,  in  which  I  defy  the  wit  of  man  to  conceive  stronger  or  more 
palpable  instances  of  false  swearing,  than  may  be  conveyed  to  the 
hearers  and  to  the  court  in  the  remarkable  words,  "  Non  mi  ricordo 
— I  do  not  remember."  I  will  not  detain  your  lordships,  by  pointing 
out  cases,  where  the  answer,  "  I  do  not  remember,"  would  be  inno- 
cent, where  it  might  be  meritorious,  where  it  might  be  confirmatory  of 
his  evidence,  and  a  support  to  his  credit.  Neither  need  I  adduce 
cases  where  such  an  answer  would  be  the  reverse  of  this — where  it 
would  be  destructive  to  his  credit,  and  the  utter  demolition  of  his 
testimony.  I  will  not  quote  any  of  those  cases.  I  shall  content  my- 
self with  taking  the  evidence  of  Majocchi  as  it  stands;  for  if  I  had 
been  lecturing  on  evidence,  I  should  have  said,  as  the  innocent  for- 
getfulness  is  familiar  to  every  man,  so  is  the  guilty  forgetfulness;  and 
in  giving  an  instance,  I  should  just  have  found  it  all  in  Majocchi's 
actual  evidence. 

At  once,  then,  to  give  your  lordships  proof  positive  that  this  man 
VOL.  i. — 8 


86  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

is  perjured — proof  which  I  shall  show  to  be  positive,  from  his  mode 
of  forgetting. — In  the  first  place,  I  beg  your  lordships'  attention  to 
the  way  in  which  this  witness  swore  hardily  in  chief,  eke  as  hardily 
in  cross-examination,  to  the  position  of  the  rooms  of  her  Majesty  and 
Bergami.  The  great  object  of  the  Attorney-general,  as  shown  by 
his  opening,  was  that  for  which  the  previous  concoction  of  this  plan 
by  these  witnesses  had  prepared  him;  namely,  to  prove  the  position 
of  the  Queen's  and  Bergami's  rooms  always  to  have  been  favorable 
to  the  commission  of  adultery,  by  showing  that  they  were  near,  and 
had  a  mutual  communication;  whereas,  the  rooms  of  all  the  rest  of 
the  suite  were  distant  and  cut  off;  and  the  second  part  of  that  state- 
ment was  just  as  essential  as  the  first,  to  make  it  the  foundation  of 
an  inference  of  guilt,  which  it  was  meant  to  support.  Accordingly, 
the  first  witness  who  was  to  go  over  their  whole  case,  appears  to  have 
been  better  prepared  on  this  point,  than  any  ten  that  followed;  he 
showed  more  memory  of  inferences — more  forgeifulness  of  details — 
perfect  recollection  to  attack  the  Queen — utter  forgetfulness  to  protect 
himself  from  the  sifting  of  a  cross-examination.  "Where  did  the 
Queen  and  Bergami  sleep?" — "  Her  Majesty  slept  in  an  apartment 
near  that  of  Bergami."  "  Were  those  apartments  near  or  remote?" 
for  it  was  often  so  good  a  thing  to  get  them  near  and  communicating 
with  each  other,  that  it  was  press.ed  again  and  again.  "  Where  were 
the  rest  of  the  suite;  were  they  distant  or  near?"  says  the  Solicitor- 
general.  This  was  at  Naples;  and  this  is  a  specimen  of  the  rest — 
for  more  was  made  of  that  proximity  at  Naples  than  any  where  else 
— "Were  they  near  or  distant?" — "  They  were  apart."  The  word 
in  Italian  was  lontano,  which  was  interpreted  "  apart."  I  remarked, 
however,  at  the  time,  that  it  meant  "distant,"  and  distant  it  meant, 
or  it  meant  nothing.  Here,  then,  the  witness  had  sworn  distinctly, 
from  his  positive  recollection,  and  had  staked  his  credit  on  the  truth 
of  a  fact,  and  also  of  his  recollection  of  it — upon  this  fact,  whether 
or  not  the  Queen's  room  was  near  Bergami's,  with  a  communication? 
But  no  less  had  he  put  his  credit  upon  this  other  branch  of  his  state- 
ment, essential  to  the  first,  in  order  to  make  both  combined  the  found- 
ation of  a  charge  of  criminal  intercourse,  "that  the  rest  of  the  suite 
were  lodged  apart  a;;d  distant."  There  is  an  end,  then,  of  innocent 
forgetfulness,  if,  when  I  come  to  ask  where  the  rest  slept,  he  either 
tells  me,  "I  do  not  know,"  or  "  I  do  not  recollect;"  because  he  had 
known  and  must  have  recollected,  that  when  he  presumed  to  say  to 
my  learned  friends,  these  two  rooms  were  alone  of  all  the  apartments 
near  and  connected,  that  the  others  were  distant  and  apart;  when  he 
said  that,  he  affirmed  at  once  his  recollection  of  the  proximity  of  those 
rooms  and  his  recollection  of  the  remoteness  of  the  others.  He  swore 
that  at  first,  and  afterwards  said,  "  I  know  not,"  or  "  I  recollect  not," 
and  perjured  himself  as  plainly  as  if  he  had  told  your  lordships  one 
day  that  he  saw  a  person,  and  the  next  said  he  never  saw  him  in  his 
life;  the  one  is  not  a  more  gross  or  diametrical  contradiction  than 
the  other.  Trace  him,  my  lords,  in  his  recollection  and  forgetfulness 
— observe  where  he  remembers  and  where  he  forgets — and  you  will 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  87 

find  the  same  conclusion  following  you  every  where,  and  forcing  upon 
you  the  same  conviction.  I  will  give  one  specimen  from  the  evi- 
dence itself,  to  show  your  lordships  he  has  no  lack  of  memory  when 
it  is  to  suit  his  purpose;  when  it  is  to  prove  a  story  where  he  has 
learned  his  lesson,  and  when  he  is  examined  in  chief.  When,  in 
short,  he  knows  who  is  dealing  with  him,  and  is  only  anxious  to  carry 
on  the  attack,  I  will  show  your  lordships  what  his  recollection  is  made 
of.  You  shall  have  a  fair  sample  of  his  recollection  here.  I  asked 
him,  "  Have  you  ever  seen  the  villa  d'Este  since  the  time  you  came 
back  from  the  long  voyage?"  He  had  been  examined  in  chief  upon 
this,  and  had  stated  distinctly  with  respect  to  the  villa  d'Este,  the  state 
of  the  rooms;  and  I  wanted  to  show  the  accuracy  of  his  recollection 
on  those  parts  where  he  was  well  drilled — "  Have  you  ever  seen  the 
villa  d'Este  since  the  time  you  came  back  from  the  long  voyage?" — 
"  I  have."  "  Was  the  position  of  the  rooms  the  same  as  it  had  been 
before,  with  respect  to  the  Queen  and  Berganii?" — "They  were  not 
in  the  same  situation  as  before."  Then  the  witness  gives  a  very 
minute  particular  of  the  alterations.  A  small  corridor  was  on  one 
side  of  the  .Princess's  room  on  her  return.  "  Was  there  a  sitting 
room  on  the  other  side  of  it,  not  opposite,  but  on  one  of  the  other 
sides  of  it?"  Now  attend,  my  lords,  to  the  particularity — "There 
was  a  small  corridor,  on  the  left  of  which  there  was  a  door  that  led 
into  the  room  of  the  Princess,  which  was  only  locked;  and  then  going 
a  little  farther  on  in  the  corridor,  there  was  on  the  left  hand  a  small 
room,  and  opposite  to  this  small  room  there  was  another  door  which 
led  into  the  room  where  they  supped  in  the  evening.  There  was  this 
supping-room  on  the  right,  there  was  a  door  which  led  intoBergami's 
room,  and  on  the  same  right  hand  of  the  same  room  there  was  a 
small  alcove,  where  there  was  the  bed  of  Bartolomeo  Bergami." 
Again:  "How  many  doors  were  there  in  the  small  sitting-room 
where  they  supped?" — "I  saw  two  doors  open  always,  but  there 
was  a  third  stopped  by  a  picture."  "Where  did  her  royal  highness's 
maid  sleep?" — "  On  the  other  side,  in  another  apartment."  Now, 
my  lords,  can  any  recollection  be  more  minute,  more  accurate,  more 
perfect  in  every  respect,  than  Majocchi's  recollection  is  of  all  these 
minute  details,  which  he  thinks  it  subservient  to  his  purpose  to  give 
distinctly,  be  they  true  or  be  they  not?  I  do  not  deny  them — my 
case  is,  that  much  of  what  is  true  is  brought  forward;  but  they  graft 
falsehood  on  it.  If  an  individual  were  to  invent  a  story  entirely;  if 
he  were  to  form  it  completely  of  falsehoods;  the  result  would  be  his 
inevitable  detection;  but  if  he  build  a  structure  of  falsehood  on  the 
foundation  of  a  little  truth,  he  may  raise  a  tale  which,  with  a  good 
deal  of  drilling,  may  put  an  honest  man's  life,  or  an  illustrious 
Princess's  reputation,  in  jeopardy.  If  the  whole  edifice,  from  top  to 
bottom,  should  be  built  on  fiction,  it  is  sure  to  fall;  but  if  it  be  built 
on  a  mixture  of  facts,  it  may  put  an  honest  man's  life  or  reputation 
in  jeopardy.  Now,  I  only  wish  your  lordships  to  contrast  this  accu- 
racy of  recollection  upon  this  subject,  and  upon  many  other  points— 
a  few  of  which  I  shall  give  you  specimens  of — with  his  not  having 


88  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

the  slightest  recollection  of  a  whole  new  wing  having  been  added  to 
the  Princess's  villa.  He  recollects  the  smallest  alteration  of  a  bed- 
room or  a  door;  but  he  has  not  the  sligthest  recollection  of  the  throw- 
ing up  a  new  wing  to  the  house.  This  memory  of  his  at  the  least  is 
a  capricious  memory.  But  I  will  show  your  lordships  that  it  is  a 
dishonest  one  also.  Of  the  same  nature  is  his  evidence,  when  any 
calculation  of  time  is  required.  He  observes  the  most  trifling  distinc- 
tion of  time  when  it  suits  his  purpose;  and  he  recollects  nothing  of 
time  when  it  is  inconvenient  for  his  object.  In  proof  of  this,  I  request 
your  lordships  to  refer  again  to  the  celebrated  scene  at  Naples.  There 
this  witness  remembers  down  to  minutes,  the  exact  time  which  her 
Majesty  passes,  upon  two  occasions,  in  Bergami's  room:  upon  the 
first  occasion,  she  remains  from  ten  to  fifteen  minutes;  on  the  second, 
from  fifteen  to  eighteen  minutes;  that  is  to  say,  taking  the  medium, 
sixteen-and-a-half  minutes,  true  time.  Upon  another  occasion,  he 
tells  you  an  affair  lasted  a  quarter  of  a  n  hour.  Upon  another  occasion 
he  fired  a  gun,  and  then  altogether  fifteen  minutes  elapse — a  quarter 
of  an  hour  there.  He  is  equally  accurate  about  three  quarters  of  an 
hour  in  another  instance;  that  is,  at  Genoa,  which  I  have  spoken  of 
before.  The  other  instance  was  on  the  voyage.  All  this  fulness  of 
memory — this  complete  accuracy  as  to  time — was  in  answer  to  my 
learned  friend;  all  this  was  in  the  examination  in  chief;  all  this  was 
thought  by  the  witness  essential  to  his  story;  all  this  garnished  the 
detail  of  which  the  story  is  made  up,  and  gave  it  that  appearance  of 
accuracy  which  was  essential  to  the  witness's  purpose.  But  when  it 
was  my  turn  to  question — when  I  came  to  ask  him  the  time,  and 
when  the  answer  would  be  of  use  to  the  Queen;  when  it  was  of  use, 
not  to  the  prosecution,  but  to  the  defence — see  how  totally  he  is  lost! 
Then  he  does  not  know  whether  they  travelled  all  night — whether 
they  travelled  for  four  hours  or  eight  hours.  In  answer  to  a  question 
upon  that  subject,  he  says,  "  I  had  no  watch,  I  do  not  know  the 
length  of  time."  No  watch!  Possibly.  And  do  not  know  the  length 
of  time!  Very  likely.  But  had  you  a  watch  when  you  saw  the 
Queen  go  into  the  room  of  Bergami?  Did  you  accidentally  know 
the  time  when  it  suited  your  purpose  to  know  it  to  a  minute?  Why 
know  the  precise  time  so  accurately  on  one  occasion,  and  be  so  totally 
ignorant  of  it  on  another?  He  pleads  the  want  of  a  watch  only 
when  it  would  suit  the  purpose  of  the  defence,  and  bring  out  the 
truth;  or,  what  comes  to  the  same  thing,  would  convict  himself,  were 
he  to  know  the  time.  With  respect  to  the  category  of  numbers,  he 
cannot  tell  whether  there  were  two  or  two-and-twenty  sailors  aboard 
the  Polacca.  He  cannot  tell  more  with  respect  to  place,  that  other 
category  of  his  deposition.  Although  he  slept  in  the  hold,  he  does 
not  know  where  the  others  slept;  he  cannot  tell  where  they  were  by 
night  or  by  day;  he  knows  perhaps  that  they  were  on  deck  in  the 
day,  but  he  cannot  say  where  they  were  at  night.  In  short,  I  ask 
your  lordships,  whether  a  witness  with  a  more  flexible  and  conve- 
nient memory  ever  appeared  in  a  court  of  justice? 

But  this  is  not  all,  my  lords.     There  is  much  in  the  evidence  of  this 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  89 

man,  in  which  the  answer,"  I  do  not  recollect,"  or, "  I  do  not  know," 
cannot,  by  possibility,  be  true,  if  the  answers  given  in  the  examination 
in  chief  be  true:  as  in  the  first  instance  which  I  gave  you  at  Naples. 
If  the  minuteness  sworn  to  in  his  examination  in  chief  was  true,  and 
founded  in  fact,  it  is  impossible  that  he  should  have  no  recollection  of 
the  matters  to  which  he  was  cross-examined.  If  it  was  true  that  the 
rooms  and  doors  were  as  he  described  them,  he  could  not,  by  possi- 
bility, know  and  recollect  that  fact,  and  yet  be  in  total  ignorance  of  the 
other  parts  of  the  house.  In  the  same  manner,  when  I  examine  him 
respecting  Mr.  Hughes,  a  banker's  clerk  at  Bristol,  he  knows  nothing  of 
the  name — nothing  of  his  being  a  banker's  clerk — never  knew  a  ban- 
ker's clerk — has  no  recollection  of  him.  But  when  he  sees  that  I  have 
got  hold  of  a  letter  of  his  which  he  knew  nothing  about  at  that  time, 
and  which  he  perhaps  forgot  having  committed  himself  by;  the  moment 
he  sees  that,  and  before  I  ask  him  a  single  word  to  refresh  his  memory 
you  plainly  see  by  his  demeanor  and  the  tone  of  his  answer,  that  he  had 
never  forgotten  Mr.  Hughes  at  all,  and  that  he  never  had  forgotten  his 
being  a  banker's  clerk.  "  Oh!"  he  says,  "  I  was  in  the  habit  of  calling 
him  brother,  it  was  a  joke  on  account  of  the  familiarity  in  which  we 
were."  Thus  it  appears,  that  the  familiarity  makes  him  forget  a  man 
of  that  kind,  although  he  says  that  familiarity  was  the  ground  of  his 
calling  him  familiarly  and  habitually  brother.  It  was  manifest  that  Ma- 
jocchiwasnot  very  well  pleased  to  recollect  all  that  passed  in  that  family, 
he  being  a  married  man,  and  having  made  a  proposal  of  marriage  to  a 
female  there,  which  he  attempted  to  laugh  off,  with  what  success,  I 
leave  your  lordships  to  judge.  He  was  not  willing  to  recollect  the 
name,  or  trade,  or  connection  with  that  family,  until  he  knew  that  all 
was  known. 

But,  my  lords,  before  we  have  done  with  Majocchi,  we  have  other 
instances  of  that  extraordinary  instrument,  as  it  has  been  called,  I 
mean,  memory;  we  have  other  instances  of  the  caprices  of  which  it  is 
susceptible.  Your  lordships  recollect  the  shuffling,  prevaricating  an- 
swers he  gave  respecting  the  receipt  of  money.  He  first  said,  he  had 
received  money  from  Lord  Stewart  to  carry  him  to  Milan.  He  after- 
wards, twice  over,  swore  he  never  received  money  at  Vienna  from  any 
person.  Then  comes  the  answer  which  I  can  only  give  in  his  own 
words;  for  none  other  will  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  his  style.  lie 
says,"  I  remember  to  have  received  no  money  when  I  arrived  at  Milan; 
I  remember  1  did  not:  <non  so;'  I  do  not  know; '  piu  no  die  si;'  more 
no  than  yes;  '  non  mi  ricordo;'  I  do  not  remember." 

Now,  my  lords,  I  have  a  little  guess  what  sort  of  an  evidence  this 
Majocchi  gave  when  he  was  laying  the  foundation  of  that  favor  which 
he  has  since  uninterruptedly  enjoyed  in  the  councils  of  our  adversaries, 
I  mean,  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor  general.  When,  during  his  pre- 
vious examination,  he  was  laying  these  foundations,  deep  and  wide, 
upon  which  his  fortune  was  to  be  built,  your  lordships  will  perceive, 
that  he  recollected  a  great  deal  which  he  is  now  ignorant  of.  In  the 
opening  speech  of  my  learned  friend  much  was  stated  which  this  wit- 
ness was  expected  to  prove,  and  of  which  1  have  before  given  your 

8* 


90  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

lordships  an  instance  or  two,  and  which  I  will  not  repeat  further  than 
to  remind  your  lordships,  that  Majocchi  was  to  have  proved  the  kissing 
in  the  room  between  that  of  the  Princess  and  Bergami  at  Naples.    On 
the  contrary,  the  witness  negatives  it  in  the  completest  manner,  by 
his  saying  it  was  only  "  whispering,"  and  not  kissing.     This  single  in- 
stance shows  the  whole  character  of  this  man's  testimony;  but  I  will 
remind  your  lordships  of  one  or  two  others,  not  so  striking  from  the 
nature  of  them,  but  just  as  fatal  to  the  credit  of  the  witness;  because 
they  all  show,  that  he  had  told  one  story  to  the  instructors  of  my 
learned  friends,  a  story  recorded  in  the  briefs  from  which  they  put 
their  questions,  and  another  story  Xo  your  lordships.     When  ques- 
tioned here  as  to  those  points,  he  was  staggered  for  some  reason,  pos- 
sibly from  knowing  the  facts  and  documents  which  I  had  got  in  my 
possession,  but  more  probably  from  having  forgotten  part  of  his  story. 
This  is  just  one  of  the  means  by  which  to  detect  a  contrived  plot.  Such 
partial  forgetfulness  is  much  more  likely  to  take  place,  where  the 
whole  is  an  invention,  than  where  there  is  truth  at  the  foundation  of 
the  testimony.     So  it  is  in  this  case.     Majocchi  recollects  part  of  his 
testimony.     "Yes,"  is  ready  for  the  question:  but  parts  of  it  does  not 
recollect.     For  it  is  perfectly  evident,  that  what  a  person  has  actually 
seen  is  more  intensely  impressed  on  his  mind  and  more  firmly  retained 
in  his  recollection,  than  what  he  has  invented  and  imagined.     I  am 
referring,  my  lords,  to  the  Solicitor  general's  examination  of  Majocchi 
He  is  asked,  "  Did  you  bring  Bergami  any  broth?" — "  Often,"  is  the 
answer.     He  then  states,  that  he  was  ordered  to  sleep  in  a  cabinet  ad- 
joining Bergami's  room,  and  that  when  there,  pretending  to  be  asleep, 
the  Princess  passed  through  to  the  room  of  Bergami;  and  then  he  is 
asked,  "  After  the  Princess  had  entered  the  bedroom  of  Bergami,  did 
you  hear  any  conversation?" — That  would  have  been  enough;  it  is 
not  a  leading  question,  but  it  would  have  been  enough  to  make  the 
witness  recollect;  but  conversation  was  not  what  my  learned  friend 
was  after;  "Did  you  hear  any  conversation,  or  any  thing  else?" 
That  was  a  broad  hint.     The  man  had  said  something  before,  which 
had  been  taken  down,  and  was  in  my  learned  friend's  hand.     Now, 
there  was  something  there  which  he  had  said  before  elsewhere,  and 
my  learned  friend  wanted   to  get  that  out  here.     If  it  had  been  true, 
why  should  not  the  man  recollect  it?     But  he  forgot  it.     He  forgot 
part  of  his  own  invention;  a  situation  to  which  a  certain  class  of  men, 
that  I  shall  not  now  mention,  are  often  exposed — a  class  whom  the 
old  proverb  advises  to  have  good  memories.     So  my  learned  friend, 
skilfully  enough,  said,  "  Did  you  hear  any  conversation  or  any  thing 
else,  pass  between  them?"     "  Only  some  whispers."     Now,  do  your 
lordships  want  to  know  whether  my  learned  friend  meant  whispering 
— I  say,  No.     I  say,  I  read  as  much  as  if  I  saw  the  printed  paper 
which  was  in  his  hand.*  My  learned  friend,  the  Attorney-general  had 
opened  very  differently;  but,  besides,  from  the  examination  of  the  So- 

*  The  Briefs  of  the  Crown  counsel  were  all  printed  at  a  private  press,  being  drawn 
frem  the  collections  of  the  Milan  Commission. 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  91 

licitor-general,  it  is  evident,  that  by  his  "something  else,"  more  than 
whispering  was  expected  to  come  out,  had  the  witness  taken  the  hint. 
If  Majocchi  had  never  before  said,  that  something  more  than  whis- 
pering had  passed  between  the  parties,  my  learned  friend  would  have 
been  satisfied.  But  he  proceeds  to  ask  him,  "  Do  you  recollect  having 
heard  or  observed  any  thing  when  the  Princess  was  in  Bergami's  room 
the  second  time!" — "Whispering  conversation,"  says  he  again. 
Another  instance  of  the  same  sort  occurs,  and  I  hope  it  will  not  be 
thought  too  minute  to  go  into  it;  for  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  con- 
spiracies are  detected,  that  perjury  is  exposed,  that  wickedness  is  dis- 
appointed. My  lords,  there  was  a  story  told  about  the  Princess  riding 
upon  an  ass.  "  At  Genoa,  you  saw  her  royal  highness  riding  on  an  ass?" 
"  Yes."  There  was  a  great  deal  more  in  his  former  statement  than 
he  dared  say  now.  "  Did  you,  upon  these  occasions,  make  any  obser- 
vations as  to  any  thing  that  passed  between  the  Princess  and  Bergami?" 
"  Yes."  My  learned  friend  thought  he  was  quite  secure  there.  It  is 
not  a  thing  that  happens  every  day  to  see  a  Princess  of  Wales  riding 
about  on  an  ass.  "  State  what  passed  at  the  time  she  was  riding  on 
an  ass?" — "  He  took  her  round  her  waist  to  put  her  upon  the  ass." — 
My  learned  friend  thought  he  was  safe  landed.  "  What  else?" — "  He 
held  her" — Aye,  that  will  do  very  well;  a  great  deal  may  be  done 
with  the  word  "holding;"  a  great  deal  depends  on  the  tenure — "He 
held  her  hand  lest  her  royal  highness  should  fall."  Ah!  that  won't 
do.  My  learned  friend  is  not  satisfied  with  that.  Indeed,  he  must 
have  been  satisfied  easily,  if  that  had  contented  him.  But,  having 
something  in  his  hand  which  the  witness  had  sworn  to  before — con- 
vinced it  must  be  brought  to  his  recollection  again — not  knowing  he 
was  trying  to  do  a  very  difficult  thing,  namely  to  make  a  false  swearer 
recollect  his  fiction,  but,  trying,  as  he  thought,  to  make  a  true  man  re- 
collect what  he  had  actually  seen,  my  learned  friend  proceeded — "Did 
you  make  any  other  observation?" — "  I  have  made  no  other  observa- 
tion; they  spoke;  they  discoursed."  The  failure  of  my  learned  friend 
was  thus  complete.  And  there  are  a  number  of  anecdotes  of  the  same 
sort — the  breakfast  at  the  Benedictine  convent,  and  other  things,  which 
were  equally  inventions,  with  this  difference,  that,  as  always  happens 
to  men  engaged  in  such  a  vilo  concern,  they  forget  parts  that  are  just 
as  specific  and  clear  as  the  parts  they  recollect;  and  which,  if  they  had 
been  true,  they  would  have  recollected  just  as  well. 

I  might  remind  your  lordships,  upon  this  head  of  Majocchi's  evi- 
dence, of  the  incredible  nature  of  his  story  respecting  what  took 
place  at  Naples.  He  would  have  you  to  believe,  that  having  free 
access  to  the  bed-room  of  Bergami  through  other  rooms  in  which  no 
persons  slept,  which  free  access  he  was  compelled,  after  repeated 
prevarications,  much  equivocal  swearing,  and  several  positive  denials, 
at  length  to  admit  after  a  very  pressing  examination — that  having 
this  secret,  easy,  safe  access  to  that  place  of  guilt,  the  bed-room  of 
Bergami,  the  Princess  preferred  the  other  way,  through  the  room 
where  she  knew  Majocchi  slept,  where  she  saw  that  he  slept  in  a 
bed  without  curtains,  in  a  room  so  small  that  she  could  not  go  through 


92  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

it  without  almost  touching  his  bed — in  a  room  too  in  which  there 
was  a  fire  to  give  light,  and  show  her  passing  through  it.  But,  what 
is  the  most  monstrous  thing  of  all,  he  tells  you  that  Her  Majesty,  in 
order  to  make  her  detection  inevitable,  as  she  passed  through  the 
room,  went  to  the  bed  and  looked  him  in  the  face,  to  ascertain  wheth- 
er or  not  he  was  asleep!  Now,  this  story  defeats  itself  and  discredits 
the  teller.  You  cannot  believe  it;  no!  it  carries  its  own  refutation 
along  with  it.  What,  my  lords!  are  you  to  suppose  that  Her  Majesty 
voluntarily  passed  through  a  room  where  she  must  have  been  seen 
if  the  person  was  awake,  when  she  knew  she  might  have  gone  an- 
other way,  where  she  could  not  possibly  have  been  seen?  She  knew 
that  Majocchi  slept  in  that  room— she  knew  the  disposition  of  his 
bed — she  knew  that  there  was  a  fire  kept  in  the  room — knowing  all 
this,  she  voluntarily  passed  through  it,  stopping  in  her  way  to  look  the 
witness  straight  in  the  face,  and  make  her  detection  certain  if  he 
chanced  to  be  awake !  My  lords,  I  say  that  this  is  a  plain  invention,  an 
invention  natural  enough  to  come  into  the  head  of  a  person  who  lives 
in  a  country  where  nightly  robberies  are  committed.  I  will  not  say 
that  this  witness  is  a  person  who  had  known  more  nearly  that  offence, 
and  the  precautions  taken  by  those  who  commit  it;  but  he,  at  least, 
was  surrounded  by  adepts  in  the  art,  and  we  generally  find  in  stories 
of  robbers,  that  identical  particular  inserted.  The  robber  comes  to 
the  bed  of  the  lady,  and  looks  with  a  candle  near  her  face  to  ascer- 
tain whether  she  is  asleep.  If  she  is  asleep  it  is  all  well  and  safe;  but 
if  she  is  awake,  and  might  give  the  alarm,  he  does  not  care  about 
the  alarm,  and  coolly  retires.  It  is  very  wise  and  prudent  in  the 
robber  to  take  this  precaution,  to  which  he  adds  that  of  a  dark-lantern. 
But,  for  a  person  who  is  going  to  commit  adultery  in  the  next  room, 
whose  face  is  as  well  known  to  the  man  in  bed  as  any  face  that  can 
be  shown,  to  go  up  to  his  bed-side  with  a  candle,  and  not  a  dark- 
lantern,  in  order  to  discover  whether  he  is  asleep  or  not,  is  a  proceed- 
ing altogether  incredible.  To  what  would  not  the  simple  fact  of  Her 
Majesty  having  been  seen  in  that  room,  under  such  circumstances 
have  exposed  her?  Would  not  the  fact  of  being  detected  looking 
in  the  face  of  Majocchi,  have  of  itself  condemned  her?  The  tale  is 
most  monstrous  and  incredible.  But  it  is  providentially  and  most 
happily  ordained,  for  the  detection  of  guilt  and  the  justification  of 
innocence,  that  such  inventions  are  often  thoughtlessly  devised  arid 
carelessly  put  together;  and,  in  this  instance  there  has  been  but  litile 
caution  used  in  putting  together  the  materials  which  have  been  very 
thoughtlessly  cast. 

Now,  my  lords,  I  wish,  before  I  close  my  observations  on  these 
stories,  that  I  might  recall  to  your  lordships'  attention  what  this  wit- 
ness has  said  on  another  point.  He  told  you  that  Bergami  began  to 
dine  at  the  table  of  the  Princess  at  Genoa,  when  is  is  notorious  that  he 
did  not  begin  to  dine  with  her  until  some  months  afterwards.  I  might 
recall  to  your  lordships'  attention  that,  in  speaking  of  the  night-scene 
at  Genoa,  he  does  not  recollect  Vinescati,  the  courier,  arriving:  he 
even  says,  as  the  thing  is  much  mixed  up  with  fiction,  he  had  for- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  93 

gotten  it,  and  he  did  not  remember  his  arrival  at  all.  "  Do  you  re- 
member at  any  time  of  the  night  knocking  at  the  door  of  Bergami's 
bed-room,  and  endeavoring  to  wake  him?" — "  I  do  remember." 
"  Upon  what  occasion  was  that?  For  what  purpose?" — "It  was  in 
the  night  when  Vinescati  came,  and  I  went  to  knock."  Then,  recol- 
lecting the  contradiction,  he  said  it  was  not  the  night  Venescati  arrived, 
but  the  night  thieves  got  into  the  house;  and  then  he  drops  the  courier 
altogether. 

But  I  come  to  what  happened  late  in  the  day.  Your  lordships  re- 
collect the  account  this  witness  gave  of  his  leaving  the  service  of 
Her  Majesty,  an  account  which  contains  as  much  gross  and  deliberate 
falsehood  as  ever  polluted  the  walls  of  a  court  of  justice.  And  allow 
me  here,  my  lords,  to  observe,  that  where  yon  see  one  material  part 
of  a  person's  evidence  grossly  and  palpably  false,  it  dispenses  with 
the  necessity  of  going  more  into  detail,  and  relieves  us  from  the 
necessity  of  proving  him  a  perjurer  throughout;  the  whole  of  his 
evidence  is  discredited;  nothing  that  falls  from  the  lips  of  a  perjured 
man  ought  to  be  entertained;  all  must  be  rejected;  my  lords,  in  giving 
you  an  account  of  his  quitting  the  service  of  the  Princess,  the  wit- 
ness thought  it  necessary,  in  order  to  raise  his  character,  I  suppose, 
to  flourish  about  the  cause  of  his  leaving  Her  Royal  Highness.  He 
denied  that  he  had  been  dismissed  by  her.  He  said  that  he  left 
the  service,  because  he  did  not  like  the  bad  people  by  whom  she  was 
surrounded.  This  he  said,  for  the  double  purpose  of  raising  his  own 
credit,  and  debasing  the  Queen's  and  vilifying  the  society  by  which 
she  was  surrounded.  But,  my  lords,  this  story  is  false;  and  I  will 
show  the  falsehood  from  his  own  mouth.  When  a  question  was  put 
to  him,  "  Did  you  apply  to  be  taken  back?"  what  was  his  answer  ? 
"  I  do  not  recollect."  Here,  my  lords,  you  see  how  he  defends  and 
protects  himself;  for  if  he  had  answered,  No,  he  knew  we  might  have 
called  a  witness  who  would  have  convicted  him  at  once.  lie  was 
then  asked,  "  Did  you  ever  apply  to  Schiavini  to  make  interest  for 
your  being  taken  back?"  lie  answers,  "  Once  I  did."  Now,  a  man 
might  have  recollected  that,  after  being  told,  and  might  innocently 
have  forgotten  in  answer  to  the  first  question;  but  then  he  would  not 
have  immediately  recollected  all  the  circumstances;  for,  the  moment 
that  string  was  touched,  his  recollection  was  entire,  his  forgetfulness 
quitted  him,  and  he  told  us  the  whole  history  of  the  transaction;  and 
a  very  material  thing  it  is  for  your  lordships  to  attend  to.  He  said, 
"  Yes,  yes,"  Si,  ,yz,  was  his  expression;  "  but  it  was  in  a  sort  of  a  joke, 
"  I  made  the  application  in  joke."  That  may  be  so;  but  if  he  did 
not  make  it  in  joke  he  has  perjured  himself;  if  he  did  make  this  ap- 
plication in  joke  to  what  follows  he  must  have  answered,  No.  "  Did 
you,  or  did  you  not  make  repeated  applications  to  Hieronimus  also  to 
be  taken  back  into  her  Royal  Ilighness's  service?"  This  could  not 
be  all  a  joke;  you  could  not  have  joked  with  several  persons  on  the 
same  string.  "  Nun  mi  ricurdu"  "this  I  do  not  remember."  Now, 
I  say,  my  lords,  that  either  this  last  "  Nun  mi  ricordo"  is  gross  and 
wilful  perjury,  or  the  first  story  is  gross  and  wilful  perjury,  that  ho 


94  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

left  the  Queen  from  his  horror  of  the  bad  people  by  whom  she  was 
surrounded,  and  that  he  made  his  application  to  Schiavini  in  pure 
joke.  There  is  no  way  out  of  this  dilemma.  The  two  stories  are 
utterly  inconsistent.  But  your  lordships  recollect  the  way  in  which 
he  told  you  that  he  never  wished  to  go  back  to  the  service.  It  was 
done  with  some  flourish  and  figure.  He  said  with  some  indignation, 
"  Rather  than  go  to  serve  her  Royal  Highness  on  account  of  the  per- 
sons that  are  about  her,  I  will  go  and  eat  grass."  I  ask  your  lord- 
ships, is  that  the  saying  of  a  true  or  a  false  man,  when  he  pretends 
that  he  would  rather  eat  grass  than  go  back  to  a  house  where  he 
made  one  application  which  he  pretends  to  have  been  a  joke,  and 
afterwards  will  not  swear  he  did  not  make  several  applications  to 
get  back  to  the  same  bad  house?  My  lords,  here  I  say  is  developed 
the  whole  mystery  of  Majocchi  and  his  non  mi  ricordo.  This  was 
his  protection  and  his  shelter.  I  say  that  rank  falsehood  appears  on 
the  face  of  this  part  of  the  evidence,  take  it  the  one  way  or  the 
other;  and  I  care  not  which  of  the  two  branches  of  the  alternative  is 
adopted. 

I  now  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  your  lordships,  for  a  moment,  to 
the  next  witnesses;  but  it  shall  only  be  for  a  moment;  because  I  have 
already  anticipated,  in  great  part,  what  I  had  to  say  of  them;  I  mean 
those  well-paid  swearers,  the  captain  and  the  mate  of  the  polacca. 
First,  as  to  the  mate,  there  is  something  in  the  demeanor  of  a  witness 
more  consonant  to  a  candid  and  a  true  story,  than  the  pertness  with 
which  that  person  answered  several  questions;  and  all  those  who  have 
been  accustomed  to  see  witnesses  in  a  court  of  justice  know,  that  those 
who  are  stating  falsehoods  are  extremely  apt  to  give  flippant  and  im- 
pertinent answers.  The  mate  of  the  polacca  is  precisely  a  witness  of 
this  kind.  Upon  being  asked,  "  Was  the  little  gun  you  spoke  of,  upon 
the  deck?"  he  answers,  "  On  the  deck;  we  could  not  carry  it  in  our 
pocket."  I  only  mention  this,  because  my  learned  friend  the  Solicitor- 
general  has  said,  that  he  is  a  witness  of  great  credit.  Again,  when 
asked,  "  How  did  you  travel  from  Naples  to  Milan?"  he  answers,"  In 
a  carriage;  I  could  not  go  on  foot."  I  only  state  this  to  remind  your 
lordships  of  the  manner  of  the  witness,  which  I  should  not  do,  if  he 
had  not  been  said  to  be  a  witness  of  the  most  perfectly  correct  de- 
meanor on  the  present  occasion.  But  I  proceed  to  the  substance  of 
his  evidence:  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  a  better  paid  witness,  a  better 
paid  Italian,  for  any  work  or  labor,  has  never  yet  come  to  your  know- 
ledge. He  is  pnid  at  the  rate  of  2000/.  sterling  a-year;  he  was  the 
mate  in  that  voyage  of  a  trading  vessel  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  he 
is  now  the  fourth  part  owner  of  a  vessel  upon  his  own  account.  So 
that  to  give  him  a  sum  in  proportion  to  what  he  makes  when  at  home 
to  make  it  a  compensation  instead  of  a  reward,  according  to  the  Right 
Reverend  Prelate's  learned  interpretation — that  vessel  must  earn 
8000/.  a-year;  which  is  somewhat  above  an  income  of  from  sixteen 
to  eighteen  thousand  pounds  in  this  country.  There  is  not  a  ship- 
owner in  all  Messina,  that  makes  half  the  money  by  all  the  ships  he 
has  of  his  own  proper  goods  and  chattels.  In  that  country,  a  man  of 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  95 

two  or  three  or  four  hundred  pounds  a-year  is  a  rich  man.  Fifteen 
hundred  pounds  a-year  is  a  property  possessed  by  none,  except  the 
great  nobility.  Clear  profits  of  SOOO/.  a-year  there!  Their  names 
would  resound  over  all  Italy  as  the  rich  of  the  earth;  and  not  a  man 
of  consequence  could  have  gone  from  this  country  to  that,  who  would 
not  have  tried  to  procure  letters  of  recommendation  to  them.  The 
Cobbler  of  Messina  has  lived  in  history;  but  in  his  time  he  was  not  so 
well  known  as  these  two  paltry  shippers  would  be,  if,  instead  of  dealing 
out  the  instrument  he  did,  these  men  kept  their  palaces  and  spent 
their  four  thousand  a-year.  And  this  is  his  story,  and  if  he  does  not 
mean  so  much  as  this,  so  much  the  better  in  an  other  way;  for  then  is 
he  wholly  perjured. 

My  lords,  the  captain  of  the  vessel,  as  might  be  expected,  is  paid  at 
a  much  higher  rate  than  the  mate.  He  is  paid  2400/.  a-year;  he  is 
fed,  lodged,  and  maintained;  every  expense  is  defrayed,  and  this  put 
into  his  pocket,  and  not  for  the  loss  of  any  profits.  I  have  hitherto 
been  considering  it  as  a  compensation  for  the  loss  of  his  profits.  But 
his  ship  is  not  here;  to  use  the  mate's  own  mode  of  speech,  he  did  not 
bring  it  here  in  his  pocket;  though  the  owner  comes  to  England,  the 
ship  is  employed  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  earning  her  frieght;  and 
he  is  paid  this,  though  he  attempts  to  deny  it — he  is  paid  this  as 
a  recompense  and  not  as  a  compensation.  The  same  argument  then 
applies  to  the  captain  as  to  the  mate,  but  in  a  greater  degree,  and  I 
shall  not  go  through  it.  But,  it  appears  there  was  a  cause  of  quarrel 
between  the  captain  and  the  Princess  of  Wales.  Pie  tells  you,  with 
some  naivete,  that  what  he  had  for  himself,  his  mate,  and  the  other 
twenty  men  of  his  crew,  and  for  all  his  trouble,  was  a  sum  considerably 
less,  about  a  fourth  part  less,  than  he  receives  now,  for  coming  over 
to  swear  in  this  business  against  his  ancient  freighter.  But  your  lord- 
ships recollect  what  he  added  to  that.  He  said,  "  When  we  take  on 
board  royal  personages,  we  trust  more  to  the  uncertain  than  to  the  cer- 
tain profits."  This  is  a  great  truth,  well  known  to  many  present,  that 
something  certain  is  often  stipulated  for,  but  that  something  more  is 
often  given  by  way  of  honorary  and  voluntary  compensation.  Then, 
my  lords,  I  only  stop  here  for  one  moment,  to  remind  your  lordships, 
that  according  to  this,  his  expectation  is  not  limited  to  what  he  gets, 
namely,  2400/.  a-year,  for  coming  here  to  swear  against  the  Queen; 
but  he  says  he  has  been  employed  by  a  royal  person;  and  he  tells  your 
lordships  that  the  ascertained  compensation  bore  no  proportion  to  the 
voluntary  reward  which  he  expected  from  her  Majesty.  How  much 
less  then  lias  he  he  a  right  to  limit  the  bounty  of  her  illustrious  hus- 
band, or  of  the  servants  of  His  Majesty,  who  have  brought  him  here, 
if  he  serves  them  faithfully,  if  the  case  in  his  hands  comes  safe  through, 
and  if  no  accident  happens !  If  he  should  succeed  in  all  this,  he  would 
then  get  what  would  make  a  mere  joke  of  the  2-100/.  a-year;  though 
that  would  be  infinitely  greater  than  any  shipper  ever  earned  by  the 
employment  of  his  vessel  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

But  independent  of  the  hope  of  reward,  there  is  another  inducement 
operating  on  the  mind  of  this  witness  from  another  quarter.  Is  there 


96  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

no  spite  to  gratify?  The  whole  of  his  testimony,  my  lords,  is  bottomed 
on  revenge.  I  have  a  right  to  say  this,  because  he  has  told  me  so 
himself.  He  has  distinctly  sworn  that  he  had  a  quarrel  with  Bergami, 
the  Queen's  chamberlain,  whose  business  it  was  to  pay  him  the  money; 
and  that  he  complained  to  his  own  ambassador,  that  Bergami  had 
kept  back  from  him  1300/.  which  he  claimed.  What  happened  then? 
"  I  have  made  some  application,  some  demand.  When  I  came  here 
last  year,  I  gave  a  memorial  to  my  ambassador,  Count  de  Lndolph, 
and  I  stated,  that  as  I  believed  myself  to  have  served  the  British  go- 
vernment, because  I  had  had  the  honor  of  bearing  the  English  flag,  I 
expected  the  present  which  I  had  not  received;  and  on  account  of  this 
memorial  which  I  gave  to  Count  de  Ludolph,  the  English  govern- 
ment have  known  me  to  be  Vincenzo  Gargiuolo  of  Naples."  Now, 
I  mention  it  as  a  circumstance  which  may  strike  different  minds  in  dif- 
ferent ways,  but  as  not  immaterial  in  any  view  of  this  case,  that  the 
only  knowledge  the  prosecutor  of  this  case  has  of  this  witness  is,  his 
having  made  a  complaint  against  the  Queen  and  her  chamberlain,  for 
not  paying  him  1300/.  which  he  said  they  owed  him.  He  added, 
that  he  had  been  advised  to  go  to  London  to  see  after  that  sum  of 
money.  I  warrant,  you,  my  lords,  he  does  not  think  lie  is  less  likely 
to  see  his  way  clearly  towards  the  success  of  his  claim,  in  consequence 
of  the  evidence  which  he  has  given  at  your  lordships'  bar. 

My  lords,  there  are  other  matters  in  the  evidence  of  these  two  men 
which  deserve  the  attention  of  your  lordships.  I  think  that  a  Prin- 
cess of  Wales  on  board  a  vessel,  sitting  upon  a  gun,  with  her  arms  in- 
terwined  with  those  of  her  menial  servant,  and  sometimes  kissing  that 
servant,  is  a  circumstance  not  of  such  ordinary  occurrence  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, as  to  make  it  likely  that  the  captain  or  mate  would  forget 
the  most  important  particulars  of  it.  Yet  they  do  forget,  or  at  least 
they  differ — for  I  will  not  allow  they  forget — they  differ  most  mate- 
rially in  their  history  of  this  strange  matter — far  more,  I  will  venture 
to  say,  than  they  would  differ  about  the  particulars  of  any  ordinary 
occurrence  that  really  happened.  The  mate  says,  that  the  Qneen  and 
Bergami  were  sitting  on  a  gun,  and  that  they  were  supporting  each 
other.  In  the  same  page,  he  says  afterwards,  they  were  sitting  near 
the  main-mast,  the  Princess  sitting  on  Bergami's  lap.  Now,  the  dif- 
ference between  sitting  on  a  gun  and  near  the  mainmast  may  strike 
your  lordships  as  not  important.  I  state  it,  because  the  mate  considers 
it  of  importance;  therefore,  I  conceive  he  has  some  motives  for  par- 
ticularising it;  he  means  to  say,  I  place  my  accuracy  on  these  details 
which  I  give  at  my  peril.  Accordingly  he  says,  that  when  he  saw  the 
Queen  on  Bergami's  knees,  it  was  not  on  a  gun,  but  on  a  bench  near 
the  main-mast;  and  not  one  word  about  kissing  do  I  see  in  the  mate's 
evidence.  He  forgets  the  most  important  part  of  the  whole;  for  which 
reason,  your  lordships  will  conclude  with  me,  I  think,  that  he  does  not 
confirm  the  captain.  The  captain  swears  differently.  He  says  "I 
have  seen  Bergami  sitting  on  a  gun,  and  the  Princess  sitting  on  his 
knees,  and  that  they  were  kissing."  But  do  they  speak  of  the  same 
thing?  Yes,  if  they  are  to  be  believed  at  all;  for  the  captain  says  im- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  97 

mediately  after,  that  the  mate  saw  it  as  well  as  himself.  The  mate, 
however,  never  says  he  saw  it;  and  my  learned  friends  did  not  dare 
to  ask  him  if  he  had  ever  seen  it.  The  captain  says,  they  saw  it  toge- 
ther; yet  when  the  men  are  brought  to  give  their  evidence — and  they 
are  brought  immediately  one  after  the  other — you  see  the  consequence. 
They  totally  differ  in  their  account  of  the  story,  and  differ  in  a  way 
clearly  to  show,  that  the  story  cannot  be  true.  Now,  what  think  your 
lordships  of  this  man's  desiring  you  to  believe — of  his  expecting  you 
to  believe — that  he  was  a  man  of  such  strictness  of  conduct,  and  his 
mate  so  pure  a  youth,  educated  in  that  primitive,  antediluvian  Garden 
of  Eden,  Naples  or  Messina,  that  when  he  saw  a  lady  go  near  a  man, 
not  touching,  observe,  but  leaning  over  the  place  where  he  was  re- 
clined— nothing  indecorous,  nothing  improper,  nothing  even  light,  but 
only  leaning  towards  the  place  where  he  was  reposing — he  imme- 
diately desired  the  innocent  youth  to  go  away,  because,  beside  being 
his  mate,  and  therefore,  under  his  especial  care  in  point  of  morals,  by 
the  relation  of  master  and  mate,  he  was  also  his  distant  relation,  and 
therefore,  by  the  ties  of  blood  also,  he  had  upon  his  conscience  a  re- 
sponsibility for  the  purity  of  the  sights  which  should  pass  before  his 
youthful  eyes,  and  therefore  he  could  not  allow  him  to  remain  for  a 
moment  near  that  part  of  the  ship,  where  these  two  individuals  were, 
because  they  appeared  to  be  approaching  towards  each  other!  Per- 
haps there  may  be  those  who  believe  all  this — who  think  it  a  likely 
account  of  the  matter.  Observe,  my  lords,  he  never  says  that  the 
Queen  ordered  them  to  go  away,  or  that  any  order  to  that  effect  came 
from  Bergami.  No.  The  guilty  pair  never  interfered;  they  were 
anxious  that  all  the  crew  should  see  them;  but  the  virtuous  Gargiuolo, 
reviving  in  the  modern  Mediterranean  a  system  of  morals  far  more 
pure  than  ever  ancient  Ocean  saw  and  smiled  at,  "cheered  with  the 
sight,"  would  not  suffer  his  mate  to  see  that  which  might  happen, 
when  two  persons,  male  and  female,  did  not  touch,  but  were  only 
near  each  other.  My  lords,  there  may  be  those  who  believe  all  this — 
I  cannot  answer  for  men's  belief — but  this  I  am  sure,  that  if  any  one 
do  not  believe  it,  he  must  believe  another  thing;  namely,  that  Gar- 
giuolo the  captain,  and  the  mate  Paturzo  speak  that  which  is  not  true. 
There  is  no  way  out  of  this  conclusion.  Either  you  must  believe  that 
the  captain  speaks  the  truth,  when  he  gives  this  account  of  his  mo- 
tives— or  you  must  believe  that  it  is  false,  and  that  it  is  gratuitously 
false.  But  not  gratuitous, as  it  respects  his  own  character.  lie  means 
to  set  himself  up  by  it;  to  earn  his  money  the  better;  and,  if  possible, 
to  impose  upon  some  credulous  minds  by  it.  Perhaps  he  may  have 
succeeded — the  event  will  show — in  making  more  than  that  uncertain 
gain  the  rate  of  which  a  man,  when  dealing  with  royalty,  always  in- 
creases, and  in  improving  his  chance  of  obtaining  the  1300/.  for 
whieh  he  has  come  over  to  this  country. 

My  lords,  one  more  statement  of  these  men,  and  I  have  done  with 

them.     Sec  how  well  drilled  they  are!     I  hold  them  up  as  models  of 

well  trained  witnesses;  I  regard  their  perfect  drilling  as  a   perfect 

study  for  those  who  may  practise  that  art.     I  present  them  as  highly 

VOL.  i. — 9 


98  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

finished  specimens  of  the  art  in  its  perfection;  and  no  wonder  they 
are  well  accomplished;  they  are  the  best  paid;  and  therefore  they 
ought  to  be  the  choice  specimens  of  that  art.  Much  money  has 
been  laid  out  upon  them,  and  their  zeal  has  been  in  proportion  to 
the  much  they  have  received  and  the  more  they  expect.  See  how 
well  they  have  been  trained!  But  happily  there  are  limits  to  this  art, 
as  there  are  to  all  human  inventions.  If  there  were  not,  God  pity 
those  who  are  attacked!  God  pity  the  innocent  against  whom  the 
mighty  engine  for  tutoring  witnesses,  for  manufacturing  testimony 
may  be  directed!  They  cannot  perfectly  get  over  the  disadvantage 
of  not  having  access  to  hear  the  evidence  of  each  other;  but  see, 
when  art  can  do  it,  how  well  it  is  done.  The  master  and  the  mate 
are  evidently  descendants,  lineal  descendants,  of  the  Doctors  of  Bo- 
logna. Whether  their  names  are  the  same,  or  similar,  like  those  of 
Harry  the  Eighth's  agent,  and  the  chief  Milan  Commissioner,  I 
know  not.  I  have  not  before  me  the  hundred  and  ten  names  of 
the  Doctors;  but  that  these  are  among  their  lineal  descendants,  no 
man  can  doubt.  They  are  afraid  to  have  it  thought  for  an  instant 
that  they  ever  spoke  to  one  another  upon  the  subject  of  their  evi- 
dence. Intimate  in  all  other  respects;  living  together  in  the  Magazine 
of  Evidence,  the  barracks  of  witnesses,  in  this  neighborhood;  sleep- 
ing in  the  same  room,  supping  together,  breakfasting  together,  the 
very  morning  before  they  came  here,  again  meeting  together  the  day 
after  the  first  had  been  examined  and  when  the  second  was  to  come, 
for  any  thing  I  know  sleeping  together — the  only  subject  on  which 
they  never  talked,  in  all  the  intimacy  of  master  and  mate,  in  all  the 
nearness  of  blood  and  connection,  and  entertaining  an  affection  for 
each  other  that  would  do  honor  to  the  nearest  connection,  and  which 
I  wish  some  of  the  nearest  connections,  especially  of  a  conjugal 
kind,  had — the  only  subject,  I  say,  upon  which  they  never  choose 
to  enter,  is  the  subject  of  the  inquiry  which  now  occupies  all  other 
men — the  only  subject  on  which  all  other  men  save  themselves  alone 
can  converse! 

My  lords,  this  is  not  peculiar  to  these  two  witnesses,  but  the  way 
in  which  they  tell  it  is  peculiar,  and  is  not  marked  on  the  part  of  the 
gallant  captain,  by  the  judgment  and  skill  which  usually  distinguish 
him.  "  I  am  not  a  person,"  says  he  with  indignation,  "  to  state  what 
I  am  obliged  to  say  in  this  room — the  subject  is  of  such  a  nature 
that  it  cannot  be  talked  of." — What  subject?  There  is  nothing  so 
frightful  in  this  subject  which  you  came  to  support,  and  which  you 
have  witnessed. — "No,  no;  but  it  would  not  be  decent,  it  would 
not  be  creditable,  that  I  should  tell  to  others  all  those  things  which 
we  say  in  this  house,  before  these  gentlemen,  these  lords."  "  Did 
you  ever  say  any  thing  to  the  mate  upon  it?" — "Oh,  never,  never!" 
"  Did  you  tell  Paturzo  last  night,  or  this  morning,  that  it  would  not 
be  fit  for  you  and  Paturzo  to  talk  about  his  examination  of  yesterday?" 
— "Yes  upon  this  matter." 

This  brings  me  to  say  a  word  or  two  relative  to  a  circumstance 
in  the  character  of  all  these  recruits  in  the  Cotton  Garden  depot.     I 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  99 

must  say,  I  think  that  whatever  injury  this  inquiry  may  do  to  the 
highest  and  most  illustrious  persons — however  pregnant  it  may  be 
with  every  thing  offensive  to  morals  and  to  good  taste — whatever 
mischiefs  to  the  conduct  of  social  life  may  arise,  for  some  time  to 
come,  from  the  disgusting  details  brought  forth  in  the  course  of  this 
ill-omened  proceeding  to  pollute  English  society;  it  must  be  matter 
of  comfort,  that  there  is  one  spot  on  the  face  of  the  island,  one  little 
land  of  Goshen,  sacred  from  the  squabbles  which  surround  it,  free 
from  the  neighboring  defilement,  and  that  into  this  retired  and  pure 
society,  those  subjects  which  offend  the  delicate,  which  alarm  the  ap- 
prehensions of  morality,  which  go  so  well  nigh  to  contaminate  the 
morals  of  all  classes  of  the  community  elsewhere,  never,  by  any 
mischance,  penetrate;  and  strange  to  tell,  my  lords,  that  one  little  spot 
is  neither  more  nor  less  than  Cotton  Garden,  in  the  vicinity  of  this 
house,  inhabited  by  all  the  host  of  foreign  witnesses  whose  deposi- 
tions have  spread  abroad  all  the  impurity  that  appals  the  world  ! 
Let  no  man,  then,  suppose  that  the  danger  is  so  great  as  it  has  been 
represented  ;  or  that  there  is  any  accuracy  in  the  statement,  or 
that  there  is  any  ground  for  the  alarm  founded  upon  it,  that  the 
whole  island  is  flooded  with  the  indecencies  which  issued  forth  from 
the  green  bag:  for  there  is  at  least  Cotton  Garden,  where  the  most 
strictly  modest  matron  may  go,  without  feeling  that  if  she  carries 
thither  the  most  chaste  virgin,  that  virgin's  face  will  ever  there  be  suf- 
fused with  a  blush;  for  in  that  place  and  amongst  the  witnesses  them- 
selves— amongst  the  agents  of  this  plot— amongst  the  contrivers  of  it 
— amongst  those  who  appear  before  your  lordships  to  give  utterance 
to  the  abominations  of  their  own  fancy — amongst  them,  it  turns  out, 
that  there  is  never  one  whisper  heard  on  any  thing  even  remotely 
connected  with  the  subject  which  so  much  vitiates  the  mind  and  de- 
bases, I  will  say,  the  reputation  of  this  country  every  where  else! 
If  your  lordships  choose  to  believe  this,  far  be  it  from  me  to  interrupt 
an  illusion  so  pleasing,  even  by  giving  it  that  name;  for  it  is  delight- 
ful to  have  any  such  spot  for  the  mind  to  repose  upon.  If  you  can 
believe  it  do  so  in  God's  name!  But  if  you  do  not  believe  it,  I  say, 
as  I  said  before,  you  must  believe  something  else;  if  you  do  not 
believe  it,  you  must  believe  that  all  the  witnesses  who  have  said  so, 
and  they  are  all  those  who  are  in  that  depot,  are  perjured  over  and 
over  again. 

My  lords,  the  course  of  my  observations  has  now  brought  me  to 
personages  of  still  greater  importance  in  this  case,  than  either  the 
captain  or  the  mate,  although  my  learned  friend,  the  Solicitor-general, 
has  stated  them  to  be  witnesses  of  infinite  importance — I  mean  De- 
mont  and  Sacchi;  whom  I  trust  I  shall  be  excused  for  coupling 
together,  united,  as  they  appear  to  be,  between  themselves  by  the 
closest  ties  of  friendship;  resembling  eacli  other  as  they  do,  in  all  the 
material  particulars  of  their  history,  connected  at  least  with  the  present 
story;  both  living  under  the  roof  of  the  Queen,  and  enjoying  her 
bounty  and  protection;  both  reluctantly  dismissed;  both  soliciting  to  be 
taken  back  into  place  and  favor;  knit  together  since  by  the  same  ties 


100  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

of  country  and  friendship;  living  together  in  great  intimacy,  both  in 
their  native  mountains  of  Switzerland,  and  afterwards  upon  their 
arrival  in  this  country;  remaining  in  this  country  about  the  same 
period  of  time,  and  that  above  twelve  months;  employing  themselves 
during  those  twelve  months,  in  the  way  best  adapted  to  fit  them  for 
the  business  in  which  they  were  to  be  employed,  by  obtaining  access 
to  our  best  classic  writers  and  attaining  a  knowledge  of  onr  language, 
though  they  modestly  brag  not  of  their  proficiency  in  this  respect,  but 
choose  to  avail  themselves  of  the  assistance  of  an  interpreter,  which 
has  this  advantage,  that  it  gives  them  the  opportunity  of  preparing 
an  answer  to  the  question  which  they  understand  while  the  interpreter 
all  unheeded,  is  performing  his  superfluous  part  of  furnishing  them 
with  a  needless  translation. 

My  lords,  the  other  points  of  resemblance  are  so  many,  that  I  shall 
not  detail  them;  for  your  lordships  will  see  them  when  I  come  to 
enter  into  the  particulars  of  the  evidence.  But  I  wish,  in  the  first 
place,  to  remind  you  what  sort  of  a  person  Mademoiselle  Demont 
describes  herself  to  be;  because  it  signifies  very  little  in  comparison 
what  we  shall  succeed  in  showing  her  to  be;  I  had  rather  take  her 
own  account  of  herself;  I  cannot  wish  for  more;  and  I  am  sure  she 
could  give  us  no  less,  with  any  ordinary  regard  to  her  own  safety; 
for  as  to  regard  of  truth,  I  say  nothing  about  it  upon  this  occasion. 
She  is  a  person,  it  seems,  of  a  romantic  disposition  naturally  implant- 
ed in  her  mind,  and  which  has  been  much  improved  by  her  inter- 
course with  the  world.  She  is  an  enemy  to  marriage,  as  she  says  in 
her  letters.  She  does  not  like  mankind  in  the  abstract — and  yet 
"potius  arnica  omnibus  qiiam  ullius  inimca"  I  think  we  may 
say,  from  some  things  which  came  out  afterwards — mankind  in  the 
abstract  she  rather  objects  to;  but  she  makes  an  exception  in  favor  of 
such  a  near  friend  as  Sacchi,  whom  she  dignifies  by  the  title  of  an 
Italian  gentleman;  though  he,  ungrateful  man,  to  justify  her  dislike 
of  mankind,  will  not  return  the  compliment,  by  acknowledging  her 
to  be  a  countess!  But  this  Italian  gentleman,  whom  she  will  not 
acknowledge  to  be  a  servant,  came  over  with  her.  Marriage,  she 
says,  she  does  not  like.  She  loves  sweet  liberty;  and  in  the  pursuit 
of  this  "mountain  nymph"  over  her  native  hills  and  in  this  country, 
your  lordships  see  the  sort  of  company  in  which  she  is  landed,  namely, 
that  of  Mr.  Sacchi,  not  to  mention  Krouse  the  messenger,  who  goes 
over  to  fetch  her,  and  brings  the  reluctant  fair  to  appear  as  a  witness 
upon  the  present  occasion. 

But  far  be  it  from  me,  my  lords,  to  deny  the  accomplishments  of 
this  person.  Very  far  indeed  from  me  be  any  such  thought.  She  is 
the  most  perfect  specimen — she  is  the  most  finished  model — of  the 
complete  watiing-maid,  that  I  believe  the  world  has  ever  seen  in 
actual  existence.  I  believe  none  of  the  writers  of  her  own  country, 
or  of  ours  which  she  is  now  studying,  will  give  a  more  complete 
specimen — neither  Moliere,  nor  Le  Sage,  nor  our  own  Congreve  or 
Gibber — than  that  which  she  has  given,  without  any  assistance,  in 
this  house.  I  cannot  deny  her  the  greatest  readiness  of  invention; 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  101 

that  she  is  at  no  loss  in  writing  I  cannot  dispute;  I  must  admit,  too, 
that  she  is  not  at  all  sterile  in  her  descriptions  upon  those  subjects  on 
which  she  enters,  until  she  is  brought  into  contrast  with  her  own 
letters,  and  until  my  learned  friend  Mr.  Williams  begins  his  some- 
what unceremonious,  not  to  say  inconvenient,  cross-examination.  I 
cannot  deny  that  she  possesses  a  caution  which  would  do  honor  to 
the  Machiavel  of  waiting-maids;  that  she  is  gifted  with  great  circum- 
spection; that  she  possesses  infinite  nimbleness  in  devising  excuses, 
and  adjusting  one  part  of  her  evidence  with  another;  that  all  her  shifts 
and  her  doublings  were  well  devised,  and  that  if  the  thing  could 
have  been  done — which  it  cannot  by  the  eternal  laws  of  truth — she 
would  have  succeeded  in  blinding  and  deluding  her  hearers.  She 
showed  great  art  in  endeavoring  to  reconcile  the  stories  she  had  told, 
with  the  contents  of  the  letters,  which  were  produced;  which  letters 
she  had  not  forgotten,  though  she  did  not  know  that  they  were  still  in 
existence,  and  ready  to  be  produced  against  her.  Had  she  been 
aware  of  their  preservation,  and  had  her  patrons  been  aware  of  their 
contents,  your  lordships  would  never  have  seen  her  face  here;  just  as 
you  have  not  seen  the  faces  of  some  seventy  other  witnesses,  whom 
they  dare  not  call,  and  whom  they  have  shipped  off  like  so  much  tainted 
meat,  or  useless  live  lumber,  for  their  native  country.  Far  be  it 
from  me,  then,  to  deny  the  accomplishments  of  this  person!  Nor 
do  I  deny  that  she  is  a  great  adept  at  intrigue;  which  indeed,  she 
picques  herself  upon.  She  would  never  forgive  me  if  I  refused  her 
that  merit.  Her  constant  practice  is  to  deal  in  double  entcndrcs;  her 
friend  Sacchi  —  I  crave  her  pardon,  Mr.  Sacchi  does  the  same;  she  in 
her  letters  to  her  sister;  and  he  in  his  conversation  with  Mr.  Marietti. 
So  that  it  is  impossible  for  us,  and  may  be  very  convenient  for  them, 
to  know  what  they  mean.  In  short  to  them  may  be  applied  what 
was  said  of  old  of  a  whole  people:  "  Tribuo  illis  literas;  do  multarum 
artium  disciplinam;  non  adimo  scrmonis  leporern  ingeniorum  acumen, 
dicendi  copiavn;  deniqtie  etiam,  si  qua  sibi  alia  summit  non  repugno; 
testimoniorum  religionem  ct  fidem  nunquam  ista  natio  coluit:  totins- 
que  hujnsce  rei  quoe  sit  vis,  quce  auctoritas,  quod  pondus  ignorant." 
I  hear  her  candor  praised  by  some  persons,  and  why?  Because 
she  admits  she  was  turned  off  for  a  story  which  proved  to  be  false. 
I  hear  her  praised  too  for  her  other  admissions;  and  what  were  those? 
When  asked  if  she  was  sincere  in  such  and  such  praises  which  she 
bestowed  upon  her  Majesty,  she  said  in  some  of  them  she  was,  but 
not  in  all;  in  a  part  she  was,  but  not  in  the  whole. — "Were  you  in 
want  of  money?"  "  Never."—"  Did  you  never  write  to  your  sister, 
'  I  am  in  want  of  money?' '  "  It  may  be  so;  but  if  I  did  so  it  was 
not  true."  So  there  is  no  connection  in  rcntm  natura,  in  this  per- 
son's case,  between  the  thing  being  true  and  her  saying  it,  nor  any 
opposition  in  this  person's  mind,  in  a  thing  being  downright  false- 
hood, and  her  saying  and  writing  it.  Truly,  this  is  her  own  account 
of  herself;  and  yet  to  my  no  small  astonishment,  I  have  heard  her  praised 
for  the  candor  with  which  she  gave  this  account,  by  persons  of  mode- 
rate capacity. 

9* 


102  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

My  lords,  I  need  hardly  remind  you — I  need  hardly  remind  any 
person  whose  capacity  is  above  the  meanest — I  need  hardly  tell 
any  man  who  is  not  fit  to  be  turned  out  in  the  fields  among  those 
animals  whom  he  sometimes  abuses  by  using — I  need  hardly  say  to 
any  one  above  this  level,  See  what  is  the  effect  of  this!  Will  it  be 
said — "  Be  it  that  she  uses  double  entendres,  that  she  tells  falsehoods 
freely  to  gain  her  own  ends;  yet  the  candor  of  making  these  ad- 
missions, the  ingenuousness  of  youth  with  which  she  informs  you  that 
she  tells  falsehoods  by  wholesale,  so  that  she  cannot  be  depended 
upon  for  a  word  she  utters,  is  a  blandishment  more  seductive  than  all 
her  personal  charms;  it  binds  us  to  her,  though  not  her  personal 
lovers;  and  we  open  our  eyes  to  all  her  tales  because  she  is  so  engag- 
ing a  liar,  and  acknowledges,  with  so  much  readiness,  that  there  is 
not  a  word  of  truth  in  her  whole  story?" — My  lords,  in  any  body 
but  a  witness  you  may  be  pleased  with  such  candor;  in  any  one  ex- 
cept one  whose  credit  depends  upon  the  truth  of  her  story.  You  may 
say  to  any  other  person,  "  Poor,  dear,  innocent  Swiss  Shepherdess, 
how  ingenuous  thy  mind!"  but  to  a  witness!  I  never  before  heard 
so  strange  a  reason  for  giving  a  witness  credit  as  citing  the  candor 
with  which  she  admits  that  she  is  not  to  be  believed. 

My  lords,  look  at  her  letters — look  at  her  explanations  of  them. 
I  will  not  go  through  them  in  detail;  but  I  will  tell  you — and  the 
more  you  look  at  them,  the  more  you  will  be  convinced  of  this  truth 
— that  her  explanations  of  them  are  impossible — that  the  double 
entendres  do  not  fit — that  the  interpretations  she  gives  do  not  tally 
with  what  appears  in  black  and  white.  Her  gloss  does  not  suit  her 
text — the  two  are  totally  inconsistent;  and  the  clear  contents  of  the 
four  corners  of  the  document  show  that  what  she  stated  on  her  oath 
is  untrue.  The  letters  themselves  want  nothing  to  make  them  per- 
fectly intelligible.  But  her  key  does  not  fit  her  cypher.  The  matter 
only  becomes  doubtful  as  she  envelopes  it  in  falsehood,  by  the  inven- 
tions of  the  moment,  by  her  extempore  endeavors  to  get  rid  of  the 
indisputable  meaning  of  the  words  in  her  own  hand-writing.  My 
lords,  a  plain  man  knows  how  to  deal  with  these  things.  He  does 
not  entangle  himself  in  the  miserable  webs  which  this  dirty  working 
creature  attempts  to  throw  around  him;  he  goes  straight  on,  if  he  be 
a  wise  and  an  honest  man,  to  see  justice  done  to  the  object  of  a  perjur- 
ed conspiracy;  he  goes  straight  through,  and  believes  those,  and  those 
only,  who  show  themselves  to  be  worthy  of  credit;  and  I  pray  to 
God,  that  your  lordships  may  so  believe,  and  not  stand  an  exception, 
a  solitary  exception,  to  the  conduct  of  all  the  rest  of  mankind!  I 
hope  your  lordships  will  believe  this  woman  to  have  been  sincere, 
when  she  says  that  the  Queen  was  good  and  innocent;  that  she  then 
spoke  the  language  of  her  heart  in  the  eloquence  of  her  feelings,  and 
has  only  since  been  corrupted,  when,  upon  a  refusal  to  take  her  back 
into  that  service  where  she  had  never  received  aught  but  favor  and 
kindness,  she  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  other  conspirators  against 
the  honor  of  her  illustrious  mistress. 

I  forgot,  my  lords,  in  admitting  the  qualities  of  this  female,  to 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  103 

make  another  concession.  She  is  kindly  attached  to  her  own  sister. 
She  loves  her  with  a  sincere  affection.  She  tells  you  so.  Her  prin- 
ciple in  her  conduct  upon  this  occasion,  if  she  is  believed,  is  anxiety 
for  her  service  and  interest.  Now,  I  do  not  believe  the  story  which 
follows;  and  it  is  not  I  who  am  calumniating  Demont,  because  I  am 
taking  her  own  account  of  herself,  which  I  do  not  believe.  Mine  is 
a  plain  story.  She  represents  herself  as  affectionate  towards  that 
sister,  heartily  attached  to  her  interest,  only  anxious  to  promote  it — 
her  sister  just  coming  into  the  world  at  the  innocent  age  af  fifteen — 
and  that  she  does  all  she  can  to  obtain  a  place  for  that  sister  in  a 
house  which,  if  you  believe  a  tittle  of  what  she  told  you,  ought  to 
have  the  name,  not  of  a  palace,  as  the  Attorney-general  says,  but 
of  a  brothel.  She  has  two  sisters,  indeed,  and  she  is  equally  attached 
to  both.  She  describes  the  letter  as  written  immediately  after  leaving 
those  scenes,  immediately  after  having  been  unwillingly  turned  out 
of  this  brothel — unwilling  to  leave  it  she  says  she  was,  although  she 
admits  that  (differing  from  her  sisters  in  that  respect)  she  was  rich 
and  they  were  poor,  and  was  therefore  under  no  necessity  of  submit- 
ting to  that  contamination,  which  no  necessity  ought  to  induce  an 
honest  woman  to  endure.  But  though  she  was  under  no  necessity, 
the  honest  Swiss  chamber-maid  balances  the  profits  of  her  place 
against  its  disgrace;  acting  upon  the  principle  of  the  Roman  emperor, 
who,  so  that  he  raised  a  tax,  was  not  over  anxious  as  to  the  materials 
from  which  the  filthy  imposition  was  obtained.  Though  she  admits 
that  the  house  is  worse  than  an  ordinary  brothel,  and  avows  that  she 
loves  her  sisters,  the  elder  as  well  as  the  younger,  she  is  occupied  for 
six  months  after  she  leaves  it,  first,  in  endeavoring  to  obtain  for  the 
virgin  of  fifeen  a  place  in  order  to  initiate  her  there;  and  next,  to  keep 
the  maturer  girl  of  seventeen  in  possession  of  so  comfortable  and  so 
creditable  a  situation.  Such  is  Demont  by  her  own  account!  I  do 
not  believe  her  so  bad — I  believe  no  woman  so  bad — as  she  now 
finds  it  necessary  to  tell  you  she  is,  because,  unexpectedly,  we  bring 
out  her  own  hand-writing  against  her.  I  believe  every  word  of  her 
letter  to  be  sincere.  I  believe  she  did  right  and  well  in  wishing  to 
retain  her  own  place,  to  keep  one  sister  there,  and  then  to  obtain  em- 
ployment for  another;  but  I  also  believe,  that  having  been  driven 
from  thence,  and  disappointed  in  her  hopes  of  being  taken  back,  she 
invented  the  story  she  has  now  told,  not  knowing  that  these  letters 
were  in  existence  and  would  be  brought  in  evidence  against  her. 
But  she  was  sworn  in  Lincoln's-Inn  Fields  before  she  knew  of  these 
letters  being  in  existence.  Had  she  known  of  this  fact,  I  have 
no  doubt  she  would  rather  have  foregone  all  the  advantages  she  has 
reaped,  from  coming  forward  as  a  leading  witness  in  the  plot  against 
the  Queen,  than  have  made  her  apperaance  at  your  lordships'  bar. 

So  much  for  this  lady.  I  now  come  to  that  amiable  gentleman, 
Mr.  Sacchi.  And  1  observe,  rny  lords,  with  great  satisfaction,  a  most 
pleasing  symptom  of  liberality  in  the  present  times,  as  exhibited  in 
the  liberal  reception  which  this  witness  has  met  with  among  your 
lordships,  and  in  the  pains  which  have  been  taken,  both  by  those 


104  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

who  produced  him,  and  those  who  afterwards  examined  him,  to  in 
crease  the  estimation  in  which  it  was  wished  that  he  should  be  held. 
It  shows  how  the  age  is  improving.  It  shows  how  fast  vulgar  pre- 
judices against  Buonaparte  and  the  French  nation  are  wearing  away. 
I  well  remember  the  time  when  nobody  would  have  been  very  well 
pleased  to  bring  forward  as  a  principal  witness  in  a  case  of  any  kind, 
a  man  whose  recommendation  was,  that  he  had  been  a  soldier  of 
Buonaparte,  that  he  had  served  in  any  of  his  campaigns,  and  had  been 
promoted  by  the  Corsican  adventurer,  the  daring  usurper,  the  unprin- 
cipled revolutionary  chief,  as  it  was  the  fashion  so  lavishly  to  call 
him.  Nevertheless,  now  that  a  witness  against  the  Queen  has  this 
merit  to  boast  of,  it  is  brought  forward,  as  if  we  had  never  heard 
anything,  as  if  we  had  never  been  sickened  by  whole  volumes  of 
abuse  which  had  been  poured  forth,  for  the  purpose  of  showing,  that 
the  very  name  of  a  French  hussar,  particularly  if  he  happened  to  be 
a  servant  of  Buonaparte,  was  exactly  the  name  for  everything  most 
profligate  and  abandoned.  Now,  my  lords,  without  having  ever 
been  one  of  those  who  approved  of  the  excess  to  which  this  abuse 
was  carried,  on  the  part  of  ourselves  and  of  our  neighbors,  I  never- 
theless cannot  help  thinking,  that  a  cast-off  servant,  a  courier  who 
pretends  to  be  a  gentleman,  and  now  has  his  servant  to  wait  upon 
him,  and  who  says,  "  Thank  God,  I  was  always  in  easy  circumstan- 
ces," though  he  was  once  living  on  the  wages  of  a  common  courier; 
who  can  only  say,  that  he  was  a  common  soldier  in  the  French  army, 
and  was  refused  a-  commission  in  the  Swiss  army,  but  was  offered 
the  place  of  a  sergeant — would,  a  few  years  ago,  have  stood  very 
little  chance  of  mending  his  credit  by  this  last  adjunct.  But  this  is 
my  least  objection  to  Sacchi.  I  must,  indeed,  be  allowed  to  say,  that 
the  fact  of  such  men  having  bravery  enough  to  induce  their  masters 
to  give  them  a  pair  of  colors,  is  not  the  best  positive  proof  of  their 
being  the  most  sincere  and  the  most  scrupulous  of  mankind.  But  look, 
my  lords,  at  the  account  you  have  of  him  from  himself.  He,  too,  deals 
in  double  entendres.  He  has  gone  by  three  whole  names  and  a 
diminutive — two  of  them  we  know,  and  the  third  we  do  not  know; 
but  by  three  names  and  a  half  has  he  gone.  When  he  came  to  this 
country  he  began  his  double  entendres  as  soon  as  he  came  in  contact 
with  his  beloved  Demont.  He  told  two  double  entendres — if  I  may 
use  four  syllables  instead  of  the  shorter  Saxon  word.  For  if  men 
will  do  this  frequently  and  continually — if  they  will  do  it  for  a  great 
object — they  get  into  the  habit  of  doing  it  for  no  object,  but  mere  sport 
and  playfulness.  He  tells  first  this  double  entendre,  "  that  he  had 
come  in  the  service  of  a  Spanish  family."  Then  he  tells  another, 
that  "  he  had  a  law-suit," — we  have  never  heard  what  that  was, 
nor  anything  more  about  it — that  he  came  over  in  consequence 
of  "a  law-suit,  a  process  with  her  Royal  Highness."  How, 
then,  did  he  get  into  the  situation  in  which  he  is  now  living  with 
his  own  servant,  seeing  that  he  was  so  sorry  at  being  turned  away 
from  the  service  of  the  Queen,  where  he  was  first  employed  at  the 
lowest  wages  of  a  courier,  and  afterwards  as  a  poor  equerry?  My 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  105 

lords,  you  must  believe  that  he  lias  got  money  nobody  knows  whence, 
or  you  must  disbelieve  his  story  altogether. 

But  there  is  another  similarity  between  Sacchi  and  Demont.  He 
is  asked,  "  How  much  money  had  you  in  your  name  at  your  banker's 
at  Lausanne?"  He  answers,  "  Fifty  louis." — "  Will  you  swear  that 
you  had  not  more  than  that  at  one  time  at  that  banker's?"  "  I  had 
no  more  than  those  fifty  louis." — "  Will  you  swear  you  never  had 
a  credit  which  empowered  you  to  draw  upon  that  banker  for  a  larger 
sum  than  this?"  "  I  never  dad." — "  Have  you  never  represented  that 
you  had  a  [arger  sum  or  a  greater  credit?"  "  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  said."  Suppose  any  of  your  lordships  were  asked  to  speak  to 
a  fact,  and  were  to  say  "  Positively  not," — "most  certainly  not," — 
"  I  know  it  is  not  so," — nobody  would  dare  to  put  the  next  question 
to  you — at  least  I  know  very  few  of  your  lordships  to  whom  they 
dare  to  put  it — "  Did  you  ever  say  so?"  It  could  only  be  put  to  any 
one  of  your  lordships  in  joke,  or  in  consequence  of  the  greatest 
familiarity  subsisting  between  the  parties;  for  you  had  answered 
substantially  that  question  before.  If  you  area  man  to  be  be- 
lieved on  your  oath,  have  you  not  answered  the  question  whether 
you  ever  told  any  person  you  had  more  at  your  banker's  by  saying 
you  know  you  had  no  more  at  your  banker's?  If  you  had  no 
more  at  your  banker's  you  never  could  have  said  that  you  had 
more;  for  if  you  had,  you  would  have  been  guilty  of  what  Sacchi 
calls  a  double  entendre.  But  not  so  with  Sacchi,  or  whatever  his 
names,  great  or  small  may  be — "  I  may  have  done  so;  I  cannot 
swear  when  I  am  in  doubt."  The  same  as  to  his  letters.  He  was 
asked,  "  Did  you  ever  represent  to  any  person,  after  you  had  left  the 
service  of  Her  Royal  Highness,  that  you  were  in  a  destitute  condi- 
tion?" "  Never." — "  Did  you  ever  entreat  any  person  of  Her  Royal 
Highness's  household  to  have  compassion  on  your  dreadful  situation, 
after  you  had  left  Her  Royal  Highness?" — "  I  have  never  been  in  a 
dreadful  situation."  "  Did  you  ever  represent," — there  I  was  stopped 
— "  Did  you  ever  say," — but  he  had  heard  all  the  argument  about 
representing — '•  Did  you  ever  say  to  any  person  that  your  conduct 
towards  Her  Royal  Highness  was  liable  to  the  charge  of  ingratitude 
with  respect  to  a  generous  benefactor?"  "Never." — "Will  you 
swear  that  you  never  intreatcd  any  one  of  the  suite  of  Her  Royal 
Highness,  after  you  had  left  her  service,  to  take  compassion  on  your 
situation?"  "  It  may  be."  "  Is  that  your  hand-writing?" — a  letter 
being  put  into  his  hands — "  It  is."  "  Is  that  your  hand-writing?" — 
another  letter  being  put  into  his  hands — "  It  is."  Now,  in  these  letters 
he  has  taxed  himself  with  ingratitude  in  the  plainest  words.  Luckily, 
he  had  forgotten  those  letters.  Would  any  of  your  lordships  shelter 
yourselves  under  such  a  despicable  pretext  as  to  say,  "  Oh!  I  did  not 
say  it,  I  wrote  it?"  Litera  scriplu  ma  net — Your  lordships  shall  sec 
the  letters. 

But  you  will  recollect  what  passed  afterwards;  for  I  now  come  to 
a  providential  accident,  if  I  may  employ  such  contradictory  terms,  in 
compliance  with  the  common  use  of  them;  I  now  come  to  an  accident, 
but  which  I  call  an  interposition  in  favor  of  innocence,  which  is 


106  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

always  the  care  of  Providence.  Sacchi  was  asked  by  my  learned 
friend,  the  Attorney-General,  "  You  have  stated,  that  when  you  came 
to  this  country,  you  assumed  the  name  of  Milani;  what  was  the 
reason  why  you  assumed  that  name?"  To  which  he  answered,  "  I 
took  this  name  on  account  of  the  tumult  (tumulto)  which  had  taken 
place,  and  of  the  danger  I  should  have  run  if  I  had  come  under  my 
own  name,  knowing  that  I  should  have  been  known." — "When 
was  it  that  you  'assumed  the  name  by  which  you  now  go?"  "  It  was 
immediately  after  the  affair  that  happened  at  Dover."  Now,  luckily, 
he  had  forgotten  the  date;  happily  he  did  not  recollect,  that  he  came 
over  to  this  country  in  July  in  the  year  1819,  and  that  the  tumult  at 
Dover  happened  in  July  1S20.  These,  my  lords,  are  the  providential 
circumstances  by  which  conspiracies  are  detected;  and  but  for  which, 
every  one  of  you  may  be  their  victims  to-morrow.  Now,  I  call  upon 
your  lordships  to  see  how  the  witness  gets  out  of  this.  After  a  short 
interval  in  the  examination,  you  will  find  in  page  459  of  the  printed 
minutes,  that  which  I  will  read  for  .the  sake  of  connection;  and  I  do 
it  the  more  freely,  because  it  is  the  last  quotation  with  which  I  shall 
trouble  you  from  this  evidence.  In  answer  to  a  question  put  to  him 
by  the  Attorney-general,  Sacchi  says,  "  I  took  this  name  on  account 
of  the  tumult  which  had  taken  place,  and  of  the  danger  I  should 
have  run  if  I  had  come  under  my  own  name,  knowing  that  I  should 
have  been  known."  "  When  did  you  assume  the  name  by  which 
you  now  go?"  Then  he  instantly  recollects  "  It  was  immediately 
after  the  affair  that  happened  at  Dover."  The  name  he  now  goes  by, 
he  assumed  since  the  affair  at  Dover;  the  name  of  Milani  he  assumed 
a  year  before  at  Paris.  My  learned  friend  the  Attorney-general, 
leaves  him  there,  concluding,  from  his  experience  of  these  matters, 
that  he  would  only  make  bad  worse  by  going  on.  But  one  of  your 
lordships  took  it  up;  and  if  there  ever  was  a  specimen  of  shifting 
and  beating  about  the  bush,  to  shelter  a  mortal  from  an  un- 
lucky scrape  arising  out  of  a  false  tale,  here  you  had  it.  The  man- 
ner in  which  it  was  all  spoken — the  confusion,  the  embarrassment, 
the  perplexity — I  cannot  represent.  I  trust  your  lordships  remember 
it.  But  enough  remains  upon  the  record,  and  by  that  I  should  be 
willing  to  try  the  credit  of  Sacchi  as  a  witness.  "  Had  you  ever  gone 
by  the  name  of  Milani  before  you  came  to  England?"  "  I  took  this 
name  in  Paris." — "  At  what  time,  in  what  year,  did  you  take  that 
name  in  Paris?"  "  Four  or  five  days  before  I  set  out  for  England." 
—"When  was  that?"  "  In  the  month  of  July  last  year."—"  What 
was  your  motive  for  taking  that  name  at  that  time  in  Paris?"  "  As 
I  knew  that  I  was  known  in  London  by  my  own  name,  I  endeavored 
to  shelter  myself  against  any  inconvenience  that  might  happen  to 
me."  Not  a  word  about  what  had  happened  to  others!  "  What 
tumult  had  happened  at  that  time  that  induced  you  to  take  that  name?" 
There  is  no  more  getting  him  out  of  the  potential  mood  into  the 
past  tense,  than  there  is  getting  him  out  of  knavery  into  honesty. 
"  What  tumult  had  happened  at  that  time  that  induced  you  to  take 
that  name?"  "  I  was  warned  that  the  witnesses  against  the  Queen 
might  run  some  risk  if  they  were  known" — forgetting  or  wish- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  107 

ing  to  slur  over,  that  he  had  used  the  word  *•'  had,"  and  wishing 
to  substitute  in  its  stead  another  tense.  "  Had  you  been  informed 
that  they  had  actually  run  any  risk?"  "  They  had  not  run  any  risk 
then."  Then  what  was  the  "tumult"  which  he  had  spoken  of  be- 
fore? The  most  favorable  opportunity  is  then  given  him  which  an 
honest  witness  could  possibly  desire,  of  correcting  himself,  and  of 
explaining  the  whole  tact — an  opportunity  which  counsel  might  not 
have  been  disposed  to  allow,  but  which  the  house  very  properly  gave 
him.  The  former  questions  and  answers  are  read  over  to  the  witness, 
and  he  is  desired  to  reconcile  and  explain  them.  But,  with  all  those 
advantages,  observe,  my  lords,  the  lameness  of  the  pace  at  which  he 
hobbles  off;  for  on  the  manner  of  doing  a  thing  as  much  may  depend 
as  upon  the  thing  done.  The  former  question  and  answer  being  read 
from  the  minutes,  he  is  asked  this  question.  "  Having  stated  in  a 
former  answer  that  you  changed  your  name  to  that  of  Milani  in  con- 
sequence of  a  tumult  that  had  happened,  what  did  you  mean  by  that 
statement?"  "  Whilst  1  was  at  Paris  a  gentleman  came,  accompanied 
by  the  courier  Krouse" — who  had  been  named  before — "  and  the  only 
time  I  saw  him;  and  he" — not  Krouse,  who  might  have  been  called, 
but  the  gentleman  who  is  not  named — uhe  told  me  that  it  would  be 
necessary  to  change  my  name" — a  kind  man,  though  unknown;  more 
kind  than  many  we  know  better — "  because  it  would  be  dangerous 
to  come  to  England  under  my  own  name,  as  I  had  told  him" — and 
these  are  inventions  after  the  first  part  of  the  sentence — "  had  told 
him  I  was  known  in  England  under  my  own  name;  and  that  already 
something  had  happened  on  this  account;  not  on  my  account,  but  on 
account  of  other  people."  "  Did  he  tell  you  that  a  tumult  had 
taken  place?" — now  he  is  obliged  to  say  something  about  a  tumult, 
being  led  to  it  by  the  reading  of  the  question.  "  He  told  me  some 
tumult,  some  disorder."  "  On  what  occasion  did  he  say  that  tumult 
had  taken  place?"  "  He  told  me  nothing  else."  "  You  are  under- 
stood to  say  it  was  with  respect  to  other  persons;  what  did  you 
mean  by  other  persons?"  "  He  meant  to  say  that  some  disorder  had 
already  happened,  in  regard  to  other  persons  for  similar  causes." 
"  What  do  you  mean  by  similar  causes."  Now,  I  never  saw  a  wit- 
ness who  was  brought  into  a  corner  by  such  a  question,  who  did  not 
answer  as  this  man  has  done — "  I  have  repeated  what  that  gentleman 
told  me." — "  Did  you  understand  that  it  was  with  respect  to  wit- 
nesses who  had  come  to  give  evidence  in  respect  to  the  Queen?"  "  I 
believe  it  was  for  this  object."  <•  Did  you  know  that  any  witnesses 
had  at  that  time  come  over  to  give  evidence  in  the  cause  of  the  Queen." 
"  I  did  not  know  with  certainty,  but  in  the  same  way  I  was  coming 
I  might  imagine" — the  potential  mood  again — "  that  some  other  peo- 
ple might  have  already  come."  And  there  I  leave  him.  I  do  not 
deny  th;it  he  might  imagine  this  or  any  thing  else.  I  do  not  deny 
that  oihur  persons  might  have  come  as  he  was  coming.  I  admit  it 
to  be  possible.  Bui  what  I  deny  is,  that  any  person  could  have  told 
him  that  which  he  says  he  was  told.  That  he  may  have  invented 
all  this  here,  when  he  was  pressed  from  an  unexpected  quarter,  I 


108  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

readily  admit  to  be  possible;  but  that  an  unknown  gentleman 
should  have  accompanied  the  well-known  Krouse  to  Paris,  should 
have  told  him  a  pure  fiction  of  the  brain,  which  no  man  could  have 
dreamt  of  a  year  age,  is  as  utterly  impossible  as  that  a  man  should 
by  chance  have  written  the  Iliad.  My  lords,  only  see  how  this 
stands;  for  I  am  afraid  you  do  not  feel  it  with  the  force  which  belongs 
to  it.  We  now  all  talk  of  the  tumult  at  Dover,  and  the  risk  to  which 
the  witnesses  were  exposed,  with  familiarity,  because  they  are  matters 
of  notoriety.  But  carry  yourselves  back  to  July  1819 — Who  of  us 
all,  even  in  his  most  fanciful  mood,  ever  dreamt  of  any  one  part  of 
that  scene  which  has  taken  place — any  part  of  what  we  know,  or  of 
those  consequences  which  we  shall  unfortunately  never  live  not  to 
know,  have  followed  from  these  proceedings — a  tumult  in  conse- 
quence of  the  arrival  of  flocks  of  witnesses  coming,  and  those  regu- 
larly insulted,  because  witnesses  in  the  Queen's  cause?  All  this  is 
mighty  familiar  with  us  now.  But  go  back,  my  lords,  I  say,  to  July 
1819.  Would  any  man  then  have  suspected  it?  I  say  it  was  an 
invention  by  the  witness,  to  cover  his  retreat  from  the  position  into 
which  he  had  been  unwarily  entrapped;  and  that  in  the  month  of  July 
1819,  no  man  ever  told  him,  or  could  have  ever  told  him,  that  any  tu- 
mult had  taken  place,  or  that  any  witnesses  had  been  exposed  to  insult. 
My  lords,  it  is  only  by  comparisons  like  these  that  perjury  can  be 
detected,  and  conspiracies  defeated.  And  this  leads  me  to  remark, 
that  if  you  defeat  a  conspiracy  by  showing  perjury,  or  untrue  swearing 
and  prevarication,  on  points  however  collateral  or  trifling,  there  is  an 
end  of  the  credit  due  to  the  witness,  and  a  failure  of  the  proof  of  the 
conspiracy  on  the  main  points,  though  you  should  have  left  them  un- 
touched, which,  however,  is  not  the  case  here.  But  with  respect  to 
the  witness  Sacchi,  I  may  as  well  now  mention  that  part  of  the  story 
which  he  and  Rastelli,  a  turned-off  courier  like  himself,  had  agreed  in 
trumping  up;  because,  however  disgusting,  however  offensive,  the 
slightest  allusion  to  it,  or  the  recollection  of  it,  may  be,  I  am  sure  your 
lordships  will  see  that  I  cannot  avoid  reference  to  it,  and  comment 
upon  it.  Do  your  lordships  think  it  very  likely  that  any  woman — I 
might  almost  say  any  miserable  person  who  gained  her  livelihood  by 
prostitution — would  do  that  thing  openly,  in  the  face  of  day,  with  a 
menial  servant  four  yards  from  her,  without  the  slightest  covering  or 
screen,  which  Rastelli  tells  you  the  Queen  did  openly,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Villa  d'Este?  Do  you  believe  that  with  the  knowledge 
that  a  courier  was  travelling  on  one  side  of  the  carriage,  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  if  surprised  asleep,  that  courier  might  open  the  curtain,  (for 
his  story  is,  that  he  always  did  so,) — do  you  believe  that,  with  the  ruin 
staring  her  in  the  face  to  which  such  a  discovery  would  expose  her 
by  blasting  her  character  even  amongst  the  most  abandoned  of  her  sex 
any  living  person  would  go  to  sleep  in  the  position  described  by  Sacchi 
as  that  in  which  the  Queen  and  her  chamberlain  were  found  by  him  in 
the  morning  asleep  in  the  carriage?  But  your  lorships' credulity  must 
be  stretched  yet  many  degrees;  for  if  you  should  have  expanded  it  so, 
as  to  take  in  the  belief,  that  such  a  thing  happened  once,  it  will  be  no- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE  109 

thing  compared  with  what  Sacchi  has  occasion  for,  in  order  to  be 
credited;  you  must  stretch  your  credulity  yet  many  degrees  wider,  in 
crder  to  believe  his  story — and  if  you  do  not  believe  the  whole,  you 
can  believe  no  part  of  it.  Tin's,  he  said,  was  the  habitual,  constant 
practice — it  happened  again  and  again — and  he  himself  saw  the  self- 
same thing  several  times.  I  appeal  to  your  lordships — Is  this  probable? 
Is  it  in  the  common  course  of  things,  even  with  the  most  profligate 
and  abandoned  women,  the  women  who  are  a  disgrace  to  their  sex? 
I  say,  unless  yon  believe  the  parlies  to  be  absolutely  insane,  there  is 
no  accounting  for  such  conduct. 

My  lords,  there  is  an  impossibility,  I  think,  physically,  in  the  story 
which  Sacchi  tells,  at  a  time  when  the  carriage  was  going  at  the  rate 
of  nine  or  ten  miles  an  hour,  over  such  roads  as  we  know  are  found 
in  that  part  of  Italy,  with  two  hands  placed  across  each  other,  while 
the  parties  are  fast  asleep,  and  without  any  power  over  their  limbs. 
To  overcome  this  difficulty  would,  I  think,  have  required  the  testimony 
of  philosophers  who  had  made  experiments.  And  yet  we  are  called 
upon  to  believe  this  on  the  evidence  of  Sacchi,  such  as  he  has  described 
himself  to  be,  but  who  has  given  you  no  other  description  of  the  car- 
riage, except  that  there  were  curtains  to  it.  What  if  it  be  an  English 
carriage,  with  glasses  and  spring  blinds!  What,  if  I  show  your  lord- 
ships, by  evidence,  that  it  was  an  English  carriage,  furnished  with 
glasses  and  with  spring  blinds?  And  even  if  the  glass  were  down, 
which  is  not  very  likely  in  the  night,  how  was  he  to  open  the  curtain 
without  putting  his  hand  in  to  touch  the  spring,  which  lie  does  not  say 
that  he  did?  What  if  I  should  prove  that  Sacchi  was  not  the  courier 
who  went  that  journey,  but  that  it  was  another  courier,  of  whom  you 
shall  hear  more.  But  I  contend  that  it  is  unnecessary  for  rne  to  prove 
this.  I  deny  that  I  am  called  upon  to  prove  this.  The  opposite  side 
had  plenty  of  witnesses  to  establish  their  case,  if  established  it  could 
have  been.  They  had  abundance  of  cast-off  servants;  and  if  cast-off 
servants  would  not  answer  their  purpose,  they  had  the  servants  now 
in  the  employment  of  Her  Majesty.  Now,  why  did  they  not  call 
them?  Again  and  again  let  me  entreat  of  your  lordships  never  to  lose 
sight  of  this  fact — for  it  is  a  main,  if  not  the  cardinal  point  in  this  case 
— the  accuser  is  not  ever,  or  upon  any  account,  to  be  excused  from 
making  out  his  case.  He  has  no  right  to  put  it  upon  the  accused  to 
call  witnesses  to  prove  herself  innocent,  seeing  that  it  is  the  business 
of  the  accuser,  by  good  evidence,  whenccsoever  it  may  be  drawn,  to 
prove  the  guilt. 

But  was  there  any  other  person  in  the  carriage  while  this  scene  was 
going  on?  "  Non  mi  ricordo"  was  the  answer  of  Sacchi,  adopting  the 
well-known  language  of  the  justly  celebrated  Majocchi.  Now  ob- 
serve, my  lords,  the  caution  of  this  answer.  That  question  did  not 
come  upon  him  by  surprise.  "  I  shall  be  asked,"  thought  ho,  "  whe- 
ther there  was  any  body  else  in  the  carriage.  If  I  say  ihcre  was  any 
body  there,  nobody  will  believe  it  to  have  happened.  If  I  say  nobody 
was  there,  and  it  turns  out  that  somebody  was  there,  this  will  destroy 
my  testimony,  and  therefore  I  must  say,  I  do  not  remember."  But 

VOL.  I. 10 


110  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

he  shall  not  stay  there.  In  that  lurking-place  he  shall  not  abide.  I 
will  drag  him  out.  The  first  remark  naturally  would  be — "  This 
could  not  have  taken  place  when  any  person  was  by;  there  must  have 
been  nobody  else  there."  My  lords,  there  ivas  somebody  else  there, 
as  I  will  prove  to  your  lordships,  during  the  whole  of  the  journey.  In 
the  next  place,  after  a  person  has  witnessed  such  a  scene  as  this,  and 
that  person  a  servant,  is  it  very  likely  that,  from  that  moment  for- 
ward, his  lips  should  be  hermetically  sealed?  that  he  should  never 
dream  of  confiding  it  to  the  easy  ear,  the  willing  ear,  of  his  tender  and 
gentle  and  soft  friend  Demont?  That  he  should  enjoy  the  intimate 
and  delightful  intercourse  of  her  society  for  months,  both  abroad  and 
in  this  country,  without  talking  of  this,  from  a  delicacy,  I  have  no 
doubt,  in  their  intercourse,  far  above  that  of  all  other  pairs?  He  was 
aware  that  some  had  split  upon  a  rock  by  saying  that  they  had  never 
told  their  story  to  any  one  until  they  told  it  at  Milan — boatmen,  ma- 
sons, carvers,  gilders,  waiters — all  the  witnesses  brought  from  Lom- 
bardy.  But  he  did  not' choose  to  say  so.  He  had,  by  your  lordships' 
kind  permission,  seen  the  evidence  taken  at  your  bar,  and  had  studied 
it,  knowing,  as  he  does,  the  English  language.  He  did  not,  therefore, 
choose  to  say,  "  I  had  told  it  to  no  one,"  but  thought  it  more  safe  to 
say,  "  I  had  told  it  to  people,  though  I  cannot  name  one  of  them  now." 
I  say  if  it  is  clear,  that  such  a  thing  could  not  pass  and  be  seen  without 
the  eye-witness  telling  it  again,  it  is  just  as  clear,  that  the  eye-witness 
could  not  tell  it  again,  without  well  recollecting  to  whom  he  had  so 
told  it. 

My  lords,  as  to  the  witness  Kress  and  her  story  at  Carlsrnhe,  I  have 
only  to  add,  that  it  is  physically  impossible  it  could  have  happened, 
inasmuch  as  she  says  she  well  remembers  it  was  after  the  first  night 
they  arrived  at  the  inn.  She  remembers  that  by  the  circumstance  of 
her  having  been  called  in  one  morning  at  breakfast 

[At  this  stage  of  the  speech  the  house  adjourned,  and  next  day, 
(October  4th)  Mr.  Brougham,  resumed.] 

How  comes  it  to  pass,  my  lords,  that  with  no  want  of  care  in  the 
preparation  of  this  case;  with  the  greatest  display  of  skill  and  ma- 
nagement in  all  the  parts  of  the  preparation;  with  boundless  resources 
of  all  sorts,  to  bring  these  faculties  into  play;  there  yet  should  be 
one  deficiency  so  remarkable,  that  even  upon  the  names  of  the  wit- 
nesses being  pronounced,  it  must  strike  every  observer — I  mean,  the 
total  want  of  balance  between  the  different  countries  from  which  the 
evidence  is  brought,  and  the  unfairness  shown  towards  some  great 
nations,  contrasted  so  manifestly  with  the  infinite  attention  paid  to 
others;  so  that  while  the  Italian  States,  from  the  greatest  to  the  petti- 
est, are  represented  on  the  present  occasion  by  numberless  deputies, 
I  will  not  say  of  all  ranks — but  of  all  ranks  below  the  lowest  of 
the  middle  orders — when  you  come  across  the  Alps,  you  find  Swit- 
zerland, the  whole  Helvetic  League,  appearing  in  the  person  of  a 
single  nyrnph,  and  the  whole  circle  of  the  Germanic  Empire,  embo- 
died in  the  personage  of  one  waiting-maid  at  an  inn — that  from 
Vienna,  the  capital  of  the  whole  country,  nobody  appears  at  all — that 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  Ill 

from  none  of  the  other  resting  places  of  Her  Majesty,  in  her  tour 
through  her  native  land,  docs  a  single  delegate  arrive — lhat  from  none 
of  her  abiding  places  there,  least  of  all  from  the  spot  of  her  nativity, 
where  she  was  best  known,  is  one  deputy  to  be  seen — and  that,  in 
fact  every  thing  on  this  side  the  Alps  is  to  be  found  in  the  person  of 
one  chamber-maid,  or  cellar-maid,  or  assistant  to  the  cellar-man  or 
drawer — for  in  grave  quarters  doubts  were  raised  in  which  of  these 
capacities  this  Germanic  representative  was  to  be  regarded.  But, 
whatever  doubt  we  might  entertain  as  to  her  quality,  with  respect  to 
her  number  there  is  no  doubt;  she  is  assuredly  the  one,  single,  indi- 
vidual person  from  that  portion  of  the  world,  and  save  and  except 
the  Swiss  maid,  she  is  the  one  single  individual  of  all  the  company 
who  is  not  Italian.  I  beg  your  lordships'  pardon,  there  are  two  grand 
exceptions,  but  they  are  my  witnesses,  not  my  learned  friend's,  and  I 
reserve  them  to  open  my  case  withal. 

My  lords,  I  now  come  to  call  your  attention  to  this  single  German 
individual  who  appears  before  you, in  proceeding  to  deal  with  whom, 
I  was  kindly  interrupted  by  the  attention  of  your  lordships  to  the 
convenience  of  the  parties  yesterday.  And  here,  as  upon  former 
occasions,  I  find  myself  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  witness  her- 
self, for  the  description  of  her  own  qualifications.  She  knows  them 
best;  she  cannot  be  said  to  bear  an  unfavorable  testimony,  for  except- 
ing always  the  single  instance  of  the  Queen  as  shown  forth  against 
her  here,  there  never  yet  was  known  any  person  extremely  anxious 
to  fabricate  evidence  against  herself.  Now  Kress,  to  take  her  from 
her  earlier  years,  appears  by  her  own  account  to  have  embraced  at 
the  tenderest  age  the  reputable,  the  unsuspicious,  the  unexposed  office 
of  a  chamber-maid  at  a  little  German  inn.  If  your  lordships  will 
calculate  from  the  number  of  years  which  she  mentions  back  to  the 
time  to  which  her  evidence  applies,  you  will  find  she  was  just  turned 
of  thirteen  years  when  she  first  became  such  a  chamber-maid  at  the 
inn  where  she  was  afterwards  found.  The  other  places  in  which  she 
served,  it  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  discover;  but  still  there  is  no  very 
great  difficulty,  and  any  little  impediment  in  the  way  of  our  research 
into  this  part  of  her  history  is  removed  by  a  little  attention  to  what 
the  object  is  of  the  person  who  alone  creates  that  difficulty,  and 
to  the  motives  with  which  it  is  thrown  in  our  way.  I  make  Kress 
herself  her  own  biographer;  for  she  tells  you  she  was  in  other  places 
— what  places?  Mr.  So  and  So.  "  Mr.  Marwey — what  was  he?" 
— "  I  was  as  his  servant."  She  tries  to  sink,  until  pressed,  what 
the  particular  occupation  of  the  master  was,  and  what  the  particu- 
lar capacity  of  herself  in  his  service;  and  then  it  comes  out  that  in 
all  the  instances,  without  one  exception,  in  which  she  had  a  place, 
unless  when  employed  in  the  laundry  of  the  palace  of  Baden,  she 
was  in  all  those  cases  in  an  inn,  and  in  no  other  kind  of  house. 
However  often  she  may  have  changed  her  service,  she  never  has 
changed  her  station. 

My  lords,  she  lets  us  a  little  more  into  her  history  afterwards,  nnd 
into  the  nature  of  her  pretensions  to  credit  before  your  lordships. 


112  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

First,  we  find  in  what  manner  she  was  induced  to  give  her  evidence; 
and  I  do  intreat  your  attention  to  it,  because  it  shows,  that  if  there 
be  any  want  of  witnesses  here,  particularly  from  Germany,  it  is 
from  no  lack  of  agency  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  preparing 
the  case  against  the  Queen;  for  the  agents  in  Germany  are  found  in 
their  accustomed  number,  with  their  usual  activity,  and  with  the  full 
command  of  their  ordinary  resources.  And  I  must  say,  that  reflect- 
ing upon  the  Milan  Commission  as  an  Englishman,  and  recollecting 
that  the  German  agents  are  not  our  countrymen,  I  feel  some  satisfac- 
tion that  there  was  a  greater  degree  of  impropriety  shown  in  the 
conduct  of  the  German  agents  than  we  have  ever  imputed  to  any  one 
beyond  the  Alps.  I  introduce  to  your  lordships  fearlessly,  in  support 
of  this  proposition,  Baron  Grimm,  the  minister  of  Wurtemberg,  the 
throne  of  which  has  been  long  filled  by  the  Princess  Royal  of  Eng- 
land. But  I  trace  his  connection  with  the  parties  in  this  prosecution. 
He  and  a  person  named  Reden,  (which  Reden  succeeded  Baron 
Ompteda  in  his  mission  to  Rome,  where  he  dared  to  treat  the  con- 
sort of  his  royal  master — his  own  Queen  as  well  as  she  is  your  lord- 
ships'— with  insults  that  made  it  impossible  for  her  to  remain  on  the 
spot,  even  if  the  defence  of  her  honor  had  not  imperiously  called  her 
hither) — Grimm  and  Reden,  and  another  whose  name  does  not 
occur  to  me,  but  who  is  also  a  minister  of  the  Grand  Duke,  at  the 
place  where  the  scene  is  alleged  to  have  taken  place,  were  the 
active  and  the  unscrupulous  agents  in  the  part  of  the  plot  against  Her 
Majesty.  The  worthy  Baron  Grimm,  in  the  zeal  which  he  shows 
for  his  employers,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  has  scrupled  not 
to  throw  faraway  from  him  all  those  feelings  of  decorum,  which  a 
man  may  not  dismiss,  even  in  the  most  ordinary  occasions  of  private 
life.  It  seems,  however,  that  in  affairs  of  diplomacy,  things  may  be 
justifiable  in  a  minister  which  would  disgradfe  a  private  individual — 
that  conduct  may  earn  him  the  applause  of  his  employers  which 
would  call  down  upon  his  head  the  reprobation  of  every  honest  man 
in  private  life — that  actions  may  cover  him  with  rewards,  which  he 
falsely  calls  honors,  that  would  dishonor  and  disgrace  him,  had  he 
been  only  acting  in  his  individual  capacity.  My  lords,  I  say,  Baron 
Grirnm  did  that  which  would  have  inevitably  worked  this  destruction 
to  his  character  if  he  had  not  been  a  diplomatic  agent — to  whom  I 
presume,  all  things  are  lawful. 

Baron  Grimm  was  living  in  certain  apartments — they  were  his 
own  by  occupation.  He  heard  that  the  Queen  was  about  to  arrive 
— he  artfully  gave  them  up.  He  accomodated  Her  Royal  Highness 
with  the  use  of  those  rooms.  He  kindly  left  the  principal  apartment, 
and  disinterestedly  encountered  the  inconvenience  of  a  change  to 
other  and  worse  lodgings.  Fie  courteously  gave  her  the  use  of  those 
from  which  he  had  himself  departed;  and,  as  soon  as  Her  Royal 
Highness  departed  from  the  rooms — on  the  very  day  that  she  left 
them — he  returned  again  to  the  same  rooms,  and  was  found  with 
another  coadjutor  in  this  plot,  running  up  and  down — to  use  Barbara 
Kress's  expression,  "running  about  the  rooms,"  examining  every- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  113 

thing,  looking  at  the  furniture,  prying  into  the  beds,  taking  note  of 
what  had  passed,  that  he  might  report  to  those  who  he  thought 
would  be  pleased  to  find  that  lie  had  gone  upon  such  errands,  but 
who  I  know  and  feel  were  above  sending  him  upon  such  a  dirty 
mission,  lint  in  one  character  he  does  not  appear.  Active  as  this 
agent  every  where  is  in  the  vile  office  of  a  runner  of  the  conspiracy; 
sedulous  and  unscrupulous  in  his  observations  as  he  has  been;  regard- 
less of  his  own  dignity,  and  forgetful  of  that  of  the  sovereign  whom 
he  represents,  as  he  has  proved  himself  to  be — he  neverthelsss  does 
not  condescend  to  make  himself  a  witness.  He  does  not  adventure 
to  come  forward  here;  he  does  not  show  the  same  boldness  to  face 
your  lordships  and  us,  which  he  showed  to  face  the  reprobation  of 
the  public  in  his  own  country,  and  wherever  else  his  conduct  should 
be  criticised.  Here  the  baron  is  not  forthcoming — here  he  is  not  to 
be  found — yet  here  he  was  a  material  witness,  material  in  propor- 
tion to  the  importance  of  the  matters  which  Barbara  Kress  alone 
has  been  brought  into  this  country  to  swear  to;  of  paramount  im- 
portance, because  Kress  is  the  only  witness  who  is  brought  to  swear 
to  any  one  of  those  particulars  which  are  said  to  have  passed  at 
Carlsruhe;  of  still  greater  importance,  when  your  lordships  reflect, 
that  because  he  entered  the  room  at  the  moment  the  Queen  left  it,  he 
must  have  been  able,  if  Kress  spoke  the  truth,  to  give  confirmation 
to  her  statement.  The  Baron  is,  however,  absent  and  the  only  wit- 
ness that  could  be  obtained  by  all  the  skill,  the  industry,  and  the  zeal 
of  the  several  agents,  to  speak  to  the  extraordinary  fact,  is  this  single 
German  chamber-maid. 

Let  us  then  pursue  the  history  of  the  only  witness  whom,  with  all 
the  means  in  their  possession,  and  so  little  scrupulousness  in  using 
them,  these  agents  have  been  able  to  gather  from  all  Germany. — 
Look,  my  lords,  at  the  contradictory  account  the  woman  gives  of  her 
motives  for  coming  over  to  this  country.  She  twice  over  swore  that 
she  came  upon  compulsion — that  she  only  came  because  she  was 
forced — and  you  no  sooner  turn  the  page  than  you  find  that  she  made  a 
bargain  for  compensation  for  the  loss  of  time;  but  she  was  never  pro- 
mised anything — no  recompense — nothingof  the  kind — \\Qbelohnung, 
only  an  entschcldigung^  it  was  said  while  she  was  examined, and  said 
by  those  who  were  examining  her:  but  she  would  not  say  so,  she 
would  not  adopt  the  expression  tendered  her;  though  offered  to 
her,  she  would  not  take  it  into  her  mouth,  but  she  said  she  came  by 
compulsion,  ytt  at  the  same  time  confessed  that  she  had  bargained 
for  recompense.  But  what  had  she  reason  to  expect  without  any 
express  bargain  being  made?  What  reason  had  she  to  expect  recom- 
pense? And  with  what  liberality  had  she  ground  to  hope  it  would 
be  meted  out  to  her?  She  shall  again  tell  the  story  which  she  told 
however  reluctantly.  None  of  your  lordships  can  forget  with  what 
reluctance  she  let  it  be  wrung  from  her;  but,  happily,  still  it  was 
wrung  from  her.  Your  lordships  will  find  the  part  of  the  examina- 
tion I  allude  to  in  page  193  of  the  printed  minutes.  She  was  asked, 
whether  she  had  ever  been  examined  before,  and  she  answered,  she 

10* 


114  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

had  been  at  Hanover.  The  examination  then  proceeded  thus:  "  What 
did  you  get  for  going  to  Hanover?"  "I  received  a  small  payment, 
just  for  the  time  I  had  lost."  "  How  much  was  that  payment?" 
"  I  cannot  exactly  tell;  it  was  little,  very  little."  Now  this  I  pledge 
myself  to  the  accuracy  of — "  little,  very  little,"  those  are  her  words  at 
page  193.  Why  then,  it  was  said,  the  less  it  was,  the  more  easily  it 
may  be  remembered;  but  it  subsequently  turned  out,  that  it  was  not 
because  the  reward  was  so  little,  but  because  it  was  so  great,  that  she 
could  not  recollect  it.  "  It  was  little,  very  little."  Very  little!  What 
was  this  mere  nothing?  What,  my  lords,  if  it  was  a  larger  sum  by 
five  or  six  times  than  her  yearly  wages?  What,  if  it  was  a  larger  sum 
by  ten  times  than  her  yearly  wages?  What,  if  this  little,  this  mere 
nothing,  was  even  greater  than  her  yearly  wages,  including  all  the 
perquisites  of  her  place?  What,  if  added  to  the  sum  she  got  for  ano- 
ther trip  to  be  examined  at  Frankfort — she  having  been  absent  from 
her  home  six  days  on  one  trip,  and  four  or  five  on  the  other — what 
if  for  one  fortnight  of  a  year,  taking  the  going  and  returning  into  the 
account,  this  "very  little,"  this  mere  nothing,  which  she  cannot  recol- 
lect, which  she  dismissed  from  her  memory,  and  cannot  now  recall, 
because  it  was  so  little,  turns  out  to  be  about  double  the  sum,  at  all 
events  more  than  half  as  much  again,  as  she  ever  received,  wages, 
perquisites,  incidents  included,  in  any  one  year,  in  her  occupation  of 
chambermaid!  Now,  my  lords,  will  any  man  of  plain  ordinary  un- 
derstanding and  capacity,  even  if  he  has  not  been  accustomed  to  sift 
evidence — even  if  this  were  the  first  time  he  was  ever  called  upon 
thus  to  exercise  his  faculties — pretend  to  say  that  he  can  believe  this 
woman,  in  her  attempt  to  deny  receiving  any  thing — in  her  failure  in 
the  attempt  to  recollect  what  it  was,  because  it  was  so  little  a  sum, 
when  it  was  a  sum  that  must  have  made  an  impression  upon  her 
mind,  not  only  sufficient  to  prevent  forgetfulness  of  it,  not  only  (if  she 
spoke  truth  voluntarily  and  honestly)  to  make  her  have  no  doubt  iti 
her  mind  of  the  amount,  and  no  difficulty  in  telling  it;  but — what  is 
equally  of  importance  for  your  lordships' consideration — to  make  that 
part  of  her  evidence  be  pronounced  false  also,  in  which  she  says  she 
expects  no  reward  in  future;  when  here  you  see,  that  her  expectations 
for  the  future  must  be  measured  by  her  recollection  of  the  liberality 
with  which  she  has  been  treated  during  the  past? 

My  lords,  you  will  find  that  the  same  equivocating  spirit  pursues 
this  witness  through  the  details  of  the  case.  The  way  in  which  she 
describes  herself  to  have  left  the  room  where  she  pretends  to  have 
witnessed  one  particular  scene,  in  order  to  go  to  the  Countess  of  Oldi's 
chamber — her  way  of  denying  when  examined,  whether  she  went 
there  to  satisfy  herself  that  the  person  she  had  seen,  or  thought  she 
had  seen,  was  the  Princess — clearly  shows  your  lordships,  that  she 
did  not  go  to  Madame  Oldi's  room  for  such  a  purpose,  if  she  ever  went 
at  all;  for,  in  answer  to  one  of  the  questions  put  to  her,  as  to  the  pur- 
pose of  her  going  to  Madame  Oldi's  room,  and  whether  it  was  not  to 
assure  herself  as  to  whom  she  had  seen  in  the  other  room,  she  says, 
"  I  saw  it  was  the  Princess,"  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  ques- 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  115 

lion  as  to  the  purpose  of  her  going  to  Madame  Oldi's  room,  if  the 
other  account  she  gives  were  true,  that  she  had  no  such  motive  in 
going  to  Madame  Oldi's  room,  which  was  not  an  immaterial  point;  for 
it  was  necessary  that  she  should  negative  any  such  reason  for  going 
to  that  room,  as  otherwise  she  could  not  prove  that  she  had  certainly 
seen  the  Queen  in  the  other  room — AW  constat  that  the  Queen  was 
in  that  room,  because  Madame  Oldi  was  not  the  only  other  woman  in 
the  house.  It  does  not  prove  it  was  the  Queen  because  Madame  Oldi 
was  in  that  room;  but  still  the  witness  having  gone  thither  with  the 
intention  of  ascertaining  if  Madame  Oldi  was  there,  was  a  complete 
proof,  that  she  was  not  satisfied  of  the  person  she  had  seen  being  the 
person  whom  it  was  her  interest  and  her  well-paid  employment  to 
come  forward  here  for  her  employers  in  this  conspiracy,  and  swear 
she  had  seen.  I  have  mentioned  to  your  lordships,  that  in  the  Carls- 
ruhe  case  the  ambassador  Grimm  does  not  come  forward,  with  others 
who  might  have  been  brought — others,  belonging  to  the  place — others, 
belonging  to  the  Queen's  suite — to  the  absence  of  whom  the  observa- 
tion I  had  the  honor  of  making  yesterday,  and  which  I  may  have 
occasion  to  repeat  afterwards,  at  present  most  strongly  and  most  unde- 
niably' applies. 

But  now,  my  lords,  we  must  again  cross  the  Alps  in  pursuing  the 
history  of  these  witnesses.  And  there  we  find,  that  having  dismissed 
all  the  principal  performers  in  this  piece,  those  who  remain  are  mere 
make-weights  thrown  in  to  give  color  and  consistency  to  the  fanciful 
picture,  and  to  all  of  whom  are  applicable  the  general  observations 
upon  such  testimony,  which  I  had  the  honor  of  submitting  to  your 
lordships  yesterday.  Nothing,  I  think,  can  strike  any  one  as  being 
more  inconceivable,  than  that  what  all  these  witnesses  swear  to  have 
seen  take  place,  should  have  been  disclosed  to  mortal  eyes  by  either 
of  the  parties  to  whom  the  depositions  apply.  The  character  and  na- 
ture of  those  witnesses — of  the  lowest  class  of  society — of  the  meanest 
appearance  in  every  respect — of  the  humblest  occupations,  some  of 
them  even  degrading  ones,  after  all  the  pains  taken  to  render  them 
produceable  witnesses — the  total  failure  to  clothe  them  with  any  the 
least  appearance  even  of  ordinary  respectability — all  this  must  have 
forcibly  struck  every  person  who  saw  but  a  single  one  of  them  here. 
I  might  remind  your  lordships  of  Guggiari,  one  of  the  boatmen  em- 
ployed on  the  Lake  of  ('omo,  one  of  a  boat's  crew  of  eleven  all  of 
whom  were  present  at  the  time,  none  of  whom  had  any  intercourse 
of  a  confidential  nature  with  either  of  the  parties — if  we  are  to  talk  of 
two  parties  here,  as  the  accusation  compels  me  to  do,  contrary  to  all 
truth,  and  without  any  proof  on  the  part  of  the  Bill.  The  impossibility 
of  conceiving  that  any  individuals  in  their  ordinary  senses,  and  pos- 
sessing their  common  understandings,  would  have  allowed  such  things 
to  have  passed  before  eleven  men  ol  this  description,  and  all  strangers 
to  them,  must  have  struck  every  one  who  heard  the  evidence  given, 
and  have  dispensed  with  the  necessity,  and  almost  excluded  me  from 
the  duty  of  cross-examining  a  single  one  of  this  swarm  of  petty  wit- 
nesses, who  were  filling  up  the  gap  between  Kress  and  Demout.  Why 


116  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

were  none  of  the  others  called — none  of  the  crew?     Did  Guarsiariever 

oo 

tell  to  any  person  what  he  had  seen?  Had  he  ever  from  that  moment 
to  the  present  time  whispered  it  to  one  living  ear?  Yes, once.  When? 
Where?  At  Milan — to  the  Commission.  So  it  is  with  all  the  rest. 
Rastelli,  who  swears  to  a  scene  too  disgusting  to  be  gone  over  in 
detail — who  swears  to  that  abomination  having  been  impudently 
practised  in  the  open  face  of  day,  without  the  most  ordinary  covering 
or  shelter,  whilst  he  was  at  four  paces  distance,  and  where  the  turn  of 
his  head  might  have  revealed  it  to  him — this  Rastelli,  like  all  the  rest, 
(for  it  is  an  observation  that  applies  to  every  one  of  the  witnesses  of 
these  strange  abominations,  as  if  the  relation  between  cause  and  effect 
in  this  singular  case  was  wholly  suspended,)  had  never  opened  his 
mouth  on  the  subject— his  lips  were  hermetically  sealed,  never  to  be 
opened  again,  until  he  appeared  before  the  Commission  at  Milan. — 
Ten  long  months  elapse — the  same  silence!  Was  he  living  the  life  of 
a  hermit  all  these  ten  months?  Did  he,  like  a  solitary  recluse,  never 
see  mortal  face,  nor  approach  human  ear?  Was  there  no  brother 
sister,  friend,  man,  woman,  or  child,  to  whom  he  could  whisper  it? 
To  child,  perhaps,  profligate  as  I  have  no  doubt  he  is,  he  might  refrain 
from  reve  iling  it;  but  to  brother,  to  mistress,  to  wife,  he  might  have 
communicated  it — to  boatmen,  who  have  been,  as  I  know,  the  means 
of  corrupting  not  a  few  of  those  whom  they  have  attended,  for  they 
have  confessed  that  they  have  got  into  the  way  of  telling  stories  which 
had  not  a  shadow  of  foundation,  because  their  passengers  had  got  into 
the  way  of  paying  them  for  being  amused  with  those  details  by  way 
of  gossip — not  one  whisper  ever  escapes  the  lips  of  Rastelli,  or  of  the 
other  witnesses,  with  respect  to  the  sights  they  had  seen.  Is  it,  my 
lords,  the  effect  of  seeing  such  sights  to  make  men  silent?  Is  it  the 
effect  of  seeing  such  sights  to  make  men  even  in  the  higher  ranks  of 
society,  silent?  How  many  are  there  of  your  lordships,  who  have  not 
had  long  official  habits — whose  lips  are  not  under  the  regulation  which 
such  experience  is  calculated  to  inflict — whose  whole  movements  of 
mind  and  body  are  not  disciplined  and  squared  according  to  the  rules 
of  a  court,  so  as  even  to  enact  the  courtier  when  none  are  present — 
how  many  are  there,  even  of  your  lordships,  who  would  not  in  your 
natural  state  instantly  have  revealed  it  to  some  friend  or  other?  But 
my  lords,  I  profess  I  can  name  none  in  private  society — I  can  hardly 
name  any  gentleman,  however  prudent  and  discreet  in  his  conversa- 
tion, who  not  being  intrusted  confidentially,  who  only  seeing  what  the 
party  showed  they  evidently  did  not  mean  to  be  concealed,  who  under 
no  seal  of  secrecy  became  acquainted  with  the  fact,  that  would  not 
necessarily,  on  witnessing  so  strange  a  sight,  have  made  those  wiser 
for  talking  with  him  whom  he  might  afterwards  chance  to  converse 
withal.  Yet  these  low  people,  so  different  from  persons  in  the  upper 
ranks  of  life,  are  so  much  more  discreet,  so  infinitely  more  upon  their 
guard  at  all  times  and  seasons,  so  incomparably  more  delicate  in  their 
conversation,  talk  only  to  persons  of  purity  whose  ears  would  be  con- 
taminated, and  whose  cheeks  would  be  crimsoned  by  the  repetition  of 
these  details;  for  in  no  one  case  does  any  of  the  witnesses  pretend  to 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  117 

say,  that  he  had  ever  told  a  living  being  of  those  strange  and  abomi- 
nable sights  which  he  had  just  witnessed.  Were  they  sights  of  every 
day's  occurrence'?  Was  the  Princess  of  Wales  kissing  her  servant 
openly,  and  without  drawing  the  curtains,  a  thing  that  happened  on 
the  lake  of  Coino  as  often  as  the  wind  blew  over  it?  Was  the  Prin- 
cess riding  with  her  servants  in  a  carriage,  in  an  attitude  of  foul  inde- 
cency not  to  be  named  without  a  blush,  an  occurrence  which  happened 
every  day?  My  lords,  my  lords,  the  sight  said  to  have  been  witnessed 
was  so  strange,  so  unheard-of,  so  frightful,  so  monstrous,  so  porten- 
tous, that  no  person  could  have  beheld  it  and  kept  it  to  himself  for  a 
single  day.  But  days,  weeks,  months,  passed  away,  and  then  it  was 
told  for  the  first  time  before  the  Milan  Commission!  It  was  then,  for 
the  first  time,  that  the  lips  of  those  persons  were  unsealed!  But  I 
will  not  admit,  that  they  concealed  this  extraordinary  tiling  for  weeks 
or  days,  or  even  hours.  They  may  indeed  perchance  have  concealed 
it,  from  the  instant  that  they  invented  it,  upon  hearing  on  their  journey 
to  Milan,  that  their  predecessors  had  been  well,  paid  for  lesser  slanders; 
they  perchance  may  have  kept  it  to  themselves  lest  they  should  have 
covered  themselves  with  infamy  among  those  who  knew  it  to  be  alia 
falsehood — among  their  neighbors  they  may  have  concealed  the  vile 
fiction — but  they  kept  it  secret  no  longer  than  the  journey  to  Milan 
demanded;  and  in  no  case,  will  I  venture  to  say,  was  it  kept  longer  in 
their  breasts  than  from  the  time  it  first  crossed  their  imagination  to 
the  time  they  went  and  earned,  by  telling  it,  the  reward  of  their  per- 
jury. 

But,  my  lords,  you  will  see  that  in  this  instance  we  have  no  variety. 
There  is,  in  this  respect,  a  general  sameness  in  the  conduct  of  these 
witnesses.  In  other  instances  there  are  variations  of  importance.  Do 
your  lordships  recollect  Pietro  Cucchi,  the  waiter  from  Trieste?  Can 
any  man  who  saw  him  have  forgotten  him?  Does  he  not  rise  before 
you  the  instant  I  mention  his  name — unless  any  of  your  lordships 
should  recollect  the  face,  the  never-to-be-forgotten  expression  of  face, 
although  the  name  may  have  escaped  you?  Do  your  lordships  recol- 
lect that  unmatched  physiognomy — those  gloating  eyes — that  sniffing 
nose — that  lecherous  mouth — with  which  the  wretcli  stood  here  to 
detail  the  impurities  which  he  had  invented,  to  repeat  the  falsehood 
to  which  he  had  previously  sworn  at  Milan?  Do  you  recollect  the 
unparalleled  eye  of  that  hoary  pander  from  Trieste?  Did  lie  not  look, 
as  the  great  poet  of  Italy  describes  the  hoary  unnatural  lecher  in  the 
infernal  regions  to  have  looked,  when  he  paints  him  as  regarding  him 
with  the  eye,  the  piercing  eye,  of  an  ancient  tailor  peeping  through 
the  eye  of  his  needle?* 

I  remember  that  man  well.  The  story  he  told  is  enough;  but  I 
will  contradict  him,  for  he  at  least  shall  not  pass  unpunished,  lie  at 
least  is  here.  He  must  be  made  an  example  of.  I  can  contradict 

*  rjnnrdommi 

Come  vccchio  Sartor  fa  nclla  cruna. 

DANTE. 


118  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

others — I  can  drag  others  to  punishment — but  he  at  any  rate  shall 
not  escape.  My  lords,  I  will  show  you,  by  evidence  undoubted,  un- 
questionable, above  all  suspicion  that  that  man  must  have  sworn  false- 
ly. I  will  prove  it  by  the  room  itself.  I  can,  if  I  will,  prove  it  by  the 
position  of  the  door.  I  think  his  own  account  of  the  position  of 
that  door  in  answer  to  questions  put  by  your  lordships,  might  almost 
save  me  the  trouble  of  doing  it.  But  I  will  show  you  more.  I  will 
show  you  that  what  he  swore  cannot  be  true — either  here,  if  your 
lordships  put  me  to  the  necessity  of  it,  or  elsewhere,  for  the  sake  of 
justice.  I  can  show,  my  lords,  that  the  Queen  slept  at  Trieste,  in  her 
whole  life,  but  one  night:  that  she  came  one  day — went  to  the  opera, 
as  he  admitted  she  did  (that  was  the  only  truth  the  wretch  told)  — 
left  it  on  the  morrow — and  neither  before  nor  after  ever  crossed  the 
threshold  of  the  gates  of  Trieste  in  her  days. 

My  lords,  I  dismiss  the  other  witnesses  of  the  same  description.  I 
take  this  filthy  cargo  by  sample  purposely.  Let  those  who  will 
delve  into  the  bulk — I  will  not  break  it  more.  That  it  is  damaged 
enough,  the  sample  tells  sufficiently,  and  with  a  single  remark  I  dis- 
miss it.  Recollect,  my  lords,  those  foolish  stories,  not  only  about  the 
hand,  but  about  the  pictures,  and  about  the  bracelet  chain  being  put 
round  the  neck,  with  I  know  not  what  other  trumpery,  got  up  for  the 
purpose  of  variegating  the  thrice  told-tale;  and  yon  will,  I  think, 
agree  with  me,  that  the  Italians  who  coined  the  fictions  are  pretty 
much  the  same  now  that  they  were  known  by  our  ancestors  to  be 
some  centuries  ago.  Whether  lachimo  be  the  legitimate  offspring  of 
our  great  Shakspeare's  mind  or  not,  may  be  doubted;  yet  your  lord- 
ships will  readily  recognise  more  than  one  of  the  witnesses,  but  one 
especially,  as  the  own  brother  of  lachimo.  How  has  he  represented 
himself? 


-"I  have  belied  a  lady, 


The  princess  of  this  country,  and  the  air  on't 
Revengingly  enfeebles  me. — 


-Mine  Italian  brain 


'Gan  in  your  duller  Britain  operate 
Most  vilely;  for  my  vantage,  excellent; 
And,  to  be  brief,  my  practice  so  prevail'd, 
That  I  return'd  with  simular  proof  enough 
To  make  the  noble  Leonatus  mad, 
By  wounding  his  belief  in  her  renown 
With  tokens  thus,  and  thus;  averring  notes 
Of  chamber-hanging,  pictures,  this  her   bracelet! 

My  lords,  the  cases  are  the  same.  We  have  the  same  evidence, 
from  the  same  country,  for  the  same  purpose,  almost  with  the 
same  efl'ects;  and  by  the  same  signs,  marks,  and  tokens,  with  an 
extraordinary  coincidence,  the  two  cases  are  sought  to  be  substantiated. 

And  now  permit  me,  having  disposed  generally  of  the  characters 
of  the  witnesses,  to  call  the  attention  of  your  lordships — and  it  shall 
be  within  much  narrower  limits  than  I  could  have  done,  had  I  not 
necessarily  anticipated  the  greater  part  of  my  comments  on  this  part 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  119 

of  the  case,  in  describing  the  character  of  the  witnesses  who  support- 
ed it;  because  while  I  have  been  dealing  with  the  subject  in  that 
way,  I  have  been  of  necessity  led  to  anticipate,  by  commenting  on 
the  different  branches  of  the  case  which  each  witness  was  called 
upon  to  substantiate — permit  me,  I  say,  to  call  the  attention  of  your 
lordships  to  the  several  heads,  as  it  were,  of  charge — the  several 
counts — if  I  may  so  speak  of  this  strange  indictment,  under  the  form 
of  a  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties  which  is  brought  forward  against 
Her  Majesty  by  the  ministers  of  her  Royal  Husband. 

Your  lordships  will  recollect  that  the  first  of  these  is  evidently  a 
Neapolitan  scene.  There  the  connection  is  alleged  to  have  been  first 
completed — there  the  parties  came  together  and  accomplished,  for  the 
first  time,  but  with  great  freedom,  and  with  long  continuance,  and 
without  any  restraint  at  all,  the  purpose  which  they  appear,  I  will 
not  say  long,  to  have  cherished,  but  to  have  conceived  somewhere 
about  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  before.  The  Princess  of  Wales  (this 
is  the  accusation),  having  been  theretofore  a  person  of  unimpeacha- 
ble character,  a  person  of  unimpeachable  life — proved  to  have  been 
so  by  much  stronger  evidence  than  if  she  had  never  been  suspected 
— proved  to  have  been  so,  if  there  is  truth  in  evidence,  if  there  is 
benefit  in  acquittal,  if  there  is  justice  in  the  world  —  proved  to  have 
been  so  better  than  if  she  had  never  been  tried,  by  two  solemn 
acquittals,  after  two  searching  examinations  carried  on  behind  her 
back,  and  in  circumstances  utterly  unfair  and  unfavorable  to  her — 
so  much  proved  to  have  been  so,  that  when  one  set  of  ministers  had 
reported  her  clear  and  innocent  of  the  charges  brought  against  her, 
but  recommended  her  to  be  censured  for  what  some  persons  were 
pleased  to  term  "levities,"  their  successors  in  oflice,  the  authors  of 
the  present  proceeding,  were  in  no  wise  satisfied  with  this  scanty 
acquittal,  as  they  thought  it,  but  determined  that  the  censure  for 
levities  should  be  expunged,  and  recommended  solemnly,  that  she 
should  be  instantly  received,  by  her  sovereign,  her  uncle,  and  her 
father,  at  his  rigorously  virtuous  court,  as  the  purest  princess  would  be 
received  who  ever  adorned  the  walks  of  royal  life — this  character 
having,  by  such  trials,  been  supported — having  come  out  of  the  fire 
purer,  hi  the  eyes  at  least  of  those  who  favor  the  present  charge 
against  her — how  do  those  who  at  least  arc  thought  to  favor  this 
charge,  but  I  should  deem  unjustly  thought  considering  their  former 
history — how  do  they  say  she  demanded  herself  the  instant  she  left 
England?  Their  maxim — their  rule  of  conduct — their  criterion  of 
probability'  is,  nemo  rcpcntc  NON  fit  turpissimus.  Arriving  in  Italy, 
say  they,  this  pure  and  unimpeachable  personage  hires  a  servant,  a 
man  then  at  least  in  a  menial  capacity,  of  whom  I  shall  afterwards 
have  to  say  a  few  words.  She  moves  towards  Naples;  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days,  certainly  in  less  than  a  month,  you  are  desired 
to  believe  that  the  whole  of  the  criminal  intercourse  commenced, 
that  the  degradation  of  the  Princess  was  completed,  and  all  restraint 
Hung  a\vay — from  the  mistress  of  the  servant  she  becomes  tin-  mis- 
tress of  the  lover,  of  a  menial  lover — plunging  herself  into  a  depth 


120  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

of  vice  which  even  habitually  profligate  women  could  not  for  years 
accustom  themselves  to  display  or  endure.  Now,  my  lords,  the  whole 
case  against  Her  Majesty  falls  to  the  ground,  if  your  lordships  do  not 
believe,  that  on  the  second  night  of  her  arrival  at  Naples  the  alleged 
connection  between  the  parties,  the  Royal  Mistress  and  her  hired  ser- 
vant, commenced;  because  Demont  and  Majocchi  have  both  sworn 
to  facts  which,  if  true,  nay,  if  in  their  least  particular  true,  prove 
the  connection  to  have  begun  from  that  night,  and  have  from  thence- 
forward continued.  And,  with  what  caution  is  this  carried  on? 
Suppose  that  a  long  course  of  profligacy  could  not  only  bend  the 
mind  to  the  disgraceful  circumstances,  but  render  a  woman  incautious 
by  habit — that  is  possible.  But,  it  is  not  so  here;  for  the  first  act  is 
about  the  most  incautious  of  the  whole — I  mean  her  choosing  to  go 
by  the  passage  where  she  must  be  observed,  in  order  to  avoid  the  safer 
way  to  the  room,  the  way  through  which  it  was  highly  probable  no 
eye  could  watch  her. 

Then,  my  lords,  only  recollect  the  manner  in  which  the  evidence 
is  brought  forward;  only  see  the  manner  in  which  this  case  is  offered 
to  your  lordships'  belief.  How  is  the  room  prepared  for  the  first 
night  when  the  guilty  pair  were  to  meet? — By  placing  in  the  room 
which  was  to  be  the  scene  of  their  first  loves — loves  so  ardent,  that 
to  accomplish  them,  all  regard  for  decency  and  decorum  had  in  one 
instant  been  flung  away,  and  all  caution  to  conceal  them  been  for 
ever  abandoned — by  placing  in  the  room  one  small  iron  bedstead,  of 
dimensions  hardly  sufficient  to  contain  a  single  person,  and  only  used 
upon  a  journey  or  in  a  voyage!  This  was  the  only  preparation  in  a 
house,  every  room  of  which  contained  a  comfortable  bed.  Nay,  in 
that  very  room  itself,  there  was  another  and  a  large  bed,  which  the 
witnesses  tell  you  was  left  untouched.  This  circumstance  alone  is 
decisive.  The  witness  tells  you,  in  her  first  examination,  that  the 
larger  bed  was  not  much  tumbled;  but,  a  day  or  two  afterwards,  I 
think  on  the  third  day,  she  mends  this  materially;  and  then,  in  answer 
to  a  question  put  to  her  by  my  learned  friend,  Mr.  Williams,  who 
reminded  her  that  she  had  said  the  large  bed  was  not  much  tumbled, 
she  says,  "  Yes,  I  said  so  when  I  was  examined  the  other  day,  but  I 
have  since  recollected  something,  and  I  can  tell  you  more  about  it 
now."  One  of  your  lordships  had  that  explained,  and  out  came  the 
story  of  the  stains  last  of  all — after  she  had  again  said,  the  second  time 
mending  the  first  account,  that  it  looked  as  if  two  persons  had  pressed 
upon  it  in  the  middle.  I  repeat,  last  of  all  she  recollected  the  stains; 
but  what  those  stains  were  she  could  not  tell.  No  person  examined 
her  about  them;  but  she  had  not  much  liked  my  learned  friend's 
operations  the  day  before.  She  was  not  in  good  charity  with  Mr. 
Williams,  after  the  second  day's  examination,  which  happened  to  be 
in  his  hands,  and  not  in  those  of  my  learned  friend  the  Solicitor-general: 
and,  accordingly,  she  then  said  she  would  tell  him  nothing  more^  or, 
as  she  said  herself,  she  recollected  now  \vhat  she  had  forgotten  then. 
What  did  Mr.  Williams  say  to  her?  What  had  passed  in  the  interval 
to  make  her  recollect  one  single  tittle  which  the  leading  examinatioi 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  121 

of  the  Solicitor-general,  (I  speak  it  not  offensively,)  with  the  brief 
before  him,  ought  not  to  have  made  her  remember,  and  which  yet  it 
could  not  make  her  remember  then?  Was  it  likely  or  probable  she 
should  forget  so  strong  a  circumstance  as  the  situation  of  the  bed, 
when  she  knew  that  she  came  here  to  prove  adultery — when  she  felt, 
at  every  word  she  spoke,  that  she  was  here  for  no  other  purpose? 
The  witness  farther  volunteered  to  say,  that  the  Princess  returned 
home  early  from  the  opera.  I  shall  show,  that  she  remained  till  the 
opera  was  over,  in  the  presence  of  the  royal  family  of  Naples,  and  in 
the  royal  box.  She  said,  that  the  Queen  was  in  a  state  of  consider- 
able agitation  when  she  dismissed  Billy  Austin,  for  the  purpose  of 
being  alone.  "She  said  that  Billy  Austin  had  been  accustomed  to 
sleep  in  the  Queen's  room.  But  I  shall  show  your  lordships  that  this 
had  ceased  long  before.  I  shall  show  your  lordships  that  he  slept  in 
the  next  room  to  Her  Majesty,  and  that  the  door  of  communication 
was  constantly  unlocked.  The  witness  said,  that  Her  Majesty  for- 
bade him  to  come  into  the  room;  but  she  did  not  forbid  him,  in  the 
most  simple  and  effectual  of  all  ways — by  turning  the  key.  She  also 
describes  the  Queen  as  corning  home  early  from  the  opera,  to  do  what 
no  man  can  doubt  was  adultery,  under  all  the  agitation  and  perturba- 
tion of  a  bridal  night.  Yet,  my  lords,  will  any  man  believe,  that  this 
person  so  circumstantial  and  minute  on  other  occasions,  with  a  perfect 
sense  how  infinitely  important  it  was  to  the  tale  that  the  bed  should 
be  represented  not  only  as  tumbled,  (which  yet  she  said  was  not  much 
tumbled,)  but  as  having  been  slept  in  by  two  persons — will  any  man 
believe,  that  if  she  then  knew  this,  or  after  wards  could  have  recollected 
it,  and  if  it  was  not  a  mere  after-thought  and  fabrication,  she  would 
not  have  said  at  first,  "  Oh  yes,  the  bed  looked  as  if  two  persons  had 
slept  in  it;"  and  then  the  stains  would  have  been  added,  which  she 
probably  knows  the  meaning  of,  although  like  Barbara  Kress,  she 
denies  she  understood  them? — It  is  plainly  out  of  human  probability, 
that  persons  should  recollect  them,  unless  they  understood  them; 
otherwise,  they  are  no  more  than  ordinary  marks  or  stains,  which  no 
person  ever  heeds,  any  more  than  the  wind  that  passes  over  his  head, 
or  the  marks  left  by  the  rain  upon  Ins  path. 

My  lords,  at  Naples,  another  scene  took  place,  to  which  Demont  is 
the  only  witness.  She  takes  care  to  tell  you  no  time.  She  is  aware 
of  the  consequences  of  that.  She  will  not  give  you  the  means  of 
sifting  her  tale,  or  expose  herself  to  the  risk  of  contradiction.  She 
will  not  tell  you,  whether  it  was  a  week  after  their  arrival  at  Naples, 
whether  it  was  near  the  beginning  or  near  the  end  of  their  stay  there, 
or  towards  the  middle  of  it.  But  some  night  during  their  stay  at 
Naples,  she  saw  Hergami  come  out  of  his  room  naked  except  his 
shirt,  without  stockings  on,  without  a  night-gown  on,  and  moving 
towards  the  part  of  the  corridor  into  which  the  Queen's  chamber 
entered.  She  did  not  start  back,  she  did  not' retire;  but  she  moved 
on  in  the  direction  towards  Bergami.  And  Bergami  did  not  start 
back;  he  did  not  retire;  Bergami  did  not  make  any  excuse,  and  Bt-r- 
gami  seeing  her  before  his  eyes  moved  on  also;  and  she  made  her 
VOL.  i. — 11 


122  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

escape  out  of  the  door;  and  he  still  did  not  bethink  him  of  making 
an  excuse,  but  moved  on  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  guilty  purpose, 
with  more  alacrity  than  almost  a  husband  would  have  done,  in  going 
to  the  bed-chamber  of  his  own  bride.  Your  lordships  will  find  all 
this  in  page  251  of  the  printed  evidence.  I  hardly  stop  to  refer  to 
pages,  because  I  do  not  rely  on  particular  passages,  but  only  draw 
your  attention  to  the  main  and  leading  features  of  the  case,  which 
cannot  possibly  have  escaped  the  recollection  of  those  among  you  who 
heard  the  evidence  given  at  your  bar. 

Let  me  now  remind  you  of  the  scene  which  is  represented  to  have 
taken  place  at  Catanea.  And  observe,  my  lords,  that  here  there  are 
two  witnesses  who  might  have  been  called  to  speak  to  this  transaction, 
if  it  really  did  take  place,  both  of  whom  were  named  and  vouched 
by  the  Attorney-general  in  his  opening.  "  Two  maids,"  says  he, 
"  were  sleeping  in  the  next  room  to  that  of  the  Queen;  they  both  saw 
her  come  back  from  Bergami's  room  at  an  early  hour  of  the  morning; 
they  both  heard  the  child  crying  and  the  Countess  trying  to  pacify 
her;  and  they  both  must  have  known  what  all  this  meant."  Now, 
the  Attorney-general  not  only  does  not  venture  to  call  both,  but  only 
one;  but  he  does  not  venture  to  state,  that  these  two  women  have 
ever  communicated  together,  from  that  time  to  this,  upon  a  tittle  of 
what  that  morning  or  that  night  had  passed.  They'never  did  com- 
municate together — they  could  not  communicate  together— for  no- 
thing of  the  kind  had  passed.  The  whole  thing  was  false;  but  Demont 
alone  is  called.  And  what  is  the  story  as  she  tells  it?  Now,  I  pray 
your  lordships  to  attend  to  it;  for  it  is,  if  possible,  more  incredible 
upon  the  face  of  it,  from  the  multiplied  improbabilities  under  which 
it  labors,  than  that  which  I  have  just  run  over  at  Naples.  Bergami 
usually  slept,  not  only  not  near  the  Queen's  bedroom,  but  on  the 
other  side  of  the  court,  which  formed  the  centre  of  the  building.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  court  was  his  ordinary  bedroom  while  he 
was  well;  but  he  became  sick;  he  was  seized  with  a  severe  fever,  and 
he  was  brought  over  from  his  usual  room  into  another  room,  belong- 
ing, I  believe,  to  the  Countess  Oldi;  and  there  he  was  lying  ill  for  some 
days.  Now,  is  it  not  a  little  extraordinary,  that  the  scene  of  this 
amour  at  Catanea  should  be  laid — I  will  not  say  in  that  room,  though 
this  would  be  strange  enough,  considering  it  could  only  be  approached 
through  the  room  of  the  maids — but  that  it  should  have  been  laid  at 
the  time  when  Bergami  had  a  fever,  and  not  when  he  was  in  good 
health?  Bergami  is  there  as  a  patient  not  as  a  lover;  and  yet  this  is 
the  particular  moment  chosen  for  those  endearments  which  are  left  to 
be  understood;  and  then  Her  Majesty  must  have  Bergami  placed  just  in 
that  situation  of  all  others,  in  which  access  to  his  bedroom  was  rendered 
the  most  difficult  and  embarrassing,  nay,  the  most  impossible,  when 
there  were  the  two  maids  sleeping  in  the  room  between  Madame  Oldi's 
and  his  (for  the  Queen  slept  in  that  which  had  been  Madame  Oldi's 
room).  The  Princess  moved  out  of  her  room,  and  one  of  the  servants 
had  undressed  her — this  very  witness  had  undressed  her — in  her  own 
room;  and  the  story  is?  that  she  removed  out  of  her  room  in  the  night, 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  123 

and  returned  in  the  morning — not  that  she  was  always  lying  in  Bev- 
gami's  room,  but  that  she  went  there  in  the  night,  and  coming  back  in 
the  morning,  she  was  seen  by  the  maids  returning.  Is  it  not  a  marvel- 
lous thing,  my  lords,  that  this  should  be  the  mode  of  operation?  that  the 
thought  should  not  strike  Her  Majesty,  that, in  the  accomplishment  of 
this  purpose,  she  was  running  the  utmost  risks  without  any  inducement 
— risks  similar  to  those  which  she  ran  at  Naples  in  going  through 
Majocchi's  room  instead  of  the  empty  room — while  she  might,  by  an. 
alteration  of  the  rooms,  have  rendered  all  safe  and  easy?  She  had 
only  to  place  herself  in  the  servants'  room,  or  in  Madame  Oldi's  new 
room,  and  there  she  could  have  had  access  to  Bergami,  or  Bergami  to 
her,  without  crossing  the  threshold  of  her  maid's  door?  But,  if  your 
lordships  are  to  believe  the  representations  made  to  you,  all  this  is  only 
in  furtherance  of,  and  in  conformity  with,  the  uniform  tactics  of  Her 
Majesty,  to  multiply  damning  proofs  against  her  own  character,  her 
own  existence,  happiness,  comfort,  every  thing  dear  to  her  in  the 
world.  For  this  is  the  plot  she  is  in,  and  she  is  under  a  spell,  if  you 
believe  the  witnesses,  never  to  do  an  act  injurious  to  her  character, 
without  providing  at  the  same  time  ample  evidence  to  make  that 
injury  inevitable  and  effectual. 

And  now  I  am  told  that  I  can  contradict  all  this  by  means  of  Ma- 
riette  Bron,  the  sister  of  Demont,  and  that  it  must  all  be  believed 
unless  Mariette  Bron  is  called.  I  say,  why  did  not  you  call  Mariette 
Bron?  I  say,  she  is  your  witness;  because  you  opened  her  evidence 
— because  you  vouched  her — because  you  asserted  that  she  was  pre- 
sent— because  you  told  us  what  she  saw.  And  yet  you  call  only  her 
sister,  whom  you  have  in  your  own  pay.  I  say,  she  is  your  witness 
— because  this  is  a  criminal  proceeding;  because  it  is  worse  than  a 
criminal  proceeding;  or  of  a  nature  higher  at  least  in  its  exigency  of 
pure,  perfect,  unsuspected,  sufficient,  nay,  abundant  proof.  I  say  a 
Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties  is  a  measure  of  such  severity,  that  it  ought 
to  be  supported  by  evidence,  better,  if  possible,  and  stronger,  than 
that  which  takes  away  life  or  limb.  I  say,  she  is  your  witness,  and 
not  ours — because  we  are  the  defendants,  the  accused  and  oppressed 
by  the  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties,  which  does  not  only  accuse,  but 
oppress  and  overwhelm.  She  is  your  witness  and  not  ours — because 
we  stand  upon  our  defence;  we  defy  you  to  prove  us  guilty,  and 
unless  you  prove  our  guilt,  and  until  you  prove  that  guilt,  we  ought 
not — if  justice  yet  reigns  here,  we  ought  not — to  be  called  upon  for  a 
defence.  My  lords,  in  a  common  civil  suit,  I  can  comprehend  such 
tactics.  I  am  not  bound,  in  claiming  a  debt,  to  call,  for  the  purpose 
of  proving  my  case,  my  adversary's  servant,  or  his  clerk,  or  his  rela- 
tion; but  if  I  am  placed  upon  my  defence,  charged  with  even  the  lowest 
crime  known  in  the  law,  pure,  unsuspected  testimony  must  be  given, 
whether  it  is  to  be  derived  from  one  quarter  or  from  another — whe- 
ther it  is  to  be  got  from  the  prosecutor's  side  or  our  own.  And  I  will 
put  a  case  to  remind  your  lordships  of  this. — Suppose  a  highway 
robbery  or  murder  alleged  to  have  been  committed,  and  a  man  is  put 
upon  his  trial  for  it;  suppose  that  a  Bow  Street  oilicer,  panting  for 


124  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

his  reward,  or  an  accomplice,  infamous  by  his  own  story,  or  a 
spy,  degraded  by  his  calling,  or  any  other  contaminated,  impure, 
necessarily  suspected  witness  of  any  description,  is  alone  put  forward 
to  prove  the  charge;  and  suppose  a  friend  of  the  defendant  were 
'standing  by,  his  servant,  or  his  partner  in  trade,  or  any  person  who  is 
barely  competent,  by  the  rules  of  evidence,  to  appear  as  a  witness — 
any  person  except  his  wife,  who  cannot  be  a  witness — I  say,  no  man 
ought  to  be — I  say,  no  man  can  be — I  say,  by  our  uniform  practice, 
no  man  ever  would  be — put  in  jeopardy  of  his  life,  or  be  called 
upon  to  produce  in  his  defence,  that  friend,  that  relation,  that  servant, 
unless  the  case  against  him  had  been  first  proved  by  unsuspicious 
testimony;  and  if  only  the  degraded  spy,  or  the  infamous  accomplice, 
or  the  hired  informer,  or  the  Bow  Street  runner,  were  called  against 
him,  their  testimony  is  not  such  as  to  make  it  needful  for  the  prisoner 
to  call  his  friend.  It  is  the  prosecutor  who  must  call  that  friend:  it  is 
no  excuse  to  say  he  is  a  friend,  a  relation  of  the  accused;  a  partner- 
ship is  no  excuse:  the  English  law  demands,  what  common  sense 
approves,  that  every  man  shall  be  considered  innocent  until  he  is 
proved  guilty;  and  that  guilt  must  be  proved  at  the  peril  of  him  who 
seeks  to  condemn  losing  the  purpose  of  his  prosecution. 

My  lords,  the  Queen  is  in  a  most  singular  situation.  She  must 
open  her  mind  to  painful  constructions  of  the  conduct  of  those  who 
surround  her.  She  may  not  view  with  a  charitable  eye  the  actions, 
and  construe  the  feelings  and  the  motives,  of  all  she  has  intercourse 
with.  She  has  been  inured,  by  a  long  course  of  persecution — by  the 
experience  of  much  oppression — by  familiarity  in  her  own  person 
with  manifold  frauds  of  her  adversaries — by  all  the  arts  of  spies — by 
all  the  malice  of  the  spiteful  and  revengeful — by  all  those  hidden 
artifices  which  are  never  at  first  and  not  always  even  at  last,  disco- 
vered— artifices  which  only  sometimes  she  has  had  the  means  of 
tracing  and  exposing  to  the  day.  Such  is  the  life  which  she  has  led, 
the  life  of  which  this  last  scene  now  sifting  by  you,  is  very  far  from 
forming  an  exception;  all  that  she  has  seen  heretofore — all  that  she 
has  seen  now  since  she  went  last  to  Italy — all  that  she  has  witnessed 
here  since  her  return — all  that  she  has  seen  since  this  proceeding  be- 
gan— and  she  has  heard  the  evidence  read,  down  to  the  examination 
of  the  last  witness  on  the  last  day — all  is  calculated  to  make  suspi- 
cion, general,  almost  universal  suspicion,  the  inmate  of  an  otherwise 
unsuspecting  breast.  It  is  the  fate  of  those  who  are  ill-used — it  is 
one  of  the  hardest  portions  in  the  lot  of  those  who  have  been  so 
binTetted  by  the  Grimms,  the  Omptedas,  the  Redens,  not  to  mention 
the  Douglases,  the  Omptedas  of  our  own  land — it  is  the  hard  lot  of 
those  who  have  passed  through  such  trials,  that  the  solace  of  unsus- 
pecting confidence  is  banished  from  their  harassed  bosoms;  their 
hearts  are  seared  and  hardened;  they  never  can  know  whom  they 
dare  trust.  And  even  at  this  hour,  Her  Mnjesty  may  ignorantly  be 
harboring  a  second  viper  in  her  bosom,  of  the  same  breed  as  that 
which  has  already  attempted  to  destroy  her,  and  engendered  in  the 
same  nest.  The  Queen,  my  lords,  has  about  her  person  a  sister  of 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  125 

Demont.  She  was  placed  there  by  that  Demont.  She  was  kept 
there  by  the  arts  of  that  Demont.  She  has  corresponded  with  that 
Dernont.  They  have  corresponded  in  ciphers  together,  if  you  are  to 
believe  Demont,  which  I  do  not.  But  I  take  her  as  described  by  the 
case  for  the  accusers;  and,  in  all  the  circumstances  which  justify,  nay 
prescribe  suspicion,  as  a  duty  to  her  own  personal  safety,  my  learned 
friends  yet  leave  their  case  short  against  the  Queen,  proved  by  such 
evidence  as  I  have  described  to  you,  or  rather,  as  it  is  painted  by  the 
witnesses  themselves,  and  leave  Her  Majesty  to  call  their  own  wit- 
nesses! They  say,  "  Why  do  not  you  call  the  waiting-woman,  Ma- 
riette  Bron,  who  is  still  left  by  her  sister  with  you — whom  that  sister 
first  planted  in  your  household — whom  that  sister  made  you  retain 
about  your  person,  at  the  very  time  she  was  hatching  her  plot  against 
you?"  My  lords,  he  who  fulmined  over  Greece,  and  darted  through 
her  assemblies  his  words  of  fire,  once  said,  what  I  would  now  repeat, 
imploring  you  not  to  take  it  in  our  own  poor  language,  but  recollect 
the  immortal  accents  that  fell  from  him,  in  which  he  imprinted  on  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen,  that  instead  of  all  outworks,  all  fortifica- 
tions, all  ramparts,  which  man  can  throw  up  to  protect  the  weak,  the 
best  security  which  the  honest  and  the  feeble  have  against  the  fraud- 
ful  and  the  powerful,  is  that  mistrust  which  nature,  for  wise  purposes, 
to  defend  the  innocent  against  the  strong  and  the  cunning,  has  im- 
planted in  the  bosom  of  all  human  kind.  It  is  alien  to  the  innocent 
nature;  but  it  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  to  which  innocence,  by  per- 
secution, is  subject,  to  be  obliged  to  harbor  mistrust,  while  surrounded 
by  plotters  so  little  scrupulous  as  the  Grimms  and  Omptedas,  working 
with  agents  so  still  less  scrupulous,  as  Majocchi,  Sacchi,  and  Demont. 

My  lords,  I  am  satisfied  in  my  own  mind,  and  I  have  no  doubt  all 
who  hear  me  will  agree  with  me,  that  we  arc  not  bound  to  call  this 
witness.  I  know  not,  if  we  had  been  ordered  to  deliver  our  opinion 
upon  the  subject  to  our  illustrious  client,  that  we  should  not  have 
awakened  suspicions  in  the  Queen's  breast,  which  even  yet  she  does 
not  entertain  towards  her  serving  woman.  I  know  that  it  would 
have  been  our  duty,  as  professional  men,  to  have  done  so.  I  feel  that 
we  should  have  been  more  than  justified  in  so  doing:  and  I  am  con- 
fident that  we  might  have  appealed  to  the  principles  of  which  I  have 
now  reminded  your  lordships,  and  might  at  once  have  left  the  case  as 
it  stands,  without  calling  this  woman.  But  Her  Majesty  has  as  yet 
seen  no  reason  to  part  with  one  whom  she  still  thinks  a  faithful  servant. 
Whatever  we  may  suspect — whatever  the  story  of  Demont  may 
have  taught  us  to  suppose  likely — the  Queen  has  hitherto  never 
known  any  thing  to  the  prejudice  of  her  sister.  That  sister  will, 
therefore,  be  presented  before  your  lordships,  and  you  will  have  an 
opportunity  of  hearing  her  account  of  those  transactions  which  have 
been  so  falsely  described  by  others.  But  I  again  repeat  that  this  is 
gratuitous  on  our  part — that  we  do  it  voluntarily,  from  an  over-excess 
of  caution,  lest  it  should  be  suspected  by  any  one  for  a  moment,  that 
there  is  any  witness  whom  we  dare  not  to  call. 

In  like  manner  the  story  told  of  what  happened  at  Scharnitz,  upon 

11* 


126  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

the  cross-examination  of  Demont,  and  upon  the  interrogatories  put  by 
your  lordships,  really  melted  away  so  that  very  little  of  it  remained, 
and  that  little  was  perfectly  equivocal,  and  quite  consistent  with  the 
most  perfect  propriety  of  demeanor  on  the  part  of  the  Queen.  But 
still,  having  seen  that  among  some  the  story  made  an  impression,  at 
first  rather  than  at  last,  we  shall  explain  it  in  a  way  not  at  all  incon- 
sistent with  any  thing  but  the  peremptory  swearing  of  Demont  as  to 
the  time,  when  she  says  that  she  could  tell,  within  half  an  hour,  how 
long  she  had  been  asleep,  although  she  could  not  tell  how  many  hours 
she  was  in  a  room  wide  awake  the  day  before.  Demont  swore,  that  on 
the  night  Bergami  returned  with  the  passports  to  Scharnitz,  he  went 
to  the  Princess's  room,  and  there  remained  the  rest  of  that  night. 
My  lords,  I  will  prove  this  to  be  false.  I  will  prove  that  the  moment 
the  passports  were  brought,  the  preparations  for  the  journey  com- 
menced. I  will  prove  that  Her  Majesty  set  off  on  her  travels  within 
an  hour  and  an  half  after  the  arrival  of  the  passports,  and  that  that 
time  was  scarcely  sufficient  to  pack  up  and  prepare  for  travelling.  I 
will  also  prove,  that  during  the  whole  time  the  Queen's  door  was 
hardly  ever  shut,  and  that  there  was  a  constant  passing,  not  of  Ber- 
garni,  but  of  the  other  gentlemen  of  her  suite — the  Queen  lying  on 
the  bed  in  her  travelling  dress,  ready  to  rise  at  one  in  the  morning, 
provided  the  passports  arrived  so  early.  So  with  respect  to  the 
Carlsruhe  case.  We  shall  show  your  lordships  that  it  is  impossible 
Kress  can  have  sworn  true.  That  she  may  have  seen  a  woman  in 
that  room,  if  she  swears  true  at  all,  (which  I  do  not  believe,)  I  have 
no  occasion  to  question.  But  the  night  that  Bergami  went  home, 
and  the  only  night  he  went  home,  at  the  period  in  question,  was  when 
the  Queen  was  left  behind  at  a  music  party  in  the  palace  of  her 
illustrious  relation  to  whom  she  was  making  a  visit.  She  remained 
there  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  upwards — she  remained  there  until 
between  nine  and  ten  o'clock,  and  she  afterwards  went  to  sup  at  the 
Margravine's,  where  she  always  supped  on  the  evenings  she  did  not 
dine  there;  and  Bergami  and  his  sister  and  child  were  then  at  home, 
when  he  was  taken  ill,  and  went  to  bed. 

My  lords,  I  would  remind  you  of  an  argument  which  is  used  in 
the  present  case,  and  which  I  was  rather  surprised  to  hear  that  some 
persons  had  been  so  very  regardless  of  the  details,  as  to  allow  to 
influence  their  otherwise  acute  and  ingenious  minds.  They  say,  that 
if  this  is  a  plot — if  the  witnesses  are  speaking  what  is  untrue,  they 
have  not  sworn  enough;  that  they  ought  to  have  proved  it  home,  as 
it  were;  that  they  ought  to  have  convinced  all  mankind,  of  acts  hav- 
ing been  unequivocally  done  which  nothing  but  guilt  could  account 
for — which  were  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  supposition  of  inno- 
cence. My  lords,  can  those  who  argue  thus,  have  forgotten  two 
things  which  every  man  knows,  one  common  to  all  cases,  and  the 
other  happening  in  every  stage  of  this — namely,  that  the  most 
effectual  way,  because  the  safest  of  laying  a  plot,  is  not  to  swear  too 
hard,  is  not  to  swear  too  much,  or  to  come  too  directly  to  the  point; 
but  to  lay  the  foundation  in  existing  facts  and  real  circumstances — to 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  127 

knit  the  false  with  the  true — to  interlace  reality  with  fiction — to  build 
the  fanciful  fahric  upon  that  which  exists  in  nature — and  to  escape 
detection  by  taking  most  especial  care,  as  they  have  done  here,  never 
to  have  two  witnesses  to  the  same  facts,  and  also  to  make  the  facts 
as  moderate,  and  as  little  offensive  as  possible.  The  architects  of  this 
structure  have  been  well  aware  of  these  principles,  and  have  followed 
the  known  rules  of  fabrication  throughout.  At  Naples,  why  were 
not  other  people  called?  Why  were  there  never  two  witnesses  to  the 
same  fact?  Because  it  is  dangerous;  because,  when  you  are  making 
a  plot,  you  should  have  one  witness  to  a  fact,  and  another  to  a  con- 
firmation; have  some  things  true,  which  unimpeachable  evidence  can 
prove;  other  things  fabricated,  without  which  the  true  would  be  of 
no  avail — but  avoid  calling  two  witnesses  to  the  same  thing  at  the 
same  time,  because  the  cross-examination  is  extremely  likely  to  make 
them  contradict  each  other.  Now,  for  example,  my  learned  friend 
opened  a  case  that  ought  to  be  proved  by  a  crowd  of  witnesses.  Is 
it  so  usual  for  a  Princess  of  Wales,  who  is  seen  in  a  box  at  Naples, 
to  go  on  one  occasion  to  the  theatre  and  be  hissed,  whether  she  was 
masked  or  no?  Do  the  concealments  of  a  masquerade,  like  the  fabrica- 
tions of  this  plot,  exist  longer  than  from  the  night  till  the  morning? 
Would  not  the  hissing  of  such  a  person  as  the  Princess,  for  such  a 
cause  as  the  indecency  of  her  dress,  have  been  known  to  all  who 
attended  the  spectacle?  Would  it  not  afterwards  have  been  believed 
and  told  by  all  the  gossips  of  gay,  idle  Naples  — 

"  Et  otiosa  credidit  Neapolis, 
Et  ouine  vicinum  oppidum." 

And  yet  one  witness  alone,  instead  of  all  Naples,  appears.  In  like 
manner,  we  have  no  other  evidence  at  Naples  of  general  demeanor. 
Why  have  we  none  to  speak  to  the  state  of  the  beds?  Why  none  to 
the  state  of  the  linen?  I  ask,  what  is  become  of  Ann  Preising?  I 
can  answer  that  question  as  well  as  put  it.  She  is  here.  I  obtained 
the  fact  from  a  witness  in  cross-examination.  Why  is  she  not  called? 
I  can  answer  that  question  too.  She  is  not  an  Italian.  What  reason 
is  there  for  not  calling  her?  Your  lordships  can  answer  that  quite 
as  well  as  I  can.  There  was  every  reason  for  calling  her,  if  they 
durst  have  done  it.  The  case  is  short  without  it.  She  could  have 
proved  those  marks — she  was  the  Princess's  maid  at  that  time.  Beds! 
she  made  them.  Linen!  she  had  the  care  of  it.  Who  washed  the 
linen?  Where  was  the  laundress,  the  washer-woman?  And  yet 
she  is  an  Italian,  for  aught  I  know,  though  she  is  not  called,  and 
though  her  being  called  must  have  proved  the  case,  if  Demont 
speaks  a  single  word  of  truth.  They  were  practised  in  calling  washer- 
women. They  knew  the  effect  of  it  in  England,  in  the  former 
plot.  They  were  called  in  the  Douglas  plot,  but  they  did  not  prove 
much,  and  the  plot  failed.  Made  wise  by  experience,  they  call  them 
not  here;  although  they  know,  by  that  experience,  that  if  they  could 
have  stood  the  examination,  this  plot  could  not  have  failed. 

But,  again,  my  lords,  am  I  to  be  told  by  those  who  have  attended 


128  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

to  this  evidence,  that  there  has  been  any  very  great  short-coming  in 
the  swearing  of  some  of  the  witnesses — that  they  have  not  sworn  un- 
equivocally— that  they  have  not  proved  the  facts?  Why,  what  more 
convincing  proof  of  adultery  would  you  have  than  you  have  had  in 
this  case,,  if  you  believe  the  witnesses,  and  they  are  uncontradicted?  I 
should  not  indeed  say,  if  they  are  uncontradicted;  for  1  contend  that 
your  lordships  ought  not  to  compel  me  to  contradict  such  witnesses; 
but  if  you  believe  the  witnesses,  you  have  a  case  of  adultery  as 
plainly  substantiated  in  proof  as  ever  gained  verdict  in  Westmin- 
ster Hall,  or  ever  procured  Divorce  Bill  to  pass  through  your  lord- 
ships' house.  All  that  Demont  tells — all  that  Majocchi  tells — every 
titlte  of  what  Sacchi  tells  at  the  end  of  his  evidence — is  proof  positive 
of  the  crime  of  adultery.  If  you  believe  Sacchi,  Bergami  was  seen 
twice  going  into  Her  Majesty's  bed-room,  and  not  coming  out  from 
thence.  If  you  believe  Sacchi,  adultery  is  the  least  of  her  crimes — 
she  is  as  bad  at  Messalina — she  is  worse,  or  as  bad  as  the  Jacobins  of 
Paris  covered  even  themselves  with  eternal  infamy  by  endeavoring  to 
prove  Marie  Antoinette  to  have  been. 

My  lords,  I  have  another  remark  to  make,  before  I  leave  this 
case.  I  have  heard  it  said,  by  some  acute  sifters  of  evidence  "  Oh! 
you  have  damaged  the  witnesses,  but  only  by  proving  falsehoods,  by 
proving  perjury  indeed,  in  unimportant  particulars."  I  need  but 
remind  your  lordships,  that  this  is  an  observation  which  can  only 
come  from  the  lay  part  of  the  community.  Any  lawyer  at  once  will 
see  how  ridiculous,  if  I  may  so  speak,  such  an  objection  must 
always  be.  It  springs  from  an  entire  confusion  of  ideas;  a  heedless 
confounding  together  of  different  things.  If  I  am  to  confirm  the 
testimony  of  an  accomplice — if  I  am  to  setup  an  informer — no  doubt 
my  confirmation  ought  to  extend  to  matters  connected  with  the  crime 
— no  doubt  it  must  be  an  important  particular,  else  it  will  avail  me  no- 
thing to  prove  it  by  way  of  confirmation.  But  it  is  quite  the  reverse 
in  respect  to  pulling  down  a  perjured  witness,  or  a  witness  suspected 
of  swearing  falsely.  It  is  quite  enough  if  he  perjure  himself  in  any 
part,  to  take  away  all  credit  from  the  whole  of  his  testimony.  Can 
it  be  said  that  you  are  to  pick  and  choose;  that  you  are  to  believe 
part,  and  reject  the  rest  as  false?  You  may  indeed  be  convinced 
that  a  part  is  true,  notwithstanding  other  parts  are  false — provided 
those  parts  are  not  falsely  and  wilfully  sworn  to  by  the  witness,  but 
parts  which  he  may  have  been  ignorant  of,  or  may  have  forgotten,  or 
may  have  mistaken.  In  this  sense  you  may  choose — culling  the  part 
you  believe,  and  separating  the  part  you  think  contradicted.  But 
if  one  part  is  not  only  not  true — is  not  only  not  consistent  with  the 
fact,  but  is  falsely  and  wilfully  sworn  to  on  his  part — if  you  are 
satisfied  that  one  part  of  his  story  is  an  invention— to  use  the  plain 
word,  a  lie,  and  that  he  is  a  forsworn  man  — good  God!  my  lords, 
what  safety  is  there  for  human  kind  against  the  malice  of  their 
enemies — what  chance  of  innocence  escaping  from  the  toils  of  the 
perjured  and  unprincipled  conspirator,  if  you  are  to  believe  part  of  a 
tale  even  though  ten  witnesses  swear  to  it,  all  of  whom  you  convict 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  129 

of  lying  and  perjury  in  some  other  part  of  the  story?  I  only  pray  your 
lordships  to  consider  what  it  is  that  forms  the  safeguard  of  each  and 
every  one  of  you  against  the  arts  of  the  mercenary  or  the  spiteful 
conspirator.  Suppose  any  one  man — and  let  each  of  your  lordships 
lay  this  to  his  mind  before  you  dismiss  the  mighty  topic — suppose 
any  one  of  your  lordships  were  to  meet  with  a  misfortune,  the  greatest 
that  can  befall  a  human  being,  and  the  greater  in  proportion  as  he  is 
of  an  honorable  mind,  whose  soul  is  alien  even  to  any  idea  or  glance 
of  suspicion  of  such  a  case  being  possible  to  himself,  whose  feelings 
shudder  at  the  bare  thought  of  his  name  even  being  accidentally 
coupled  with  a  charge  at  which  his  nature  revolts — suppose  that 
mischance,  which  has  happened  to  the  best  and  purest  of  men,  which 
may  happen  to  any  of  you  to-morrow,  and  which  if  it  does  happen 
must  succeed  against  you  to-morrow,  if  you  adopt  the  principle  I  am 
struggling  against — suppose  any  one  of  your  lordships  charged  by  a 
mercenary  scoundrel  with  the  perpetration  of  a  crime  at  which  we 
show  in  this  country  our  infinite  horror,  by  almost,  and  with  singular 
injustice,  considering  the  bare  charge  to  stand  in  the  place  of  proof — 
suppose  this  plot  laid  to  defame  the  fairest  reputation  iu  England — 
I  say,  that  reputation  must  be  saved,  if  escape  it  may  only  by  one 
means.  No  perjury  can  be  expected  to  be  exposed  in  the  main,  the 
principal  part  of  the  fabric — that  can  be  easily  defended  from  any 
attack  against  it;  all  the  arts  of  the  defendant's  counsel,  and  all  his 
experience,  will  be  exhausted  in  vain:  the  plotter  knows  full  well  (as 
these  conspirators  have  here  done)  how  to  take  care  that  only  one 
person  shall  swear  to  a  fact — to  lay  no  others  present — to  choose  the 
time  and  select  the  place  when  contradiction  cannot  be  given,  by 
knowing  the  time  and  the  place  where  any  one  of  your  lordships, 
whom  he  marks  for  his  prey,  may  have  chanced  to  be  alone  at  any 
moment  of  time.  Contradiction  is  not  here  to  be  expected — refuta- 
tion is  impossible.  Prevarication  of  the  witness  upon  the  principal 
part  of  his  case,  beyond  all  doubt,  by  every  calculation  of  chances, 
there  will  not  be.  But  you  will  be  defended  by  counsel;  and  the 
court  before  whom  you  are  tried  will  assuredly  have  you  acquitted, 
if  the  villain,  who  has  immoveably  told  a  consistent,  firm  tale — 
though  not  contradicted — though  not  touched,  upon  the  story  itself — 
tells  the  least  falsehood  upon  the  most  unimportant  particulars  on 
which  your  advocate  shall  examine  him.  My  lords,  I  ask  for  the 
Queen  no  other  justice  than  this  upon  which  you  all  rely,  and  must 
needs  rely,  for  your  own  escape  from  the  charge  of  unnatural  crimes! 
I  desire  she  may  have  no  other  safety  than  that  which  forms  the 
only  safely  to  any  of  your  lordships  in  such  cases,  before  any  court 
that  deserved  the  name  of  a  court  of  justice,  where  it  might  be  your 
lot  to  be  dragged  and  tried. 

I  am  told  that  the  sphere  of  life  in  which  Bergami,  afterwards  pro- 
moted to  be  the  Queen's  chamberlain,  originally  moved,  compared 
witli  the  fortune  which  has  since  attended  him  in  her  service,  is  of 
itself  matter  of  suspicion.  I  should  be  sorry,  my  lords,  to  have  lived 
to  see  the  day,  when  nothing  more  was  required  to  rum  any  exalted 


130  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

character  in  this  free  country,  than  the  having  shown  favor  to  a  meri- 
torious servant,  by  promoting  hi  in  above  his  rank  in  society,  the  rank 
of  his  birth.  It  is  a  lot  which  has  happened  to  many  a  great  man — 
which  has  been  that  of  those  who  have  been  the  ornaments  of  their 
country.  God  forbid  we  should  ever  see  the  time,  when  all  ranks,  all 
stations  in  this  community,  except  the  highest,  were  not  open  to  all 
men;  and  that  we  should  ever  reckon  it  of  itself  a  circumstance  even 
of  sucpicion  in  any  person — for  neither  sex  can  be  exempt  from  an  in- 
ference of  such  a  nature  if  it  is  once  made  general  and  absolute — that 
he  has  promoted  an  inferior  to  be  his  equal!  Let  me,  however,  re- 
mind your  lordships,  that  the  rapidity  of  the  promotion  of  Bergarni 
has  been  greatly  overstated;  and  the  manner  in  which  it  took  place  is 
a  convincing  proof,  that  the  story  of  love  having  been  the  cause  of  it, 
is  inconsistent  with  the  fact,  Now,  this  I  state,  from  a  distinct  recol- 
lection of  the  dates  in  the  evidence  before  you.  Believe  Majocchi  or 
Demont,  and  three  weeks  after  Bergami's  arrival  in  the  household,  he 
was  promoted  to  the  Queen's  bed.  How  was  it  with  respect  to  her 
board?  Because,  after  that,  he  continued  in  the  situation  of  courier; 
he  dined  with  the  servants,  and  lived  not  even  with  the  chamberlains; 
certainly  not  with  those  gentlemen,  for  they  were  at  her  table,  as  usual. 
Hecontinued  to  dine  with  theservants  at  Genoa;  there,  notwithstanding 
Majocchi's  story,  is  is  proved  to  your  lordships  that  lie  did  not  dine 
with  Her  Majesty.  He  continued  as  a  courier,  even  after  he  had  once 
sat  at  Her  Majesty's  table  by  accident,  by  one  of  the  accidents  usual 
in  travelling.  It  appears  even  in  the  evidence,  (believing  it  to  be 
true,)  that  the  Queen  sat  at  the  table  where  he  was  for  the  space  of  one 
day.  He,  however,  still  continued  a  courier;  and  it  was  only  on  the 
eve  of  the  long  voyage,  that  he  was  admitted  to  her  table,  commen- 
cing with  the  journey  to  Mont  St.  Gothard.  He  continued  in  his 
situation  of  courier,  still  in  livery,  until,  by  degrees,  he  was  promoted, 
first  to  travel  in  a  carriage  of  his  own,  instead  of  riding  on  horseback. 
Then  he  was  promoted  occasionally  to  sit  at  the  same  table  with  the 
Queen,  and  at  last  lie  was  appointed  a  chamberlain  generally.  My 
lords,  this  is  not  consistent  with  the  story  told  of  Naples.  Show  me 
the  woman,  particularly  the  amorous,  the  imprudent,  the  insane 
woman  her  Majesty  is  described  to  be  by  these  perjured  witnesses, 
who  would  have  allowed  her  paramour,  after  indulging  in  all  the 
gratifications  described  at  Naples,  for  weeks  and  months,  to  continue 
for  months,  and  almost  for  years,  in  an  apparently  menial  capacity! 
My  lords,  this  is  not  the  rapidity  of  pace  with  which  love  promotes 
his  favorite  votaries;  it  much  more  resembles  the  sluggish  progress 
with  which  merit  wends  its  way  in  the  world,  and  in  courts.  He 
was  a  man  of  merit,  as  you  will  hear  in  evidence — if  you  put  me 
on  calling  any.  He  was  not  of  the  low  origin  he  has  been  described 
to  be.  lie  was  a  person  whose  father  held  the  situation  of  a  landed 
proprietor,  though  of  moderate  income,  in  the  north  of  Italy.  He  had 
got  into  diniculties,  as  has  happened  to  many  of  the  Italian  gentry  of 
late  years;  and  his  son,  if  I  mistake  not,  had  sold  the  family  estate,  in 
order  to  pay  his  father's  debts.  He  was  reduced — but  he  was  a  re- 


QtTEEN  CAROLINE.  131 

duced  gentleman.  When  he  was  in  the  service  of  General  Pino  he 
was  recognised  as  such.  The  General  repeatedly  favored  him  as 
such:  he  has  dined  at  his  table,  General  Pino  being  Commander-in- 
chief  in  the  Milanese.  He  thus  sat  at  the  table  of  an  Italian  noble  in 
the  highest  station.  He  has  dined  at  his  table  during  the  Spanish 
campaigns.  He  was  respected  in  his  station — he  was  esteemed  by 
those  whom  he  served  at  that  time.  They  encouraged  him,  as  know- 
ing his  former  pretensions  and  his  present  merits;  and  when  he  was 
hired,  he  was  proposed  by  a  gentleman  who  desired  to  befriend  and 
promote  him,  an  Austrian  nobleman,  then  living  in  Italy,  in  the  Aus- 
trian service,  he  was  proposed  to  the  Queen's  chamberlain  as  a  courier, 
there  being  a  vacancy,  and  was  hired  without  the  knowledge  of  her 
Majesty,  and  before  she  had  even  seen  him.  The  Austrian  nobleman, 
when  he  offered  him  as  a  courier,  said,  he  fairly  confessed  he  hoped, 
if  Bergami  behaved  well,  he  might  be  promoted,  because  he  was  a 
man  whose  family  had  seen  better  days,  because  he  was  a  faithful  ser- 
vant, and  because  he  had  ideas  belonging  rather  to  his  former  than  to 
his  present  situation.  It  was  almost  a  condition  of  his  going,  that  he 
should  go  for  the  present  as  a  courier,  with  the  expectation  of  soon 
filling  some  other  and  higher  place. 

I  do  not  dwell  on  this,  my  lords,  as  of  any  importance  to  the  case; 
for  whether  I  shall  think  it  necessary  to  prove  what  I  have  just  stated 
or  not,  I  consider  that  I  have  already  disposed  of  the  case  in  the  com- 
ments which  I  have  made  upon  the  evidence,  and  in  the  appeal  which 
I  have  made  to  the  general  principles  of  criminal  justice.  But  as 
the  conduct  of  Her  Majesty  has  been  so  unsparingly  scrutinised,  and 
as  it  is  important  to  show  that  even  impropriety  existed  not,  where  I 
utterly  defy  guilt  to  be  proved,  I  thought  it  requisite  to  dwell  on  this 
prominent  feature  in  the  cause.  If  the  "Queen  had  frequented  com- 
pnnies  below  her  station — if  she  had  lowered  her  dignity — if  she  had 
followed  courses  which,  though  not  guilty  ones,  might  be  deemed 
improper  in  themselves  and  inconsistent  with  her  high  station — if  she 
had  been  proved  guilty  of  any  unworthiness — I  could  have  trod  upon 
high  ground  still.  But  I  have  no  occasion  to  occupy  it.  I  say,  guilt 
there  is  none — levity  there  is  none — unworthiness  there  is  none.  But 
if  there  had  been  any  of  the  latter,  while  I  dared  her  accusers  to  the 
proof  of  guilt,  admitting  levity  and  even  indecorum,  I  might  slill  have 
appealed  to  that  which  always  supports  virtue  in  jeopardy,  the  course 
of  her  former  life  at  home,  among  her  own  relations,  before  she  was 
frowned  upon  here — while  she  had  protection  among  you — while  she 
had  the  most  powerful  of  all  protection,  that  of  our  late  venerable 
monarch.  I  hold  in  rny  hand  a  testimonial — which  cannot  be  read, 
and  which  I  am  sure  will  not  be  weighed,  without  the  deepest  sense 
of  its  importance;  above  all,  without  a  feeling  of  sorrow,  when  we 
reflect  upon  the  reign  that  has  passed,  and  compare  it  with  the  rule 
we  live  under.  It  is  a  melancholy  proof — more  melancholy,  because 
we  no  longer  have  him  who  furnishes  it  amongst  us — but  it  is  a  proof 
how  that  illustrious  sovereign  viewed  her,  whom  ho  knew  bettor  than 
all  others — whom  he  loved  more  than  all  the  rest  of  her  family  did — 


132  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

even  than  those  upon  whose  affection  she  had  a  greater  claim — nay, 
whom  he  loved  better  than  he  did  almost  any  child  of  his  own.  The 
plainness,  the  honesty,  the  intelligible,  and  manly  sense  of  this  letter 
are  such,  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  the  gratification  of  reading  it.  It 
was  written  in  1S04:  — 

"WINDSOR  CASTLE,  Nov.  13,  1804. 

"  MY  DEAKEST  DAUGHTER-IN-LAW  AND  NIECE: — Yesterday,!  and 
the  rest  of  my  family  had  an  interview  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  at 
Kew.  Care  was  taken  on  all  sides  to  avoid  all  subjects  of  altercation 
or  explanation,  consequently  the  conversation  was  neither  instructive 
nor  entertaining;  but  it  leaves  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  a  situation  to 
show  whether  his  desire  to  return  to  his  family  is  only  verbal  or  real" 
— (a  difference  which  George  III,  never  knew,  except  in  others)  — 
"  which  time  alone,  can  show.  1  am  not  idle  in  my  endeavors  to  make 
inquiries  that  may  enable  me  to  communicate  some  plan  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  dear  child  you  and  me  with  so  much  reason  must  interest 
ourselves  in;  and  its  effecting  my  having  the  happiness  of  living  more 
with  you  is  no  small  incentive  to  my  forming  some  ideas  on  the 
subject;  but  you  may  depend  on  their  being  not  decided  upon  without 
your  thorough  and  cordial  concurrence,  for  your  authority  as  mother 
it  is  my  object  to  support. 

"Believe  me,  at  all  times,  my  dearest  danghter-in-law  and  niece, 
your  most  affectionate  father-in-law  and  uncle, 

"  GEORGE  R." 

Such,  my  lords,  was  the  opinion  which  this  good  man,  not  ignorant 
of  human  affairs,  no  ill  judge  of  human  character,  had  formed  of  this 
near  and  cherished  relation:  and  upon  which,  in  the  most  delicate 
particulars,  the  care  of  his  grand-daughter  and  the  heir  of  his  crown, 
he  honestly,  really,  and  not  in  mere  words,  always  acted. 

I  might  now  read  to  your  lordships, a  letter  from  his  illustrious  suc- 
cessor, not  written  in  the  same  tone  of  affection — not  indicative  of  the 
same  feelings  of  regard— but  by  no  means  indicative  of  any  want  of 
confidence,  or  at  least  of  any  desire  harshly  to  trammel  his  Royal 
Consort's  conduct.  I  allude  to  a  letter  which  has  been  so  often  before 
your  lordships  in  other  shapes,  that  I  may  not  think  it  necessary  to 
repeat  it  here.  It  is  a  permission  to  live  apart,  and  a  desire  never  to 
come  together  again;  the  expression  of  an  opinion,  that  their  happi- 
ness was  better  consulted,  and  pursued  asunder;  and  a  very  plain 
indication,  that  Her  Majesty's  conduct  should  at  least  not  be  watched 
with  all  the  scrupulousness,  all  the  rigor,  all  the  scrutinising  agency, 
which  has  resulted  in  bringing  the  present  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties 
before  your  lordships.  [Cries  of  "  Read,  read!"  Mr.  Brougham 
accordingly  read  the  letter,  as  follows:] 

"MADAM:— As  Lord  Cholmondely  informs  me,  that  you  wish  I 
would  define  in  writing,  the  terms  upon  which  we  are  to  live,  I  shall 
endeavor  to  explain  myself  upon  that  head  with  as  much  clearness 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  133 

•and  with  as  much  propriety  as  the  nature  of  the  subject  will  admit. 
Our  inclinations  are  not  in  our  power,  nor  should  either  of  us  be  held 
answerable  to  the  other,  because  nature  has  not  made  us  suitable  to 
each  other.  Tranquil  and  comfortable  society  is,  however,  in  our 
power;  let  our  intercourse,  therefore,  be  restricted  to  that,  and  I  will 
distinctly  subscribe  to  the  condition  which  you  require,*  through  Lady 
Cholmondoly,  that  even  in  the  event  of  any  accident  happening  to 
my  daughter,  which  I  trust  Providence  in  its  mercy  will  avert,  I  shall 
not  infringe  the  terms  of  the  restriction,  by  proposing,  at  any  period,  a 
connection  of  a  more  particular  nature.  I  shall  now  finally  close  this 
disagreeable  correspondence,  trusting,  that,  as  we  have  completely 
explained  ourselves  to  each  other,  the  rest  of  our  lives  will  be  passed 
in  uninterrupted  tranquillity.  I  am,  Madam,  with  great  truth,  very 
sincerely  yours, 

"  GEORGE  P. 
"  WINDSOR  CASTLE,  April  30,  1796." 

My  lords,  I  do  not  call  this,  as  it  has  been  termed,  a  letter  of  license; 
such  was  the  the  term  applied  to  it,  on  the  former  occasion,  by  those 
who  are  now,  unhappily  for  the  Queen,  no  more — those  who  were 
the  colleagues  and  coadjutors  of  the  present  ministers — but  I  think  it 
such  an  epistle  as  would  make  it  mailer  of  natural  wonderment  to  the 
person  who  received  it,  that  her  conduct  should  ever  after — and  espe- 
cially the  more  rigorously  the  older  the  parties  were  growing — become 
the  subject  of  the  most  unceasing  and  unscrupulous  watching,  prying, 
spying,  and  investigation. 

Such  then,  my  lords,  is  this  case.  And  again  let  me  call  on  you, 
even  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  never  to  dismiss  for  a  moment  from  your 
minds,  the  two  great  points  upon  which  I  rest  my  attack  upon  the 
evidence; — first,  that  the  accusers  have  not  proved  the  facts  by  the 
good  witnesses  who  were  within  their  reach,  whom  they  had  no 
shadow  of  pretext  for  not  calling; — and  secondly,  that  the  witnesses 
whom  they  have  ventured  to  call  are,  every  one  of  them,  irreparably 
damaged  in  their  credit.  How,  1  again  ask,  is  a  plot  ever  to  be  dis- 
covered, except  by  the  means  of  these  two  principles?  Nay,  there 
are  instances,  in  which  plots  have  been  discovered,  through  the 
medium  of  the  second  principle,  when  the  first  had  happened  to  fail. 
When  venerable  witnesses  have  been  seen  brought  forward — when 
persons  above  all  suspicion  have  lent  themselves  for  a  season  to  impure 
plans — when  no  escape  for  the  guiltless  seemed  open,  no  chance  of 
safety  to  remain — they  have  almost  providentially  escaped  from  the 
snare  by  the  second  of  those  two  principles;  by  the  evidence  break- 
ing down  where  it  was  not  expected  to  be  sifted;  by  a  weak  point 
being  found,  where  no  provision,  from  the  attack  being  unforeseen, 
had  been  made  to  support  it.  Your  lordships  recollect  that  great  pas- 
sage— I  say  great,  for  it  is  poetically  just  and  eloquent,  even  were  it 

*  The  Queen  to  her  last  hour  positively  denied  ever  having  required  any  such 
condition,  or  made  any  allusion  to  the  subject  of  it. 
VOL.  I. 12 


134  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

not  inspired — in  the  Sacred  Writings,  where  the  elders  had  joined 
themselves  in  a  plot  which  had  appeared  to  have  succeeded,  "for 
that,"  as  the  book  says,  "  they  had  hardened  their  hearts,  and  had 
turned  away  their  eyes,  that  they  might  not  look  at  Heaven,  and  that 
they  might  do  the  purposes  of  unjust  judgments."  But  they,  though 
giving  a  clear,  consistent,  uncoritradicted  story,  were  disappointed, 
and  their  victim  was  rescued  from  their  gripe,  by  the  trifling  circum- 
stance of  a  contradiction  about  a  tamarisk  tree.  Let  not  man  call 
those  contradictions  or  those  falsehoods  which  false  witnesses  swear 
to  from  needless  and  heedless  falsehood,  such  us  Sacchi  about  his 
changing  his  name — or  such  as  Demont  about  her  letters — such  as 
Majocchi  about  the  banker's  clerk — or  such  as  all  the  other  contra- 
dictions and  falsehoods  not  going  to  the  main  body  of  the  case,  but  to 
the  main  body  of  the  credit  of  the  witnesses — let  not  man  rashly 
and  blindly,  call  these  things  accidents.  They  are  just  rather  than 
merciful  dispensations  of  that  Providence,  which  wills  not  that  the 
guilty  should  triumph,  and  which  favorably  protects  the  innocent! 

Such,  my  lords,  is  the  case  now  before  you !  Such  is  the  evidence 
in  support  of  this  measure — evidence  inadequate  to  prove  a  debt — 
impotent  to  deprive  of  a  civil  right — ridiculous  to  convict  of  the 
lowest  offence — scandalous  if  brought  forward  to  support  a  charge  of 
the  highest  nature  which  the  law  knows — monstrous  to  ruin  the 
honor,  to  blast  the  name  of  an  English  Queen!  What  shall  I  say, 
then,  if  this  is  the  proof  by  which  an  act  of  judicial  legislation,  a 
parliamentary  sentence,  an  ex  post  facto  law,  is  sought  to  be  passed 
against  this  defenceless  woman?  My  lords,  I  pray  you  to  pause.  I 
do  earnestly  beseech  you  to  take  heed!  You  are  standing  upon  the 
brink  of  a  precipice — then  beware!  It  will  go  forth  your  judgment, 
if  sentence  shall  go  against  the  Queen.  But  it  will  be  the  only  judg- 
ment you  ever  pronounced,  which,  instead  of  reaching  its  object,  will 
return  and  bound  back  upon  those  who  gave  it.  Save  the  country, 
my  lords,  from  the  horrors  of  this  catastrophe — save  yourselves  from 
this  peril — rescue  that  country,  of  which  you  are  the  ornaments,  but 
in  which  you  can  flourish  no  longer,  when  severed  from  the  people, 
than  the  blossom  when  cut  off  from  the  roots  and  the  stem  of  the  tree. 
Save  that  country,  that  you  may  continue  to  adorn  it — save  the 
Crown,  which  is  in  jeopardy — the  Aristocracy  which  is  shaken — save 
the  Altar,  which  must  stagger  with  the  blow  that  rends  its  kindred 
Throne!  You  have  said,  my  lords,  you  have  willed — the  Church 
and  the  King  have  willed — that  the  Queen  should  be  deprived  of  its 
solemn  service.  She  has  instead  of  that  solemnity,  the  heartfelt 
prayers  of  the  people.  She  wants  no  prayers  of  mine.  But  I  do 
here  pour  forth  my  humble  supplications  at  the  Throne  of  Mercy, 
that  that  mercy  may  be  poured  down  upon  the  people,  in  a  larger 
measure  than  the  merits  of  its  rulers  may  deserve,  and  that  your 
hearts  may  be  turned  to  justice! 

[Mr.  Brougham  finding  the  impression  made  by  his  case  upon  the 
House  to  be  very  strong,  resolved  at  once  to  present  Mariette  Bron 


QUEEN  CAROLINE.  135 

for  examination,  and  instantly  to  call  for  judgment.  With  this  view 
he  left  the  House  to  summon  the  witness;  but  she  was  not  to  be  found; 
Mr.  Williams,  therefore,  proceeded  with  his  truly  able  and,  to  the 
elucidation  of  the  case,  invaluable  argument;  and  afterwards  some 
suspicious  circumstances  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Her  Majesty's 
advisers  which  made  it  impossible  to  call  her  maid  with  any  regard 
to  the  interests  of  justice.] 


SHORT    ACCOUNT 


OF 


MR,    DEN  MAN'S    SPEECH, 

ON  SUMMING  UP  THE  EVIDENCE 


FOR 


THE    QUEEN. 

OCTOBER  24TH  AND  25TH,  1820. 


THE  examination  of  Her  Majesty's  witnesses  closed  on  the  23d  of  October, 
when  the  counsel  for  the  Bill  applied  for  farther  delay,  in  order  that  Colonel 
Browne  and  others  might  be  sent  for,  to  contradict  some  parts  of  the  evidence. 
This  proposal  was  treated  as  monstrous,  and  it  was  formally  withdrawn.  The 
Queen's  advocates  indignantly  exclaimed,  that  it  showed  as  much  regard  for  her 
feelings,  as  if  she  had  been  the  inanimate  subject  of  some  chemical  experiment. 
One  or  two  trifling  particulars  were  however  allowed  to  be  explained;  and  at  eleven 
o'clock  on  the  following  morning  the  evidence  in  this  extraordinary  process  was  at 
length  brought  to  a  close. 

The  duty  of  summing  up  the  Queen's  case  then  devolved  on  her  Solicitor-gene- 
ral, Mr.  Denman.  The  House  of  Lords  offered  him  time  for  preparation:  the 
Chancellor  invited  and  rather  pressed  him  to  accept  it:  he  however  preferred  com- 
mencing his  address  on  the  instant,  when  all  particulars  were  fresh,  in  his  own 
memory,  and  in  that  of  the  judges. 

Amidst  all  the  filth  and  obscenity  which  overloaded  the  proceedings,  some  great 
principles  of  public  morality  were  prominently  conspicuous.  By  far  the  greatest 
point,  the  most  important,  the  most  fully  estimated  by  the  reflecting,  the  most 
warmly  felt  by  the  multitude,  was  the  prosecutor's  disqualification.  The  example  of 
a  husband  punishing  infidelity  in  a  wife,  whom  in  the  very  hour  of  marriage  he 
had  insulted  and  openly  abandoned — whom  he  had  replaced  by  a  mistress,  while 
he  offered  to  his  consort  an  equal  privilege — who  owed  to  her  union  with  him 
neither  endearment,  nor  protection,  nor  common  courtesy — who  knew  in  him  no 
one  quality  of  a  husband  but  his  jealousy,  and  had  indeed  for  twenty-four  years 
been  only  made  aware  of  his  existence  by  unceasing  attempts  to  harass  and  de- 
stroy her — was  an  example  which  the  world  never  before  witnessed,  and  which 
all  classes  except  the  House  of  Lords,  determined  should  never  be  set  in  England. 

That  the  prosecutor  was  the  king  of  the  country  made  the  case  the  more  flagrant. 
This  gave  the  proceedings  the  appearance  of  a  deliberate  sacrifice  of  the  first  prin- 


MR.  DENMAN'S  SPEECH.  137 

ciples  of  morality  to  capricious  hatred,  engendered  by  the  known  instinct  of  anti- 
pathy towards  those  we  have  wronged:  it  was  regarded  as  one  of  those  freaks  of 
bare-faced  power,  avouched  by  the  will  alone,  which  threatens  the  general  security, 
by  sweeping  away  the  bulwarks  of  religion  and  of  justice.  The  flimsy  pretence, 
that  the  open  scandal  of  the  Queen's  lite  demanded  public  exposure,  was  refuted 
at  every  point;  first,  by  the  absurdity  of  distinguishing  for  this  purpose  between 
the  wife  of  a  King  and  the  wife  of  a  Prince  Regent;  secondly,  by  the  ofler  of 
50,000/.  a  year,  if  she  would  pursue  the  same  course  any  where  out  of  England; 
but  lastly  and  most  effectually,  by  the  evidence  given  on  the  trial,  when  the  inter- 
course imputed,  even  if  believed  to  be  real,  instead  of  being  public  and  notorious, 
was  so  cunningly  contrived  and  so  secretly  carried  on,  that  waiters  from  inns, 
where  Her  Majesty  reposed  for  a  single  night,  were  pressed  into  the  service,  to 
repeat  the  observations  made  through  key-holes  and  upon  beds — while  those 
domestic  traitors  who  had  daily  means  of  knowledge,  deposed  but  to  two  or  three 
occasions,  on  which,  from  suspicious  circumstances  and  opportunities,  guilt  might 
with  some  plausibility  be  inferred. 

Other  general  considerations,  inferior  to  these  in  importance,  yet  of  a  highly  in- 
teresting character,  worked  strongly  on  the  public  mind; — the  certainty  that  excited 
passions  in  the  great  would  be  supplied  with  mean  instruments  of  hostility;  the 
ease  with  which  perjury  and  conspiracy  are  called  into  action  by  the  immense 
rewards  that  must  be  publicly  proffered;  the  method  of  proceeding,  so  abhorrent 
to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution;  the  alarming  readiness  with  which  a  minis- 
terial majority  had  volunteered  the  invidious  office  of  judging  in  a  suit  which  ought 
never  to  have  been  commenced,  and  could  not  go  forward  without  incalculable 
injury  to  morals  and  decency.  All  these  matters,  sinking  deep  in  the  minds  of  a 
free,  just,  and  enlightened  people,  were  plainly  discovered  from  the  first  to  have 
decided  the  fate  of  the  measure,  though  the  time  and  mode  of  its  defeat  were  of 
course  doubtful. 

At  this  important  period,  the  opponents  of  the  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties  were 
delighted  to  find  that  the  evidence,  so  pompously  paraded  beforehand  in  private — 
pervading  all  society  in  whispers  in  the  shape  of  rumors  and  reports — reports  from 
diplomatic  agents,  communications  from  foreign  ministers,  statements  by  commis- 
sioners at  Milan,  handed  over  in  green  bags  to  select  committees,  that  the  minds 
of  leading  members  of  both  houses  might  be  debauched,  before  they  should  act  in 
the  character  of  judges — crumbled  into  dust  and  shrank  to  nothing,  when  exposed 
to  the  open  air.  The  case  was  an  absolute  failure;  the  witnesses  when  seen  and 
heard  in  public  turned  out  to  be  worthy  of  their  cause.* 

Mr.  Denman  commenced  his  address  by  the  most  unqualified  assertion  of  his 
client's  innocence.  "  I,  therefore,  with  your  lordship's  permission,  without  further 
preface,  will  proceed  to  make  those  observations  upon  the  case,  as  it  now  lies  be- 
fore you,  which  have  satisfied  my  own  mind — which  have  satisfied  the  minds  of 
all  my  learned  friends — which  have  satisfied,  I  think  I  may  say,  the  minds  of  the 
whole  people  of  England,  of  all  the  civilised  nations  of  the  world,  who  are 
anxiously  looking  on,  to  see  this  great  and  unexampled  spectacle  brought  to  a  con- 
clusion, that  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  has  established  a  defence,  which  entitles  her 
to  a  complete  acquittal  of  all  those  charges  which  your  lordships  have  permitted 
yourselves  to  try  against  the  conduct  of  that  illustrious  person." 

Though  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  any  body  of  men  would,  without  neces- 
sity, and  against  sound  policy,  have  assumed  the  office  of  judges  in  this  great  aff.iir, 
who  were  not  predetermined  to  condemn,  no  chance  of  obtaining  a  verdict  from 
these  adverse  jurors  was  to  be  thrown  away.  And  as,  in  some  angry  conflicts  at 
the  bur,  and  some  altercations  even  with  members  of  the  House  itself,  some  degree 

*  That  the  opinion  upon  the  treatment  of  the  Q.uccn  by  her  husband  was  not  confined 
to  Her  Majesty'*  friends,  appears  from  a  note  in  Mr.  Wilberforce's  Journal,  published  in 
liis  Life  by  his  Sons.  "  Heard  a  violent  8|H,%cch  from  Creevey,  and  another  from  Kennel, 
speaking  of  the  Queen's  ill  usii}jc  when  she  first  came  to  this  country,  and  too  truly  aiat! 
but  where  in  the  use  of  t.ilkinjr  thus?  Surely  it  can  only  tend  t  >  produce  insurrection.  I 
am  glad,  however,  to  hear  that  the  Coronation  will  be  probably  put  off.  Oh  what  a  com- 
ment is  all  this  on  '  He  euro  your  sin  will  find  you  out!'  "  Vol.  v,  p.  G8. 


138  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

of  personal  irritation  had  been  excited,  Mr.  Denman  hastened  to  conciliate  his 
hearers  by  freely,  voluntarily,  and  from  his  heart  disclaiming  all  purpose  of  indi- 
vidual offence.  He  rested  his  apology  on  a  state  of  highly  excited  feeling — that 
soreness  of  mind  produced  by  sympathy  with  the  unprovoked  sufferings  of  the 
royal  client.  "  It  has  not  been  my  object  to  give  uneasiness;  but  I  have  felt  it 
deeply.  And  it  is  impossible  for  any  mind  which  comes  with  the  right  feelings  of 
a  man  to  the  contemplation  of  this  case,  not  to  expect  the  fullest  indulgence  for 
any  thing  that  may  have  passed  in  the  course  of  it;  because  it  is  impossible  not  to 
feel,  that  the  illustrious  client  whose  immediate  interests  are  confided  to  our  care, 
has  been,  perhaps  I  might  say  from  the  first  moment  that  she  placed  her  foot  in 
this  country  to  the  hour  at  which  I  am  now  addressing  your  lordships,  the  victim 
of  cruel  oppression,  of  grievous  and  irreparable  wrong.  My  lords,  that  galling  and 
degrading  sensation  has  attended  us  through  the  whole  of  these  proceedings;  it 
must  plead  our  excuse  for  anything  that  may  have  been  wrong  and  disrespectful  in 
our  manner.  I  trust  I  have  said  enough  upon  the  subject;  and  I  proceed  to  that 
case  which  it  is  my  duty  to  observe  upon." 

He  then  proceeded  to  analyse  the  preamble  of  the  Bill,  and  was  shortly  after 
engaged  in  investigating  the  proofs  which  had  been  offered  to  maintain  it.  This 
compelled  him  to  do  in  some  instances  what  he  always  expressed  the  greatest  de- 
sire to  avoid — to  tread  in  the  steps  of  his  leader.  In  the  various  preliminary  dis- 
cussions, where  he  had  immediately  followed  Mr.  Brougham,  that  gentleman  had 
handed  over  every  subject  to  his  hands,  completely  exhausted  and  bare.  He  com- 
pared it  to  one  Indian  tribe  which  precedes  another,  but  does  not  leave  its  hold  upon 
the  district,  till  it  has  consumed  all  its  produce  by  withering  fire.  There  was 
novelty,  indeed,  in  the  additional  facts  established  by  the  witnesses  for  the  accused, 
and  in  contrasting  them  with  the  prosecutor's  charges  and  testimony;  but  discus- 
sions of  this  nature  never  can  be  accurately  reported,  and  these  have  now  lost  all 
interest  for  the  general  reader. 

He  observed  on  the  only  circumstance  which  could  injure  her  Majesty,  after  the 
evidence  that  had  been  heard — the  danger  that  the  impression  made  by  the  original 
statement  should  remain,  in  spite  of  the  refutation — the  foul  advantage  possessed 
by  every  calumniator  of  female  chastity,  that  the  name  is  polluted  and  dishonored 
by  revolting  associations,  though  the  world  should  be  convinced  of  the  falsehood 
of  every  charge.  After  quoting  a  clever  paper  from  the  latest  number  of  the  Quar- 
terly Review,  to  that  effect,  but  applied  to  another  subject,  he  proceeded:  "  It  is  un- 
happily too  true;  and  in  a  case  where  female  honor  is  concerned,  the  very  exis- 
tence of  the  charge  is,  in  some  degree,  as  great  a  punishment  as  if  it  was  distinctly 
proved  instead  of  being  contradicted.  The  old  adage,  '  Calumniando  semper  all- 
quid  /tecni,'  was  never  more  distinctly  made  out,  than  in  the  present  case.  The 
evidence  of  the  infamous  and  diabolical  persons  brought  forward  against  Her  Ma- 
jesty has  had  its  effect;  and  although  it  has  been  disproved,  I  flatter  myself,  in  a 
manner  so  satisfactory  that  no  reasonable  mind  can  believe  any  one  of  the  particular 
charges  adduced,  still,  the  mere  fact  of  their  having  been  promulgated,  will  leave 
suffering,  which  no  reasoning,  no  time,  no  reparation,  will  ever  be  able  to  remove." 

After  casting  some  ridicule  on  the  pretence  set  up  by  the  officers  of  the  Crown, 
that  they  did  not  attend  as  advocates  of  any  party,  but  merely  as  assisting  the 
House  of  Lords  in  the  developement  of  truth,  he  remarked  upon  a  solemn  prayer 
which  had  been  uttered  by  the  King's  Solicitor-general,  Sir  John  Copley,*  that 
the  Queen's  character  might  emerge  clear  from  the  inquiry — "  that  Her  Majesty 
might  be  able  to  establish  her  full  and  certain  innocence."  "  My  lords,  it  was 
gratifying  to  hear  that  prayer,  the  first  that  had  been  breathed  for  the  welfare  of 
her  Majesty  in  mind,  body,  or  estate,  by  any  one  of  the  officers  of  her  husband. — 
The  omen  was  a  happy  one;  the  Queen  owed  thanks  to  my  learned  friend  for  his 
pious  and  charitable  supplication,  and  both  were  bound  to  pour  them  out  to  Heaven, 
when  they  perceived  ho\v  amply  it  had  been  successful,  at  every  step  of  the  inquiry. 
Such  a  prayer  so  granted,  will  no  doubt  be  the  first  step  towards  restoring  Her 
Majesty's  name  to  the  ritual  of  the  Church,  from  which  it  has  been  so  illegally  re- 
moved. I  cannot  deal  with  one  so  devoutly  anxious  to  see  Her  Majesty  acquitted, 

*  Now  Lord  Lyndhurst. 


MR.  DENMAN'S  SPEECH.  139 

in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  might  he  proper  to  approach  other  active  promoters 
of  the  persecution.  To  them  I  might  whisper  words  of  professional  condolence  on 
their  signal  failure,  hut  my  learned  friend  is  to  he  greeted  with  felicitations  at  each 
of  the  numerous  points  where  a  falsehood  was  detected,  or  a  witness  hroke  down. 
To  them  might  he  addressed  the  congralulation  of  Cicero  to  Catiline,  when  he  sent 
him  forth  to  join  the  unprincipled  crew  of  his  conspirators.  Others,  indeed,  might 
blush  to  see  collected  around  them  'conllatum  improborum  nianuiii,'  but  to  my 
learned  friend  who  took  no  part  in  the  contest,  who  wished  only  for  impartial 
inquiry,  and  prayed  to  Heaven  that  that  inquiry  might  terminate  in  the  triumph  of 
the  accused,  the  discomfiture  of  his  witnesses  one  after  another  must  have  yielded 
unmixed  satisfaction.  '  Hie  tu  qua  Iffititia  perfruere,  quihus  gaudiis  exultahis, 
qua  in  voluptate  bacchabere,  cum  in  tanto  numero  tuorum  comitum  neque  audies 
virum  bonum  quenquam,  neque  videhis.'  " 

The  next  general  observation  applies  to  the  impossibility  of  accounting  for  all 
circumstances  that  may  be  scraped  together  to  aid  the  inference  of  guilt,  for  two 
reasons — the  lapse  of  time,  and  the  fact  of  their  belonging  toihc  conduct  of  another. 
Who  can  explain  ordinary  events  at  the  distance  of  six  years]  Still  more,  how 
could  an  innocent  lady  be  aware  of  the  cause  of  any  such  proceedings  in  her  ser- 
vant, as  excited  suspicions  of  his  deviations  from  propriety1?  Yet  the  demeanor  of 
Bergami,  in  the  absence  of  the  Princess,  and  many  years  before,  was  strained  to 
make  out  that  pri ma  facie  case  against  her,  which,  if  innocent,  shu  never  could  re- 
move by  explanations,  because  she  must  have  been  ignorant  of  the  causes  that 
produced  it.  To  infer  guilt,  then,  from  facts  like  these,  is  evidently  not  to  prove 
it,  hut  to  assume  it  as  proved,  and  reverse  every  reasonable  principle  of  procedure. 

One  of  the  most  marvellous  features  of  a  case  so  unique,  touched  on  by  Mr. 
Brougham,  was  forcibly  dwelt  upon  by  Mr.  Denrnan — the  corpus  delicti  itself 
was  never  proved.  Those  who  brought  Barbara  Kress  from  Carlsruhe,  at  a  cost 
ten  times  as  great  as  her  yearly  wages,  to  prove  one  undefined  stain  upon  a  bed, 
had  also  secured  the  laundress  who  for  six  long  years  must  have  constantly  in- 
spected the  bed-linen  and  all  the  other  linen  of  every  individual  member  of  the 
family,  and  called  her  not  as  a  witness.  Annette  Preising  was  in  Cotton  Garden, 
in  company  with  the  rest  of  the  witnesses;  and  the  prosecutors  dared  not  present 
her  testimony  to  the  lords! 

The  facility  with  which  conspiracies  for  false  accusation  may  be  formed  and 
kept  together,  was  illustrated  by  examples  both  ancient  and  recent,  both  foreign 
and  domestic.  Journals  of  our  judicial  proceedings  yielded  striking  instances  that 
perjury  is  a  marketable  commodity  even  here.  Roger  North's  memoir  of  his  bro- 
ther Sir  Dudley,  the  Turkey  merchant,  showed  that  in  semi-barbarous  countries 
the  false  witness  is  much  more  safely  to  be  relied  on  than  the  true — "  Our  merchant 
found  by  experience  (he  says)  that  in  a  direct  fact  a  false  witness  was  a  surer  card 
than  a  true  one;  for  if  the  judge  has  a  mind  to  baffle  a  testimony,  an  honest  harm- 
less witness,  that  doth  not  know  his  play,  cannot  so  well  stand  his  many  captious 
questions  as  a  false  witness  used  to  the  trade  will  do;  for  he  hath  been  exercised, 
and  is  prepared  for  such  handling,  and  can  clear  himself  when  the  other  will  bo 
confounded." 

Nor  is  the  subject  of  discarded  servants  passed  over  in  silence,  with  their  unre- 
stricted means  of  confirming  falsehood  by  truth,  and  engrafting  it  on  realities — or 
the  influence  of  money  over  mean  men,  undeservedly  admitted  to  situations  of  con- 
fidence— or  the  power  of  importunity  in  the  great  to  command  the  services  of  their 
creatures  for  the  ruin  of  their  victims,  when  the  lowest  passions  are  at  work  in  tho 
highest  places.  Thus  we  are  told  by  the  Comte  de  (Jrammont,  that  when  James 
Duke  of  York  wished  to  renounce  the  wife  whom  he  had  married  in  exile,  tho 
daughter  of  the  great  Karl  of  Clarendon,  four  of  his  friends,  gentlemen  of  tho 
highot  rank,  met  together  to  consult  on  the  best  means  of  effecting  so  just  and 
rational  an  object,  and  three  of  them  determined  to  declare,  if  required,  in  public 
and  writing,  that  .she  had  thrown  off  in  their  presence  the  restraints  of  modesty  and 
decorum,  and  tho  fourth  that  ho  had  enjoyed  the  last  favor  a  woman  can  bestow, 
adding  in  the  g;iiety  of  their  hearts,  that  he  must  he  a  cold-hearted  friend  who 
could  hesitate  to  give  such  easy  proofs  of  his  attachment. 


140  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

The  symptoms  of  fabricating  facts  and  training  witnesses,  by  the  discipline  of 
drilliiio- and  rehearsal,  were  strongly  brought  to  light.  The  Sicilian  skipper  and 
his  nephew  were  selected  to  make  out  the  case  of  open  indecency  on  board  of  the 
polacca;  the  part  assigned  to  Majocchi  and  Demont  was  the  proof  of  adulterous 
intercourse  on  shore;  both  sets  of  witnesses  were  in  the  vessel,  but  the  latter  set 
saw  nothing  of  the  libidinous  excesses  denounced  by  the  former.  The  latter,  in- 
deed, during  the  three  following  years,  saw  no  decisive  facts,  but  much  cause  for 
unfavorable  surmise.  The  wanton  lovers  who,  at  sea,  exposed  their  careless  em- 
braces to  every  eye,  suddenly  when  on  shore  became  models  of  cautious  prudence. 
Thus  the  evidence  given  by  each  set  of  witnesses,  taken  separately,  however 
improbable,  was  in  no  degree  inconsistent;  but  the  facts  deposed  to  by  both  sets 
were  so  utterly  inconsistent  with  all  our  experience  of  human  nature,  that  both 
could  not  be  true,  and  of  course  neither  could  be  trusted. 

One  great  defect  in  the  case  against  Queen  Caroline,  was  the  necessity  of  prov- 
ing it  by  foreigners.  Beyond  the  reach  of  satisfactory  inquiry,  removed  from  the 
influence  of  that  public  opinion  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  and  to  which  the 
most  shameless  of  mankind  pay  a  reluctant  and  involuntary  deference,  the  tempta- 
tion to  earn  high  rewards  by  unscrupulous  evidence,  was  generally  felt,  and  their 
sense  of  the  obligation  of  an  oath  more  than  doubted.  Like  every  other  general 
observation  in  this  remarkable  case,  it  was  exemplified  by  particular  incidents  that 
occurred. 

One  of  the  Queen's  witnesses  was  William  Carrington,  a  servant  of  Sir  Will- 
iam Cell,  who  directly  contradicted  Majocchi  in  several  material  facts,  involving 
assertions  deliberately  made  by  himself.  "  William  Carrington  had  no  sooner 
left  this  bar,"  said  Mr.  Denman,  "  with  the  universal  confidence  and  approbation 
of  every  honest  man  who  saw  and  heard  him,  than  the  materials  for  his  cross- 
examination  are  prepared — by  whom]  Not  by  the  agent,  or  attorney,  or  commis- 
sioner, but  by  a  member  of  your  Lordships'  House,  a  powerful  member  of  the 
government — in  a  word,  by  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty.  Carrington  described 
himself  as  having  been  a  midshipman  in  the  Poitiers,  and  as  havingleft  the  service 
with  the  good  opinion  of  his  former  captain,  that  gallant  officer,  Sir  John  Beresford. 
He  was  cross-examined  with  the  greatest  minuteness,  with  the  advantage  of 
searching  the  ship's  books,  and  of  communicating  with  his  captain,  who  is  brought 
to  town  for  the  purpose  out  of  Yorkshire.  Do  I  complain  of  this"?  By  no  means. 
If  it  were  not  irregular,  I  would  tender  my  thanks  to  the  noble  lord  for  the  ability 
and  zeal  with  which  he  conducted  the  cross-examination.  It  ended  in  proving  the 
witness's  account  of  himself  strictly  true,  and  his  captain  bore  willing  testimony 
to  his  good  qualities.  He  illustrates  in  his  person  the  remark  of  a  German  travel- 
ler in  this  country,  that  gentlemen  were  found  in  every  class  of  society;  wherever 
that  man's  lot  may  be  cast,  he  is  a  gentleman  of  nature's  making.  What,  if  we 
had  possessed  the  same  advantage"?  The  same  power  of  searching  and  inquiring] 
Would  the  result  have  been  the  same  with  the  Sacchis,  the  Rastellis,  the  Gug- 
giarisT' 

There  were  two  passages  in  this  speech  of  so  remarkable  a  nature,  that  they 
cannot  be  omitted  in  any  notice  of  it; — those  which  assailed  two  royal  personages, 
the  King  then  upon  the  throne,  and  his  immediate  successor,  at  that  time  Duke  of 
Clarence.  The  former  exposed  himself  to  personal  attack  by  the  prosecution;  he 
challenged  inquiry  into  his  conduct  as  a  husband,  which  was  indeed  an  essential 
part  of  his  own  case.  Nor  was  it  possible  to  refrain  from  canvassing  the  examples 
of  similar  proceedings  in  former  times,  and  while  some  points  in  the  history  of 
Henry  VIII  bore  a  general  resemblance  to  the  accusation,  an  almost  exact  parallel 
was  found  between  the  accused  and  the  Roman  Empress  Octavia.  Dr.  Parr 
pointed  out  the  identity  of  their  fortunes  to  Mr.  Denman— the  capricious  offence 
taken  in  the  very  moment  of  their  union,  the  adoption  of  a  mistress  in  her  place, 
the  desertion,  the  investigation,  the  exile,  the  triumphant  return  amidst  the  accla- 
mations of  the  people,  the  renewed  inquiry,  the  false  evidence  screwed  out  of  her 
domestics,  not  indeed  by  bribes  but  by  torture.  The  likeness  failed  at  the  point 
where  the  principal  witness  in  each  case  betrayed  her  personal  character.  The 
French  soubrette  swearing  to  the  falsehood  of  her  former  panegyrics  on  the  bene- 


MR.  DENMAN'S  SPEECH.  141 

factress  she  sought  to  destroy,  the  Roman  attendant  hurling  the  boldest  defiance 
and  invective  at  the  commissioner,  who  grossly  aspersed  the  purity  of  her  imperial 
mistress. 

In  laying  before  the  Lords  the  wrongs  of  his  client  in  the  burning  words  of  Taci- 
tus, and  fixing  on  this  prosecution  the  just  odium  of  so  shameful  a  prototype,  Mr. 
Demnan  incurred  some  censure.  He  was  condemned  for  "calling  the  King  Nero," 
by  those  who  without  emotion  heard  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution  apply  to  the 
party  under  trial,  the  name  of  Messalina.  He  was,  with  Mr.  Brougham,  after  the 
Queen's  death,  stript  of  the  rank  they  owed  to  their  offices  under  her  Majesty;  and 
all  her  counsel  remained  for  years  excluded  from  their  fair  professional  advance- 
ment. At  length  all  were  restored  except  Mr.  Denman;  and  it  then  appeared  that 
he  was  visited  with  the  royal  displeasure,  not  for  this  parallel  hut  for  a  sentence 
from  Dio  Cassius,*  mistakingly  supposed  by  his  Majesty  to  have  been  applied 
offensively  to  him.  In  the  autumn  of  1828,  Mr.  Denman's  memorial,  disclaiming 
the  imputation,  was  at  his  request  laid  before  the  King  by  his  then  prime  minister 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  went  much  farther,  and  with  difficulty  obtained  from 
the  reluctant  monarch,  that  rank  which  the  advocate  had  not  solicited  at  his  hands. 
If  "  Peace  hath  her  victories  not  less  renowaed  than  War,"  this  persevering  effort 
of  a  frank  and  generous  spirit,  prompted  by  a  sense  of  justice,  and  stimulated  by 
the  manly  perception  of  the  necessity  for  independence  in  the  advocate,  may  be 
thought  to  add  some  lustre  even  to  the  name  of  Wellington. 

The  other  passage  above  alluded  to,  is  a  vehement  invective  against  the  Duke  of 
Clarence  whose  known  devotion  to  his  elder  brother  led  him  into  the  ready  cre- 
dence of  facts  derogatory  to  Her  Majesty,  which  he  had  the  imprudence  to  circulate 
in  conversation,  and  among  the  peers  then  engaged  in  what  was  called  her  trial. — 
The  necessity  of  counteracting  this  influence  was  apparent,  but  the  reproof  must 
have  given  pain  to  him  who  uttered  it,  when  in  after  years  the  sovereign  showed 
an  entire  absence  of  resentment  for  the  offence  given  to  him  while  a  subject.  Wil- 
liam the  Fourth,  blessed  with  the  immeasurable  advantages  of  education  and  inter- 
course among  the  middling  classes  of  society,  had  the  sense  and  candor  to  perceive 
that  the  sufferer  from  the  performance  of  the  duty  of  an  advocate  has  no  just  right 
to  complain.  He  received  Mr.  Denman  with  marked  civility  at  his  first  levee  after 
his  accession  to  the  throne;  acquiesced  withont  hesitation  in  his  appointment  as 
Attorney-general,  on  the  change  of  government  in  November  1830;  two  years 
afterwards,  consigned  to  him  as  chief  justice,  "  the  balance  and  the  sword,"  and 
expressed  the  utmost  pleasure  in  acceding  to  Lord  Grey's  application  to  raise  him 
to  the  peerage. 

Numerous  portions  of  the  evidence  were  selected  for  comment,  and  towards  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  argument,  the  following  passage  occurs: — "  We  have  been 
told  of  the  Queen's  general  conduct,  as  furnishing  decisive  proof  of  her  guilt.  My 
lords,  I  will  abide  by  that  test,  and  appeal  to  her  general  conduct  as  establishing 
her  innocence.  I  ask  you  whether  it  is  possible,  if  she  were  degraded  by  the  in- 
dulgence of  that  low  passion,  that  she  should  in  the  first  place  discard  every  one  of 
the  servants  as  soon  as  they  were  possessed  of  her  fatal  secret,  and  that  she  should 
afterwards  have  been  willing  to  renounce  her  paramour.  Look  to  all  that  we  know 
of  human  nature.  The  most  certain  consequence  of  indulging  such  an  attachment 
is,  that  all  worldly  considerations  are  lost  sight  of.  "  Not  Cicsar's  empress  would 
she  deign  to  prove."  No,  having  become  the  partner  in  guilt  of  her  menial  ser- 
vant, she  would  have  preferred  his  society  in  the  lowest  retreat  of  vice  on  the  Con- 
tinent, to  all  the  dignity,  the  wealth  and  splendor,  which  the  world  could  have  laid 
at  her  feet.  iShe  was  not  required,  however,  to  make  the  sacrifice.  All  tho  com- 
forts and  luxuries  were  obtruded  upon  her  acceptance,  with  full  permission  to  enjoy 
them  at  1'esaro,  or  on  the  lake  of  Como,  and  at  tho  same  time  repose  in  those  em- 
braces fur  which  she  is  charged  with  surrendering  her  honor.  Does  she  atvept  tho 
offer?  She  disdains  it,  and  plants  herself  on  the  shore  of  Kiighuul,  and  challenges 
the  proof  that  all  tho  power  of  ICngland  can  produce  against  her,  because  she  knows 
that  the  truth  will  bear  her  through,  and  because  she  values  character  more  than  all 
other  possessions,  including  lifu  itself. 

*  Sec  Ha)  lii's  Dictionary,  art.  Ocluvic. 


142  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

"  Contrast  her  general  conduct  with  that  of  her  accusers!  The  death  of  her  only 
child  is  followed  by  a  frightful  conspiracy  to  effect  her  ruin.  The  death  of  her 
last  remaining  protector,  whose  name  was  still  in  some  degree  her  safeguard, 
though  his  affection  could  no  longer  be  displayed,  that  death  was  announced  to  her 
in  no  terms  of  kind  condolence  or  common  respect,  or  decent  ceremony.  That 
was  the  occasion  when  the  Cardinal  Gonsalvi.  knowing  whom  he  should  please, 
and  what  schemes  were  in  progress,  ventured  to  forestate  the  decision  of  the  par- 
liament on  the  Bill  that  now  engages  its  attention.  With  him  she  was  neither  a 
Queen,  on  the  death  of  her  husband's  father,  nor  a  Princess  of  Wales,  as  she  had 
been  till  that  event,  but  he  strips  her  of  all  down  to  the  title  she  had  before  her 
marriage.  The  first  Gazette  which  records  the  change  of  rulers,  inflicts  a  wound 
on  her  who  is  become  the  first  subject  of  the  realm.  Of  the  new  reign — an  era 
marked  hitherto  by  mercy  and  forgiveness,  when  even  traitors  are  spared  and  felons 
pardoned,  and  the  amiable  prerogative  of  the  crown  called  into  lavish  use — the  first 
act  of  that  reign  is  the  most  illegal  and  unchristian  in  the  annals  of  the  monarchy; 
the  second  is  this  Bill,  a  bill  of  divorce  and  degradation  against  the  consort  of  the 
King,  introduced  by  his  ministers. 

"And  now,  my  lords,  what  is  to  become  of  this  Bill'?  Or  rather  what  has  be- 
come of  it!  As  a  Bill  of  Divorce  it  was  defeated  before  it  was  read  a  first  time; 
the  mere  fact  of  a  six  years'  residence  abroad,  permitted  by  the  husband,  answers 
his  claim  for  a  divorce,  whatever  the  misconduct  of  the  wife.  That  letter  of 
license,  so  recently  after  the  marriage,  and  so  spontaneously  granted,  is  of  itself  an 
answer  to  it  as  a  bill  for  a  divorce.  As  a  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties — a  bill  of 
dethronement  and  degradation — it  still  lingers  on  your  lordships'  table;  if  you  see 
fit  to  gratify  the  motives  that  impelled  the  charge,  if  you  have  the  nerve  to  proceed 
against  the  persecuted  and  injured  woman  who  has  so  manfully  met  it,  I  can  only 
say  it  is  at  your  pleasure  so  to  do.  But  I  am  confident  that  your  honor,  your  jus- 
tice, your  humanity,  will  force  you  to  take  part  with  the  oppressed,  and  not  give 
the  victory  to  those  who  have  so  wantonly  oppressed  her." 

In  the  course  of  explaining  why  some  witnesses  who  might  have  been  expected 
for  the  defence  had  not  appeared,  he  took  occasion  to  introduce  the  name  of  Ber- 
gami.  "  Our  case  is  already  proved,  and  we  do  not  think  that  either  expediency 
or  justice  requires  us  to  overload  these  Minutes  of  Evidence,  already  too  vast  and 
unwieldy  to  be  well  considered  in  their  important  details,  with  needless  testimony. 
We  cannot  admit  that  we  are  bound  to  go  one  step  farther.  We  have  heard  the 
challenges  and  defiances  of  our  opponents.  \Ve  have  been  told  that  Bergami 
might  be  produced  as  a  witness  in  our  exculpation,  but  we  knew  this  to  be  a  fiction 
of  lawyers,  which  common  sense  and  natural  feeling  would  reject.  The  very  call 
is  one  of  the  unparalleled  circumstances  of  this  extraordinary  case.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  no  instance  is  to  be  found  of  a  party  accused  of  adultery 
being  called  as  a  witness  to  disprove  it.  We  are  told,  forsooth,  that  he  knows  the 
truth  as  to  that  imputed  fact,  and  ought  to  depose  in  denial  of  it  at  this  bar,  if  it  is 
untrue.  The  answer  is  in  a  word — there  is  a  case  against  us,  or  there  is  none;  if 
none,  we  have  no  occasion  to  repel  it  by  witnesses,  and  if  there  is  a  case,  no  man 
will  regard  the  denial  of  the  adulterer.  How  shameful  an  inquisition  would  the 
contrary  practice  engender!  Great  as  is  the  obligation  to  veracity,  the  circum- 
stances might  raise  a  doubt  in  the  most  conscientious  mind  whether  it  ought  to 
prevail.  Mere  casuists  might  dispute  with  plausible  arguments  on  either  side, 
but  the  natural  feelings  of  mankind  would  be  likely  to  triumph  over  their  moral 
doctrines.  Supposing  the  existence  of  guilt,  perjury  itself  would  be  thought  venial 
in  comparison  with  the  exposure  of  a  confiding  woman.  It  follows  that  no  such 
question  ought  in  any  case  to  be  administered,  nor  such  temptation  given  to  tamper 
•with  the  sanctity  of  oaths.  My  learned  friends  will  not,  I  believe,  show  a  case  in 
which  such  a  witness  has  been  received  or  even  tendered;  and  if  not,  the  rule  for 
his  exclusion  must  be  founded  in  principles  too  deeply  seated  in  the  nature  and 
heart  of  man,  to  be  repealed  even  upon  this  occasion,  when  a  culpable  com- 
plaisance to  power  lias  brought  about  so  many  other  sacrifices  of  principle." 

He  proceeded  to  advert  to  a  subject  of  extreme  delicacy — the  motives  by  which 
the  House  of  Lords  might  be  supposed  to  be  actuated,  in  taking  either  course. 
"  May  I  add  one  word  more]  I  know  that  a  suspicion  has  gone  abroad — at  least, 


MR.  DENMAN'S  SPEECH.  143 

that  it  has  existed  within  these  walls — that  a  low  rabble  had  been  encouraged  to 
make  demonstrations  in  Her  Majesty's  favor,  and  that  all  the  public  appearances 
were  to  be  so  accounted  for.  But  the  same  person  who  used  that  expression,  was 
obliged  to  admit  in  a  few  weeks  the  truth  which  could  not  be  concealed,  that  the 
whole  of  the  generous  English  people  had  taken  her  part.  Such  is  the  indisputable 
feeling  among  all  the  soundest  and  best,  the  middle  classes  of  society.  There 
may,  for  aught  1  know,  be  apostles  of  mischief  brooding  in  some  corners,  watching 
to  strike  a  blow  at  the  Constitution,  and  not  unwilling  to  avail  themselves  of  any 
opportunity  for  fomenting  open  violence.  If  that  be  so,  consider,  my  lords,  that 
the  righteous  verdict  of  acquittal  which  I  confidently  expect,  will  at  once  gratify 
these  generous  feelings  and  tend  to  the  security  of  the  state,  and  baffle  those  mis- 
chievous projectors  by  taking  the  weapon  from  their  hand.  That  just  judgment 
pronounced  in  the  face  of  the  Crown,  will  endear  your  lordships  to  your  country, 
by  showing  your  resolution  to  discharge  your  duty.  On  the  other  hand,  the  dis- 
appointment of  the  well-affected  would  produce  that  settled  discontent  so  dangerous 
to  the  peace  and  permanency  of  institutions,  which  every  patriot  ought  to  regard 
with  apprehension.  The  violence  of  an  incensed  mob  could  lead  only  to  personal 
inconvenience,  which  I  know  how  your  lordships  would  despise.  But  1  beseech  you 
let  not  the  fear  of  having  that  fear  imputed  to  you,  bias  your  minds  in  favor  of  an 
unjust  conviction.  This  would  be  the  worst  iniquity  of  all,  the  basest  kind  of 
cowardice.  Weigh  then  the  evidence  and  the  arguments  calmly  and  impartially, 
and  if  your  understandings  are  satisfied  that  all  which  may  once  have  appeared 
important  has  been  scattered  'like  dew  drops  from  the  lion's  mane,' — if  the  wit- 
nesses for  the  prosecution  shrink  to  nothing  on  examination — if  their  strongest 
facts  are  borrowed  from  their  adversaries,  but  can  only  be  tortured  into  proof  of 
guilt  by  detaching  them  from  the  whole  mass  of  their  evidence — your  lordships 
will  never  pause  to  speculate  whether  your  course  may  be  pleasing  or  displeasing 
to  what,  in  the  jargon  of  the  day,  (which  I  detest,)  some  call  a  radical  mob:  you 
will  think  of  nothing  but  the  ascertainment  of  truth,  and  having  ascertained  it, 
will,  without  any  regard  to  consequences,  pursue  the  straight  path  to  which  the 
principles  of  eternal  justice  point." 

Having  discussed  portions  of  the  evidence  very  fully,  and  interwoven  much  of 
general  argument  on  the  great  features  of  the  case,  Mr.  Denman  alluded  to  "the 
mighty  efforts  of  his  great  leader,"  and  proceeded  to  demand  a  verdict  of  acquittal 
for  their  illustrious  client.  His  peroration  was  not  nor  could  be  accurately  reported, 
at  the  close  of  so  long  a  speech,  in  the  journals  of  the  day,  which  have  been  copied 
into  the  Parliamentary  debates;  but  it  was  nearly  as  follows: — 

"In  the  earlier  stages  of  this  proceeding,  my  lords,  when  we  more  than  once 
remonstrated  against  your  entertaining  the  charge,  and  afterwards  on  the  second 
reading,  when  we  were  permitted  to  assail  the  principle  of  the  Bill,  we  urged  upon 
you  the  powerful  reasons  which  should  have  deterred  the  accuser  from  undertaking 
that  office,  and  your  lordships  from  a  voluntary  assumption  of  so  awful  a  respon- 
sibility. After  earnestly  deprecating  the  hard  if  not  dangerous  duty  of  directing 
strong  personal  censures  against  those  whose  stations  might  have  averted  them,  if 
their  own  conduct  had  not  invited  and  made  them  necessary,  I  trust  that  we  have 
neither  shrunk  from  that  duty,  nor  indulged  in  needless  invectives.  \Ve  were 
bound  to  exact  that  'he  who  would'  affect  to  'bear  the  sword  of  heaven'  should 
not  be  more  severe  than  holy — to  show  that  against  an  exiled  wife  the  husband 
has  no  right  of  divorce — that  of  licensed  deviations  from  conjugal  fidelity,  the  self- 
indulgent  husband  cannot  with  decency  complain — that  consequently  all  inquiry 
into  the  truth  of  the  charges  would  be  but  a  fruitless  waste  of  time,  a  wanton 
offence  to  public  morality,  a  gratuitous  ha/arding  of  the  respect  due  to  this  august 
assembly,  by  overstraining  its  constitutional  powers. 

"  All  these  considerations  your  lordships  were  pleased  to  overrule,  and  to  disdain 
the  warnings  we  presumed  to  offer.  You  have  received  the  charges;  you  have  con- 
stituted yourselves  the  judges  of  the  proofs  on  which  they  rest.  But  the  personal 
topics  cannot  even  now  be  thrown  aside — they  are  inseparably  interwoven  with 
every  part  of  this  unhappy  proceeding.  Though  rejected  by  your  lordships,  in 
your  legislative  capacity,  us  motives  for  declining  the  inquiry,  they  cannot  bo  dis- 


144  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 

missed  from  your  minds  in  the  character  of  jurymen,  wherein  you  are  now  to  pro- 
nounce your  verdict  upon  the  evidence. 

"Remember  then,  my  lords,  the  feelings  of  hostility  in  which  this  inquiry  com- 
menced, and  with  which  it  has  now  for  many  years  been  carried  on.  Remember 
the  powers  that  have  been  embarked  in  it.  The  wealth  of  a  royal  treasury  un- 
sparingly applied — the  aid  of  state  alliances  freely  administered — the  learning  and 
talents,  and  zeal,  and  experience,  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  especially  the  worst 
part  of  the  world,  which  have  been  so  long  at  work,  unrestrained  by  a  single 
scruple.  Your  own  observation  has  marked  the  instruments  and  the  materials 
with  which  and  upon  which  the  work  has  been  performed.  The  hosts  of  discarded 
servants  have  played  their  several  parts  on  this  theatre,  and  have  exhibited  their 
resolution  to  earn  the  enormous  price  of  their  testimony,  by  an  absolute  reckless- 
ness as  to  its  truth.  Which  of  your  lordships  would  have  chosen  to  stand  such 
an  ordeal1?  Which  of  you  would  expose  to  it  any  of  your  female  relatives,  or  even 
your  sons,  now  perhaps  sojourning  in  the  countries  where  the  scene  is  laid?  Eut 
that  ordeal  has  been  passed,  and  without  harm  to  the  destined  victim. 

"The  inquiry  is  without  example  in  the  history  of  the  civilised  world.  This 
illustrious  lady  has  been  searched  out  and  thoroughly  known;  her  down-sitting  and 
her  uprising  have  been  completely  watched;  no  step  she  has  taken — no  word  she 
has  uttered — not  a  look — not  a  thought — has  escaped  her  prying,  assiduous,  and 
malignant  enemies.  Guilt  if  it  had  existed  must  have  been  proved  to  the  entire 
conviction  of  every  understanding;  and  the  absence  of  such  positive  and  over- 
whelming proof  is  the  establishment  of  unquestionable  innocence. 

"Your  lordships  are  indeed  engaged  in  an  inquisition  of  the  most  solemn  kind. 
I  know  nothing  in  the  whole  circle  of  human  affairs — I  know  nothing  in  the  view 
of  eternity,  that  can  be  likened  to  this  affecting  occasion,  except  that  great  day 
when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  disclosed.  And  if  you  have  been  armed 
with  weapons  and  powers,  and  have  used  them,  which  Omniscience  itself  possesses 
indeed  but  never  employs,  for  bringing  to  light  the  shameful  secret  of  Her  Ma- 
jesty's guilt,  but  no  guilt  has  been  made  manifest,  and  the  opposite  alternative 
results,  you  will  feel  that  some  duty  is  imposed  upon  you,  of  humbly  endeavoring 
to  imitate  also  the  divine  wisdom,  justice,  and  benevolence,  which  said  even  to 
that  culprit  whose  guilt  was  exposed  and  acknowledged,  but  against  whom  no 
accuser  could  come  forward  to  condemn  her — 'Neither  do  I  condemn  thee.  Go 
and  sin  no  more!'  "* 

*  The  Editors  of  this  work  have  had  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  being  favored  with  the 
preceding  pages  of  remark  and  correction  upon  the  very  eminent  Judge's  speech,  from 
the  only  authentic  quarter.  It  is  deeply  to  be  lamented  that  the  whole  of  that  great  per- 
formance has  not  been  thus  nrcscrved. 


THE    PRIVY    COUNCIL, 

IN  SUPPORT  OF 

THE  QUEEN-CONSORT'S  RIGHT  TO  BE  CROWNED 
WITH  THE  KING. 

JULY  5,  1821. 


THE  question  referred  to  the  decision  of  the  Privy  Council  is, 
Whether  or  not  the  Queen-Consort  of  this  realm  is  entitled  as  of  right 
to  be  crowned  when  the  King  celebrates  the  solemnity  of  his  corona- 
tion— and  this  is  a  question  of  constitutional  law,  to  be  determined 
by  the  principles  which  regulate  public  rights;  but  it  may  derive 
illustration  from  those  which  regulate  the  rights  of  private  persons. 

First  of  all,  the  history  of  the  ceremony  must  be  examined,  not  as 
a  matter  of  antiquarian  curiosity,  but  because  coronation  is  the  crea- 
ture of  precedent,  and  rests  rather  upon  practice  than  principle, 
although  the  reason  of  it  nlso  may  be  traced.  If  it  shall  be  found  that 
the  custom  of  crowning  Queens-Consort  has  been  uniform  and  unin- 
terrupted, or  (which  is  the  same  thing)  that  the  Queen-Consort  has 
always  been  crowned,  unless  in  cases  where  there  existed  some  insu- 
perable obstacle,  and  in  cases  where  she  voluntarily  declined  it,  the 
right  will  be  established  in  the  largest  sense.  Hut  for  the  purpose  of 
the  present  argument,  it  would  be  sufficient  to  demonstrate  a  more 
limited  proposition  of  fact,  viz.,  that  the  Queen-Consort  has  in  all 
cases  been  crowned  if  married  to  the  King  at  the  time  of  his  coro- 
nation—a proposition  not  the  less  true,  if  a  case  should  be  found 
where,  from  peculiar  circumstances,  she  declined  it. 

In  an  ordinary  question  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  go  back  be- 
yond the  reign  of  Richard  I,  the  period  of  legal  memory;  but  for  the 
present  purpose  it  is  bettor  to  ascend   as  high  as  authentic  history 
reaches.     Some  have  doubted  whether  the  Saxon  queens,  in  the  early 
VOL.  i. — 13 


146       ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

stages  of  the  heptarchy,  were  crowned;  no  one  denies  that  they  were 
so  in  the  later  periods.  There  is  no  occasion  for  inquiring  into  the 
practice  when  a  successful  warrior  was  held  up  to  his  followers  in 
the  field  upon  a  buckler,  and  hailed  as  king  among  a  crowd  of 
soldiers,  and  in  the  necessary  absence  of  his  family.  But  as  often 
as  the  solemnity  assumed  the  form  of  a  civil  observance,  the  Consort 
appears  to  have  shared  its  honors.  As  early  as  the  year  784,  Edel- 
burga,  the  wife  of  Brichtrich,  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  having  been 
guilty  of  attempts  against  her  husband's  life,  the  Queens  of  Wessex 
were  "  deprived  of  all  titles,  majesty,  and  royalty,"  which  Spelman 
and  Selden  understand  to  have  included  coronation;  and  this  was 
effected  by  an  express  law.  How  long  it  remained  in  force  is  uncer- 
tain; but  in  856,  Judith,  the  wife  of  Ethehvolf,  of  the  same  kingdom, 
was  crowned  at  Rheims,  and  afterwards  received  with  royal  honors 
in  England.  (Selden,  Tit.  Hon.  cap.  6;  Speed,  p.  300;  and  Carte, 
i.  295.)  Mr.  Selden,  referring  to  the  universality  of  the  practice  in 
all  other  kingdoms,  says,  that  "  the  Saxon  Queens,  were  in  the  late 
times  crowned  like  other  Queens,  so  that  the  law  of  the  West  Saxons 
was  soon  repealed;"  as  if  it  were  a  solitary  exception  to  the  general 
rule  in  those  times.  In  the  Cotton  MS.  there  is  a  document  purport- 
ing to  be  the  order  of  the  coronation  of  JEthelred  II  in  978;  but 
Mr.  Selden  treats  it  as  a  general  ceremonial  for  the  Saxon  corona- 
tions, and,  says  that  he  had  seen  it  in  a  hand-writing  six  hundred  years 
old,  which  (as  he  wrote  at  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century)  would 
make  the  MS.  at  least  as  old  as  Canute.  (Tit.  Hon.  c.  S.)  All  sub- 
sequent coronations  have  followed  this  order,  and  its  words  are 
remarkable.  The  ceremony  is  first  described  for  the  King  and  then 
follows  the  Queen's,  as  matter  of  course: — "Finit  consecratio  Regis: 
quam  sequitur  consecratio  Reginse,  quoe  propter-honorificentiam  ab 
episcopo  sacri  unguinis  oleo  super  verticem  perfundenda  est,  et  in 
ecclesia  coram  optimatibus  cum  condigno  honore,  et  regia  celsitudine, 
inregalis  thori  consortium,  benedicenda  et  consecranda  est;quce  etiam 
annulo,  pro  integritate  fidei,  et  corona  pro  eeternitatis  gloria  deco- 
randa  est."  So  much  was  the  coronation  of  the  Consort  deemed  a 
necessary  part  of  the  solemnity.  And  in  other  countries  it  was  so 
held  likewise.  Even  in  France,  where  the  Salic  law  excluded  females 
from  the  succession  to  the  imperial  crown,  they  received  the  honors 
of  the  crown  matrimonial:  their  coronation  was  performed  regularly 
at  St.  Denys,  the  King  being  crowned  at  Rheims.  A  Pontificale  is 
extant,  prescribing  the  order  of  the  solemnity,  confirmed  by  a  bull  of 
Clement  VIII. 

Advancing  to  the  Kings  of  the  Norman  line,  it  is  necessary  to  look 
more  minutely  into  the  particular  instances.  William  the  Conqueror 
was  married,  about  eleven  years  before  the  conquest,  to  Matilda,  who 
did  not  come  over  with  him,  and  was  not  crowned  till  1068.  He  was 
crowned  on  Christmas  day  1066,  with  as  little  delay  as  possible 
after  his  victory,  in  order  to  obtain  a  more  secure  title  than  he  thought 
the  sword  would  give  him.  The  unsettled  state  of  his  new  kingdom 
occupied  him  incessantly  for  some  time,  and  he  was  obliged  to  make 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN*S  CORONATION.  147 

T 

frequent  visits  to  his  Norman  dominions;  but  as  soon  as  he  could 
carry  Matilda  to  England  she  was  crowned,  and  without  any  delay. 
She  came  after  Easter,  and  on  the  next  great  feast  of  Whitsunday, 
"  Aldredus,  Ebor.  Arch,  in  reginamconsecravit."  (Flor.  Worcester, 
1090).  In  this,  as  in  other  cases  of  a  like  description,  before  the  reign 
of  Henry  III,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  King  was  himself  crowned 
a  second  time  at  his  Queen's  coronation. 

William  Rufus  having  been  elected  by  the  Barons  in  council  upon 
his  father's  death,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  elder  brother,  was  crowned 
immediately  after;  he  died  unmarried. 

Henry  I  was  crowned  August  5, 1100,  four  days  after  his  brother's 
death.  He  was  then  unmarried;  but  having  espoused  Matilda,  llth 
November  of  the  same  year  she  was  crowned,  according  to  the  Chron. 
Saxonicum,  209.  cd.  Gibs,  on  the  feast  of  St.  Martin;  and  therefore 
the  coronation  appears  to  have  been  performed  as  speedily  as  possible, 
or  at  the  same  time  with  the  marriage.  When  the  marriage  of  a  queen, 
or  her  arrival  in  England,  happened  during  the  interval  between  two 
great  feasts  of  the  church,  the  coronation  was  somewhat  delayed  in 
consequence.  In  1121,  Henry  married  Alice  of  Louvain,  who  was 
crowned  July  30th  of  that  year. 

Stephen  was  elected  by  the  prelates  and  Barons,  and  crowned  22d 
December  1135.  He  swore  upon  this  occasion  to  maintain  the  church 
and  nobility  in  their  possessions,  and  the  oath  of  allegiance  taken  to 
him  was  a  qualified  one.  The  prelates  swore  to  be  faithful  no  longer 
than  he  should  support  the  church;  the  barons,  after  their  example, 
swore  fealty  on  condition  of  his  performing  his  covenants  with  them. 
His  Queen  was  crowned  the  22d  of  March  following — having  been, 
left  abroad,  in  all  likelihood,  while  the  first  struggles  for  the  throne 
occupied  her  Consort  and  his  followers. 

Henry  II  was  crowned  December  19,1154;  his  Queen  Eleanor, 
is  distinctly  stated  to  have  been  crowned  with  him,  by  Gervase  of 
Canterbury,  (Script.  Hist.  Jlng.  1377,)  a  high  authority  upon  this 
point,  being  a  contemporary,  a  monk  of  the  abbey,  and  author  of  the 
<tfcti($  Pontificum  Cantuctriensium,  Others  say  she  was  crowned 
in  115S,  referring  probably  to  Henry's  second  or  third  coronation,  of 
which  she  partook  with  him.  But  there  was  a  remarkable  incident 
in  his  reign,  touching  which  no  difference  of  opinion  exists.  He  was 
pleased  to  have  his  eldest  son,  Prince  Henry,  crowned  in  1170,  and 
the  ceremony  was  performed  without  the  participation  of  his  Princess, 
Margaret,  a  daughter  of  France.  Her  father,  Louis,  complained  of 
the  omission — took  up  arms  against  England — and  put  in  the  front 
of  his  causes  of  war,  that  Margaret  had  not  been  crowned  with  her 
husband.  A  meeting  of  the  sovereigns  and  an  accomodation  took 
placo;  it  was  agreed  that  justice  should  be  done  to  the  princess; 
and  an  archbishop  and  two  bishops  being  sent  over  from  France, 
crowned  her,  together  with  her  husband,  at  Winchester,  in  1172. 

Richard  I  was  twice  crowned,  but  never  when  married,  at  least  in 
England;  for  he  was  only  betrothed  to  Alice,  whom  he  refused  to 
marry,  and  Berenguella  (or  Berengaria)  of  Sicily,  whom  lie  espoused 


148  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEENJS  CORONATION. 

at  Cyprus,  never  came  to  England.  No  wife  of  his,  therefore,  was 
ever  within  the  four  seas;  but  as  if  the  marriage  arid  her  coronation 
were  necessarily  connected  together,  the  two  ceremonies  were  per- 
formed nearly  at  the  same  time  in  Cyprus. 

His  successor,  King  John,  had  two  wives — Arvisa  of  Gloucester, 
and  Isabella;  the  latter  of  whom  only  is  known  for  certain  to  have 
been  crowned,  and  immediately  after  her  marriage.  If  Arvisa  was 
not  crowned  also — a  fact  which  cannot  be  proved — the  reason  may 
be  easily  given.  John  came  over  in  great  haste  to  seize  on  the  crown; 
he  left  his  duchess  in  Normandy,  and  arriving  at  Hastings  on  the  25th 
of  May,  1199,  reached  London  on  the  26th,  and  was  crowned  the 
day  after.  Disturbances  immediately  broke  out  in  his  duchy;  and  on 
the  19th  of  June  lie  was  obliged  to  hasten  back.  Before  those  trou- 
bles were  composed,  he  was  smitten  with  the  charms  of  Isabella,  and 
pursued  measures  for  obtaining  a  divorce  from  Arvisa,  if  indeed  he 
had  not,  as  some  historians  contend,  already  commenced  those  pro- 
ceedings. Certain  it  is,  that  the  reason  for  dissolving  the  marriage 
was  not  now  for  the  first  time  broached,  the  archbishop  who  solem- 
nised it  having  at  the  moment  protested  against  its  validity,  upon  the 
ground  of  consanguinity.  Now,  Arvisa,  from  the  time  of  John's  ac- 
cession till  her  divorce  never  was  in  England ;  and  the  process  of  divorce 
began  almost  immediately  after  his  coronation.  She  may  have  been 
crowned  abroad;  there  is  no  evidence  against  it;  the  ceremony  was 
so  much  a  matter  of  course,  that  chroniclers  may  well  have  been 
silent  on  it;  but  if  it  never  took  place,  the  circumstances  satisfac- 
torily explain  the  omission. 

Thus  from  the  Conquest  to  the  reign  of  King  John  inclusive,  there 
were  eight  coronations  performed  on  account  of  kings,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  honoring  or  of  recognising  them.  During  the  same  period 
there  are  as  many  coronations  of  Queens  known  to  have  been  solem- 
nised on  their  account  alone,  and  for  the  purpose  of  honoring  or  of 
recognising  them,  independent  of  their  consorts;  at  least,  if  the  King 
on  such  occasions  repeated  the  ceremony  of  his  own  coronation,  the 
principal  object  of  the  solemnity  was  crowning  the  Queen,  he  having 
himself  been  crowned  before. 

Henry  III  was  unmarried  when,  at  his  accession  in  12 16,  and  after- 
wards in  1220,  he  was  crowned.  On  the  14th  January,  1236,  he 
married  Eleanor  of  Provence,  and  six  days  after  she  was  crowned 
alone,  as  appears  by  the  Red  Book  in  the  Exchequer.  He  attended, 
wearing  his  crown,  as  we  there  learn,  but  he  was  only  a  spectator; 
and  M.  Paris  (355.  ed.  1684,)  relates  that  the  sword  of  St.  Edward, 
called  the  curtcine,  was  borne  before  him  by  the  Marshal,  in  token  of 
his  right  to  restrain  the  king  if  he  should  do  amiss  (in  signum  quod 
Regem,  si  oberret,  habeat  de  jure  potestatem  cohibendi).  So  entirely 
was  the  queen  the  principal  personage  at  this  solemnity. 

Edward  I  was  crowned  August  19,  1274,  with  his  Queen  Eleanor: 
in  1291  he  married  Margaret  of  France,  at  Canterbury,  where,  in  all 
probability  she  was  crowned.  There  being  no  evidence  of  the  event, 
is  no  argument  against  its  having  happened,  when  the  regularity  with 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  149 

which  Queens  were  crowned  on  their  marriage,  is  considered;  and 
in  Henry  the  Seventh's  time,  it  was  distinctly  asserted  and  never  con- 
tradicted, that  no  Queen,  since  the  Conquest,  had  ever  been  debarred 
of  this  right. 

Edward  II  and  his  Queen  Isabella  were  crowned  together,  July 
25,  130S;  and  Edward  III,  being  unmarried,  was  crowned  alone, 
July  26,  1326;  but  a  year  after,  he  married  Philippa,  who  was  crown- 
ed alone  in  April  1327.  A  proclamation  is  preserved  in  the  Close 
Roll  in  the  Tower,  summoning  the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  to 
attend  and  perform  the  canopy  service,  as  they  were  wont  at  other 
coronations.  This  is  the  same  proclamation  which  issues  to  summon 
the  Barons  at  the  coronation  of  kings  alone,  or  of  kings  with  their 
consorts. 

Richard  II  was  crowned  July  16,  1377,  and  he  married  January 
14,  1382,  his  first  wife,  Anne,  who  was  crowned  on  the  22d  of  the 
same  month.  In  the  twentieth  year  of  his  reign,  (1397)  he  married 
Isabella,  who  was  then  crowned  alone,  as  appears  from  the  Close 
Roll  in  the  Tower.  An  order  is  there  preserved,  to  the  Sheriffs  of 
London,  to  make  proclamation  summoning  "  all  persons  who,  by  rea- 
son of  their  tenures  or  otherwise,  were  bound  to  perform  any  services 
on  the  days  of  the  coronation  of  Queens  of  England,  to  do  the  same 
at  the  coronation  of  the  King's  consort  as  usual." — In  the  Coif.  MS. 
in  Brit.  Mus.  Tib.  E.  8.  37,  is  an  account  of  the  duties  of  officers 
at  the  coronation,  temp.  Ric.  2.  The  duty  of  keeper  of  the  Ward- 
robe is  there  set  forth:  "Idem  custos  eodem  modo  in  Coronatione 
Reginae,  si  sit  coronata  cum  Rege,  sive  sola  sit  coronata,"  &c. 

Henry  IV  was  crowned  October  13,  1399.  His  first  wife,  Mary  of 
Bohun,  having  died  tn  1394,  he  afterwards  married  Joanna,  who  was 
crowned  in  1403.  His  son  and  successor  Henry  V  was  crowned  in 
1413;  but  having  in  1421,  married  Katherine  of  France,  he  came 
over  to  England  for  the  purpose,  among  other  things,  of  attending  her 
coronation.  She  was  crowned  alone,  as  appears  from  the  Clo.se  Roll 
in  the  Tower,  where  a  summons  remains  to  all  persons  to  attend  and 
perform  services  "at  the  Coronation  of  Katherine  Queen  of  England, 
the  King's  Consort." 

Henry  VI,  having  succeeded  his  father  when  an  infant  of  a  few 
months  old,  was  first  crowned  in  his  ninth  year,  1429,  and  afterwords 
at  Paris  in  1431.  In  1445,  he  married  Margaret,  who  was  cro\vned 
alone  on  the  30th  of  May,  with  the  usual  pomp. 

The  materials  of  Scottish  history  do  not  enable  us  to  trace  the  coro- 
nation of  the  Queen-Consort  with  such  precision:  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  was  as  punctually  and  solemnly  performed  as  that  of  the 
sovereign.  This  may  safely  be  inferred  from  the  peculiar  provisions 
of  the  law  of  Scotland,  touching  the  Queen's  privileges.  There  she 
has  by  statute  the  right  to  an  oath  of  allegiance  from  all  the  prelates 
and  barons.  Such  is  the  provision  of  the  Act  1428,  c.  109,  made  in 
the  eighth  parliament  of  James  I,  and  four  years  after  his  return 
from  captivity  in  England.  It  is  entitled,  ".7//A  lo  be  made  to  the 
Queen  be  the  Clcrgie  and  the  Rarunncs"  and  is  as  follows,  being, 

13* 


150  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

like  all  the  old  statutes  of  Scotland,  extremely  concise:  "  Quo  die  Do- 
minns  Rex,  ex  deliberatione  et  consensu  totius  concilii  statuit,  quod 
omnes  et  singuli  successoresprselatorum  regni  quorumcunque,  uecnon 
omnes  et  singulihsered.es  futuri  comitum,  barorium,  omniumque  libere 
tenentium  Domini  Regis,  teneantur  facere  consimile  juramentum 
Dominae  nostrse  Reginae.  Nee  ullus  prselatus  de  caetero  admittatur  ad 
suam  temporalitatem  aut  hseres  cnjusvis  tenentis  Domini  Regis  ad 
suas  tenendrias,  nisi  prius  prsestet  ReginaB  illud  juramentum."  Now 
that  an  argument  may  be  drawn  to  the  rights  of  the  king  and  his  Con- 
sort in  Great  Britain,  since  the  union  of  the  Crowns,  from  their  rights 
in  Scotland  before  the  Union,  is  manifest,  both  upon  principle,  and 
also  upon  the  authority  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  which,  in  1788, 
ordered  Scottish  precedents  to  be  examined,  as  well  as  English,  touch- 
ing the  Regency. 

Edward  IV  having  been  crowned  in  1461,  when  he  was  unmar- 
ried, afterwards  married  Elizabeth  Woodville,  in  1465,  and  her  coro- 
nation took  place  immediately.  In  the  Cotton  Collection  there  re- 
mains an  Ordo  Coronationis  Regis  Ed.  IV,  et  Reginse  *3nglix,  with 
a  memorandum,  "  Pro  Unctione  Reginee,  quando  sola  coronanda  sit." 
Tib.  E.  8. 

Richard  III  and  his  Queen  Anne  were  crowned  together  in  1483. 
The  proceedings  of  a  usurper  are  not,  in  a  question  like  the  present, 
to  be  overlooked;  for  he  is  likely  to  be  peculiarly  scrupulous  in  the 
observance  of  all  the  ancient  usages  connected  with  the  title  to  the 
throne. 

Henry  VII  took  the  crown  by  three  titles — descent,  conquest,  and 
marriage;  and  although,  as  Lord  Coke  remarks,  his  best  title  in  law 
was  his  marriage,  yet  it  is  certain  that  he  preferred  the  title  by  descent, 
which  upon  all  occasions  he  was  anxious  to  put  forward,  placing  it 
(to  use  the  language  of  Lord  Bacon)  as  his  main  shield,  and  the  other 
two  as  its  supporters  only.  The  country,  as  far  as  its  opinion  can  be 
collected  from  the  declaration  of  Parliament,  viewed  it  in  the  same 
light;  and  in  the  intendment  of  law  this  is  sufficient,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  sentiments  of  the  York  party.  The  crown  was  by  stat- 
ute entailed  upon  him  and  his  issue,  being  limited  to  the  heirs  of  his 
body  generally,  without  any  reference  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  to 
whom  he  was  not  then  married.  But  before  this  act  recognised  him 
as  king  de  jure,  and  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Bosworth  had 
given  him  possession  of  the  crown,  he  solemnised  his  coronation,  30th 
October  MS5,  postponing  his  marriage  with  ihe  daughter  of  Edward 
IV  till  tlie  IStii  of  January  following.  "These  nuptials,"  says  Lord 
Bacon,  "  were  celebrated  with  greater  triumph  and  demonstrations, 
especially  on  the  people's  part,  than  either  his  entry  or  coronation, 
which  the  king  rather  noted  than  liked,  and  all  his  lifetime  showed 
himself  no  very  indulgent  husband  towards  her."  It  may  well  be 
supposed  that  this  incident  increased  his  jealousy  of  his  Consort's  title, 
and  his  reluctance  to  do  anything  which  might  seem  to  recognise  it. 
He  accordingly  delayed  the  coronation  till  he  "alienated  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people,  and  till  danger  taught  him  what  to  do."  The 


ARGUMENT  FOR  TIIE  QUEEN's  CORONATION.  151 

feelings  expressed  by  Margaret  of  York,  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  upon 
the  postponement,  evince  the  sense  entertained  by  the  persons  best 
informed  with  respect  to  the  rights  of  Queens  in  this  particular.  She 
"could  not  see  without  trouble  that  Henry  refused  to  let  Elizabeth 
be  crowned — an  honor  no  Queen  of  England  had  been  debarred  of 
since  the  Conquest;  and  the  birth  of  a  son  had  not  induced  him  to  do 
her  that  justice."  Notwithstanding  his  dislike  of  the  measure,  he  was 
at  length  obliged  to  give  way;  but  it  came,  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  like 
an  old  christening,  that  had  staid  long  for  godfathers,  and  this  made 
it  subject  to  every  man's  note,  as  an  act  against  the  King's  stomach." 
The  Queen  was  crowned  alone,  25th  November  14S7;  and  the  pro- 
clamation for  appointing  persons  to  execute  the  office  of  Lord  High 
Steward  at  the  ceremony,  is  in  the  very  same  terms  with  the  similar 
proclamation  two  years  before  at  the  coronation  of  Henry  himself. — 
Both  are  preserved  in  Rymer,  xii,  277,  32 7;  the  one  tested  October 
19,  14S5— the  other  November  10,  1487. 

Thus,  of  the  eighteen  married  Kings,  from  the  Conquest  to  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII  inclusive,  not  one  was  crowned,  that  had  not  the 
coronation  of  a  Consort  celebrated  either  with  his  own,  or  upon  his 
nuptials.  Fifteen  coronations  were  celebrated  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
crowning  Queens-Consort,  including  Edward  Ps  second  wife;  the 
same  number  of  coronations  was  celebrated  on  account  of  Kings 
alone,  including  William  Rufus;  and  six  are  known  to  have  been 
celebrated  of  Queens-Consort  alone.  The  usage  of  four  centuries  is 
sufficient  to  establish  the  rule  in  respect  to  a  state  ceremony;  it  evinces 
the  practice  of  England  in  this  respect;  it  is  sufficient  to  settle  more 
essential  points;  it  fixes  the  custom  of  the  monarchy,  and  authorises 
the  conclusion  that  any  subsequent  deviations  are  to  be  deemed  capa- 
ble of  explanation  in  the  absence  of  positive  evidence,  and  to  be  only 
reckoned  exceptions,  even  if  it  were  shown  or  granted  thai  they  can- 
not be  explained. 

Henry  VIII  was  crowned  with  his  first  wife,  Katherine  of  Arragon, 
1509;  and  upon  his  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  she  was  crowned 
alone,  on  Whitsunday,  1533.  There  maybe  no  evidence  of  his  other 
wives  being  crowned,  any  more  than  of  the  contrary  position.  If  it 
be  admitted  that  they  were  not,  of  which  no  proof  exists,  there  seems 
little  difficulty  in  explaining  the  reasons  of  the  omission.  He  married 
Jane  Seymour  the  day  after  Anne  Boleyn's  execution.  He  had  then 
quarrelled  with  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope;  he  was  odious  to  the 
church,  which  he  was  busy  in  despoiling;  the  destruction  of  Anne 
rendered  him  equally  unpopular  with  the  reformed  party,  whom  she 
had  protected;  and  Jane  was  not  likely  to  court  a  ceremony  which 
must  have  exposed  her  to  especial  hatred,  as  the  accomplice  and  the 
occasion  of  un  enormity  so  recent  and  so  great.  She  soon  proved 
with  child,  and  died  the  day  after  Edward  VI  was  born.  Anne  of 
Cloves  lent  herself  to  the  proceedings  for  dissolving  her  marriage,  and 
Henry  was  engaged  in  these  from  the  day  of  its  celebration.  During 
the  rest  of  his  reign,  the  unsettled  state  of  ecclesiastical  a  flairs  renders 
it  probable  that  neither  Katherine  Howard  nor  Katherine  Parr  was 


152  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

ever  crowned;  but  this  likelihood  is  all  the  evidence  we  have  of  the 
omission,  beside  the  silence  of  historians,  and  want  of  documents. 

The  cases  of  Edward  VI  who  died  unmarried,  Queen  Mary,  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  have  of  course  no  bearing  upon  the  question. 
James  I  was  crowned  with  his  queen  in  England,  almost  immediately 
after  his  accession,  they  having  both  been  previously  crowned  in  Scot- 
land. 

Charles  I  was  crowned  2d  February  1625,  near  a  year  after  his 
accession.  It  is  asserted  that  he  was  crowned  alone;  and  it  may  be 
so,  although  certainly  there  are  grounds  for  a  contrary  supposition. 
The  proclamation  for  the  solemnity,  in  the  usual  terms,  was  issued 
17th  January  1625;  and  it  announces  the  coronation  of  Queen  Henri- 
etta Maria,  as  well  as  of  the  King.  On  the  24th  of  the  same  month, 
a  second  proclamation  was  issued,  appointing  the  Court  of  Claims, 
and  referring,  by  way  of  recital,  to  the  coronaiion  of  both  King  and 
Queen.  On  the  30th,  it  is  true,  a  third  proclamation  respecting 
knights  of  the  Bath  to  be  created,  only  mentions,  a  The  solemnity  of 
our  coronation;"  but  it  is  possible  that  those  knights  being  for  attend- 
ance on  the  person  of  the  King,  the  mention  only  of  the  Queen's 
coronation  might  be  dropt,  without  the  intention  of  crowning  her 
having  been  abandoned.  Rymer,  xviii,  275,  278.  However,  it  is 
believed  that  s'le  never  was  crowned,  and  this  may  be  admitted, 
though  there  is  no  proof  of  it.  But  this  omission  is  not  necessarily  to 
be  explained  by  those  who  contend  for  the  right.  It  might  be  suffi- 
cient for  them  to  say,  that  the  current  of  cases,  being  in  favor  of  the 
proposition  of  fact,  that  Queens  have  always  been  crowned,  the  omis- 
sion in  Henrietta  Maria's  case  must  have  arisen  from  peculiar  circum- 
stances. Nevertheless,  those  circumstances  shall  now  be  shown,  ex 
gratia,  the  burthen  of  the  proof  lying  on  the  other  side. 

The  marriage  of  Charles  with  a  Catholic,  and  her  arrival  with  a 
Catholic  suite,  had  given  great  umbrage  to  the  country.  In  opening 
his  first  parliament,  that  prince  had  alluded  to  the  rumors  propagated 
by  malicious  persons,  who  gave  out  that  he  was  not  so  true  a  friend 
to  the  established  religion  as  he  ought  to  be;  and  he  assured  them, 
that  having  been  brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  (meaning  James 
I,)  he  should  steadily  persevere  in  supporting  the  Protestant  church. 
The  Parliament  was  not  satisfied,  and  the  two  houses  held  a  grand 
conference,  which  ended  in  a  joint  address  to  the  King,  praying  him  to 
enforce  the  laws  against  Popish  recusants.  In  the  fifth  article  of  the 
address,  they  thank  the  King  for  the  clause  inserted  in  the  treaty  of 
marriage — that  no  natural  born  subject,  being  a  Catholic,  should  be 
employed  in  the  Queen's  household — and  pray  that  it  may  be  enforced. 
After  the  King  had  given  satisfactory  answers  to  the  different  heads 
of  the  address,  seriatim,  and  issued  a  proclamation  against  recusants 
in  consequence,  his  favorite  misister,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
declared  in  parliament,  that  his  Majesty  took  well  their  having  re- 
minded him  of  religion,  though  he  should  have  done  just  the  same 
had  they  never  asked  him;  "well  remembering,"  added  the  duke, 
"  that  his  father,  when  he  recommended  to  him  the  person  of  his  wife, 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  153 

had  not  recommended  her  religion." — Rushwortht\t  172,  1S3.  Parl. 
Hist,  ii,  26.  These  things  demonstrate  that  great  jealousy  existed  in 
parliament  and  the  country,  on  the  subject  of  the  Queen's  religion; 
nor  was  the  ferment  allayed  by  the  King's  compliance;  for  the  Com- 
mons, a  few  days  afier,  refused  supplies,  on  account  of  grievances, 
particularly  the  growth  of  Popery,  and  the  supposed  leaning  of  the 
court  towards  it,  and  the  parliament  was  suddenly  dissolved  on  the 
12th  of  August,  the  joint  address  having  been  voted  at  the  begin- 
ning of  that  month.  Now  the  coronation  took  place  in  the  interval 
between  this  dissolution  and  the  calling  of  a  new  parliament. 

It  may  be  from  hence  inferred,  that  one  motive  for  changing 
the  resolution  to  crown  the  Queen,  was  the  reflection  that  such  a 
measure  would  revive  the  alarms  respecting  her  religion,  and  excite 
odium  against  her  person.  The  nature  of  the  solemnity,  when  she 
came  to  view  it  more  nearly,  must  have  decided  her  in  refusing  to 
partake  of  it.  She  must  have  regarded  with  abhorrence,  a  ceremony 
into  which  the  rites  of  (he  Protestant  religion  entered  so  largely — a 
ceremony  performed  at  a  "Protestant  altar,  by  a  Protestant  prelate,  in 
the  language  of  a  Protestant  ritual.  Had  she  and  the  King  professed 
the  same  Catholic  faith,  this  difficulty,  though  great,  might  have  been 
got  over;  but,  as  he  was  a  sincere  Protestant,  the  words  taken  by  him 
in  one  sense,  must  have  been  used  towards  her,  and  by  her,  in  an 
opposite  sense,  to  make  them  innocent.  The  sacrament  is  a  part  of 
the  ceremony;  but  supposing  that  to  have  been  left  out,  she  never 
could  have  received  the  ring  given  to  her  with  the  words,  "Accipe 
annulum  fidei,  signaculum  sancta3trinitatis."  "Fides,"  in  the  King's 
case,  must  have  meant  the  reformed  faith;  applied  to  the  Queen,  the 
same  word  in  the  same  archbishop's  mouth  must  either  have  meant  the 
opposite  doctrine,  or  it  must  have  bound  her  to  the  heresy  she  daily 
abjured.  The  use  of  the  ring  was  equally  inconsistent  with  her  creed, 
"  Quo  possis  omnes  hcereticas  pravitates  devitare;" — that  is,  eschew 
the  heretical  sins  of  her  own  religion — "et  barbaras  gentes  virtute  dei 
prccemere;  et  ad  agnitionem  veritatis  advocare;"  in  other  words,  con- 
vert infidels  to  the  errors  she  abhorred  as  damnable.  A  gift  bestowed 
in  such  a  place  by  such  a  power,  accompanied  by  such  words,  sub- 
servient to  such  purposes,  must  have  been  to  her  only  an  object  of 
aversion. 

No  reasonable  doubt,  then,  can  be  entertained  that  the  Queen  was 
deterred  from  submitting  to  be  crowned,  partially  by  her  apprehension 
of  I\\G  odium  which  her  participation  in  a  Protestant  religious  service 
might  excite  against  herself  and  her  Catholic  followers,  and  partly  by 
her  own  religious  scruples.  The  tradition  among  antiquaries*  is,  that 

*  The  correctness  of  the  statement  that  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  was  not  crowned, 
and  the  reasons  of  the  omission,  are  proved  by  a  passage  in  "Finctti  Philoxenos. 
Same  Choice  Observations  of  Sir  John  /Vn/.Y/,  A7.,  anil  Muster  of  the  Ceremonies  to  the 
two  lfi.it  h'irt^n.  1'rintcd  I(j5t>."  The  French  ambassador  was  at  the  house  of  Sir 
Ab.  Williams  where,  with  her  Majesty,  he  had  a  view  of  the  procession,  p.  170. 
He  declined  being  a  spectator  at  the  coronation,  "  where  the  Queen,  his  master's 


154  ARGTJ]VfENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

she  declined,  unless  she  might  be  crowned  by  a  priest  of  her  own 
persuasion,  which  was  of  course  refused.  That  the  difficulty  must 
have  occurred  in  the  manner  here  asserted,  seems  still  further  proved 
by  the  article  in  the  treaty  with  France,  stipulating  that  at  the  mar- 
riage, "aucune  ceremonie  ecclesiastique  interviendra,"  (Rymer,  xvii, 
sub.  fin,}  and  by  the  dates  of  the  proclamations  already  cited,  which 
show  that  the  change  of  resolution  was  too  sudden  to  have  proceeded 
from  actual  remonstrance  on  the  part  of  the  country,  and  consequently 
that  the  objection  to  being  crowned  moved  from  herself,  dictated  by 
her  apprehensions  or  her  scruples,  or  both.  If  she  had  been  deterred 
by  the  country  from  enjoying  her  right,  the  non-usor  would  not  have 
operated  against  her  Protestant  successors;  if  by  the  King,  from  his 
submission  to  the  wish  of  the  country,  the  same  remark  applies;  but 
there  is  every  reason  to  conclude,  that  the  three  parties,  King,  Queen, 
and  Country,  concurred  in  the  omission,  which  consequently  cannot 
operate  against  the  right,  whether  we  consider  it  as  in  the  Queen- 
Consort,  or  in  the  realm,  or  in  both.  And  the  view  which  can  be 
taken  least  favorable  to  the  argument,  viz.  that  Henrietta  Maria's 
case  stands  unexplained,  and  is  an  exception  to  the  practice,  proves 
nothing  more  than  that  a  Catholic  queen  and  Protestant  king  cannot 
well  be  crowned  together. 

Charles  II  was  crowned  before  his  marriage  with  Katherine  of 
Portugal.  The  religious  animosities  of  the  last  reign  were  now  greatly 
increased — a  motion  in  parliament  had  been  made  to  prevent  Charles's 
marriage  with  a  Catholic — and  the  existence  of  scruples  in  Katherine's 
mind  is  on  record;  for  one  of  the  charges  against  Lord  Clarendon,  in 
Lord  Bristol's  Articles  of  Impeachment,  was  his  having  persuaded 
the  Queen  to  refuse  being  married  by  a  Protestant  priest  or  bishop. 
If,  then,  it  be  admitted,  that  she  never  was  crowned,  (of  which  there 
is  no  proof,)  the  omission  falls  within  the  scope  of  the  argument 
respecting  the  case  of  Henrietta  Maria,  with  this  difference,  that 
Katherine's  case,  howsoever  explained,  or  if  left  unexplained,  does  not 
affect  the  rule  of  a  Queen  being  always  crowned  with  her  consort,  if 
married  at  the  time  of  his  coronation. 

James  II  and  his  Queen,  Mary  of  Modena,  were  crowned  together, 
both  being  Catholics.  The  solemnity  of  the  sacrament  is  said  to  have 
been  omitted  on  this  occasion,  but  how  the  difficulties  were  got  over 
which  arose  from  the  other  parts  of  the  service,  seems  hard  to  com- 
prehend. The  utmost  use  that  can  be  made  of  their  submitting  to 
the  ceremony,  is  unavailing  against  the  argument  respecting  Henrietta 
Maria  and  Katherine — for  that  which  scares  one  person's  conscience 
may  not  affect  another's;  and  besides,  the  King  and  Queen  being  of 

daughter,  excused  her  presence,"  169.  "The  Queen's  reason  (as  it  was  voyced)  for 
not  being  crowned  together  with  the  King,  was  because  she  could  not  (they  said), 
by  her  religion,  be  present  at  our  church  ceremonies,  where  she  must  have  had 
divine  service  celebrated  by  our  bishops,  and  not  by  those  of  her  own  religion,  as 
was  demanded  for  her  crowning,"  171.  This  book  was  presented  by  his  late  Majesty 
(Geo.  Ill)  to  the  British  Museum. 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  155 

the  same  religion,  found  it  much  more  easy  to  take  the  words  of  the 
ritual  in  their  own  sense. 

Since  the  Revolution,  no  exception  whatever  can  be  found  to  the 
rule;  for  George  the  First's  wife  never  was  in  England — never  was 
known  as  Queen — nor  even  mentioned  officially  at  all  till  after  her 
decease,  and  then  named  by  the  title  she  took  after  the  divorce,  which 
is  understood  to  have  dissolved  her  marriage  before  the  accession  of 
the  house  of  Brunswick.  It  may  be  remarked,  that  the  last  proclama- 
tion issued  respecting  a  corronation,  viz.,  the  one  directing  the  late 
Queen  to  be  crowned,  was  issued  some  days  after  the  one  for  the 
King's  coronation,  the  marriage  having  been  solemnized  in  the  inter- 
val; and  it  summoned  all  persons  bound  by  their  tenures  or  otherwise, 
to  attend  and  do  service  at  the  Queen's  coronation. 

The  ascertainment  of  the  facts  has  done  more  in  this  case  than  lay 
a  foundation  for  the  argument.  Every  thing  here  depends  upon 
usage;  and  the  uniformity  of  that  usage,  both  in  England  and  other 
countries  where  the  solemnity  of  a  coronation  is  known,  demonstrates 
the  true  nature  of  the  solemnity,  indicates  its  component  parts,  and 
prohibits  the  rejection  of  one  portion  rather  than  of  another.  It  is 
on  all  hands  agreed,  that,  in  England,  no  Queen-Consort  has  ever 
been  denied  a  coronation.  It  is  admitted  that  the  present  will  be  the 
first  instance  of  a  demand  and  refusal.  But  it  has  further  been 
proved,  at  the  very  least,  that,  as  often  as  a  married  King  has  been 
crowned,  his  Consort  has  received  the  same  honor,  unless,  in  one 
instance,  where  she  was  abroad;  and  in  another,  where  religion  pre- 
vented, and  she  declined  it.  That  the  Queen-Consort,  married  at  the 
King's  coronation,  being  of  his  own  religion,  within  the  realm,  and 
willing  to  be  crowned,  has  always  been  crowned,  is  a  proposition 
without  any  exception  whatever;  and  it  applies  strictly  to  the  case  of 
her  present  Majesty;  it  embraces  the  matter  now  in  question.  Where 
usage  and  practice  are  every  thing,  this  might  be  sufficient;  but  a 
larger  proposition  has  been  proved;  and  it  is  a  legitimate  inference 
from  the  statement  of  facts,  that  the  Queen-Consort  has  at  all  times 
been  crowned  as  regularly  and  solemnly  as  the  King  himself;  for,  the 
cases  are  extremely  few,  where  positive  proof  does  not  exist  of  the 
Queen's  coronation;  and  it  is  very  possible  that  there  may  be  no  omis- 
sion at  all.  Again,  if  it  be  granted  that,  in  those  cases,  were  the 
proof  exists  not,  there  was  no  coronation,  they  must,  in  all  fair  rea- 
soning, be  taken  as  exceptions  to  a  very  general  rule;  and  we  are 
bound  to  presume  that  they  would  be  so  explained  as  to  bring  them 
within  the  rule,  if  we  knew  the  whole  facts.  This  would  be  a  sound 
inference,  supposing  we  had  no  means  whatever  of  accounting  for 
those  exceptions.  It  is  the  manner  in  which  men  always  reason  in 
questions  of  historical  evidence,  and  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life;  but 
it  is  also  the  manner  in  which  courts  of  law  reason.  If  an  immemorial 
enjoyment  of  a  way  or  pasture,  by  persons  having  a  certain  estate,  is 
proved,  it  will  bo  inferred,  that  the  claimant,  and  those  whoso  estuto 
he  hath,  at  all  times  used  the  way  or  pasture,  although  he  may  not 


156  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

be  able  to  show  that  each  owner,  within  the  time  of  living  memory, 
did  use  it.  Suppose  that  this  proof  is  wholly  wanting  with  respect 
to  one  owner,  who  had  the  estate  for  a  few  months;  if  all  others  used 
the  way  or  pasture,  as  far  back  as  living  memory  reaches,  the  pre- 
sumption will  be,  that  the  one  owner  also  used  it.  But  even  if  proof 
were  given  that  he  did  not,  and  his  non-usor  were  unexplained;  it 
would  avail  nothing  against  the  generality  of  the  proposition  of  fact, 
that  all  used  it  who  chose;  for  the  presumption  would  be,  that  there 
existed  circumstances  which,  if  known,  would  explain  the  non-usor; 
and  the  burthen  of  rebutting  this  presumption,  would  be  thrown  upon 
the  party  denying  the  immemorial  enjoyment.  So  here,  if  the  person 
holding  the  station  of  Queen-Consort  is  proved  to  have  been  crowned, 
in  all  but  two  or  three  instances,  respecting  which  there  is  no  proof 
either  way,  a  presumption  arises,  that  in  those  instances  too,  she  was 
crowned;  and  if  it  be  shown  or  admitted,  that  in  those  cases  no  coro- 
nation took  place,  he  who  denies  the  uniformity  of  the  custom,  must 
show  either  that  the  ceremony  was  refused  to  the  Queen,  or  that  it 
was  omitted  without  any  cause;  the  necessary  conclusion  from  the 
great  majority  of  instances  being,  that  the  ceremony  always  was 
performed,  unless  the  Queen  refused,  or  some  accident  prevented  it. 

This  is  the  principle  upon  which  other  coronation  claims  have 
been,  in  all  times,  dealt  with.  It  cannot  be  proved,  that  in  every 
coronation,  the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports  performed  the  canopy 
service,  because  there  are  some  of  those  ceremonies  of  which  no 
records  are  preserved.  But  their  claim  has  always  been  allowed,  and 
it  would  have  been  allowed,  though  proof  should  have  been  given, 
that  in  one  or  two  instances  they  did  not  serve,  as  unquestionably  is  the 
case.  For  the  omission  would  justly  have  been  deemed  accidental,  that 
is,  imputable  to  causes  now  unknown,  but  consistent  with  the  unifor- 
mity of  the  usage.  So  tho  the  court  has  upon  the  present  occasion 
admitted  the  claim  of  a  lord  of  a  manor  to  do  service  as  larderer  to 
the  Kings  and  Queens  of  England  at  their  coronation,  although  in 
right  of  that  manor,  it  is  proved  that  no  such  service  had  been  done 
since  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  The  King's  right  to  be  crowned  might 
stand  in  the  same  predicament;  for,  although  it  happens  that  his  coro- 
nation has  only  been  omitted  in  one  instance,  that  of  Edward  V, 
which  is  easily  accounted  for,  the  omission  might  well  have  been 
more  frequent.  The  intervals  between  accessions  and  coronations 
have  been  long  enough  to  leave  many  risks  of  a  demise  of  the  crown 
before  the  ceremony  could  be  performed;  and  though  the  delay  had 
not  been  accounted  for,  it  is  presumed  that  the  unexplained  omission 
would  not  have  availed  against  the  King's  right.  Nor  can  it  be 
admitted  that  the  oaths  taken  by  the  King,  and  the  allegiance  ten- 
dered to  him,  make  any  difference  in  the  argument.  These  rest  them- 
selves upon  usnge  antecedent  to  the  statute;  and  if  they  formed  no 
part  of  the  solemnity,  the  King's  coronation  would  still  be  an  impor- 
tant ceremony. 

Such  would  be  the  principle,  if  all  the  exceptions  to  the  rule  had 
remained  wholly  unexplained;  but  it  is  contended,  that  they  have  all 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  157 

been  sufficiently  accounted  for.  There  is  the  greatest  difference 
between  an  omission  and  an  interruption — a  mere  non-nsor,  and  a 
denial.  No  instance  whatever  is  alleged  of  the  Queen  having  beon 
prevented  from  enjoying  the  honor  in  question.  On  the  contrary, 
t\vo  attempts  were  made  to  disturb  her,  and  both  failed.  King  Henry, 
as  he  must  be  deemed,  and  was  always  called  after  his  coronation  in 
the  lifetime  of  his  father,  Henry  II, and  afterwards  Henry  VII, delayed 
the  coronation  of  their  consorts,  and  endeavored  to  withhold  the 
ceremony  altogether;  but  both  were  obliged  to  yield  to  the  usage,  and 
those  Consorts  were  crowned.  As  one  successful  interruption  would 
countervail  many  instances  of  uncontested  nsor,  so  one  failure  in  the 
attempt  to  interrupt  is  worth  many  instances  of  peaceable  enjoyment. 

The  use  and  practice,  such  as  it  thus  appears  to  have  been  in  all 
times,  establishes  the  right.  At  least  it  throws  upon  those  who  deny 
it,  the  burthen  of  proving  the  Queen's  part  of  the  ceremony  to  be 
one  that  may  be  dispensed  with,  both  as  regards  herself  and  the 
ceremony,  or  the  realm  which  is  interested  in  it.  But  a  more  near 
view  of  the  Queen's  part  will  still  further  prove  the  existence  of  the 
right. 

If  it  were  asked  by  what  test  a  substantive  right  can  most 
surely  be  known,  the  answer  would  be — by  these  three;  its  separate 
and  independent  enjoyment — its  connection  with  other  rights  arising 
out  of  it,  and  dependent  on  it  alone — and  its  subserviency  to  some 
important  purpose,  of  the  claimant  or  of  the  realm.  The  right  in  ques- 
tion has  all  these  incidents. 

The  Queen-Consort  has  been  crowned  in  fourteen  or  fifteen  in- 
stances when  the  King's  coronation  had  before  been  celebrated,  and 
when  the  performance  of  the  ceremony  could  bear  no  reference  to 
him.  In  six  of  those  cases,  at  the  least,  (Edward  III,  Richard  If,  and 
Henry  III,  V,  VI,  and  VII,)  the  Queen-Consort  was  crowned  alone, 
sometimes  in  her  husband's  absence,  sometimes  in  presence  of  him, 
as  a  mere  assistant  at  the  solemnity.  Furthermore,  a  ceremonial  is 
distinctly  laid  down  for  her  coronation,  apart  from  the  King's,  upon 
the  supposition  that  it  may  at  any  time  be  performed  separately;  and 
the  Liber  Regalia,  the  auihentic  document  prescribing  the  order  of 
the  coronation,  and  followed  in  performing  it  for  ages, consists  of  three 
parts,  the  first  laying  down  the  rules  for  crowning  the  King  alone,  or 
with  his  Consort;  the  second  for  crowning  the  Consort,  when  crowned 
with  the  King;  and  the  third,  "si  Regina  SOLA,  sit  coronanf/a." 
This  solemnity,  then,  is  considered  as  wholly  indept3ndent  of  the  King's 
coronation;  it  is  not  an  accessory  to  that  ceremony;  it  arises,  indeed,  out 
of  the  Queen's  relation  to  the  King  by  marriage;  but  the  relation  once 
established,  the  ceremony  follows  as  a  necessary  consequence,  with 
her  other  privileges. 

Again;  many  richts  in  other  persons  have  grown  out  of  this  cere- 
mony, atid  still  further  testify  its  immemorial  existence  and  substan- 
tive  nature.     The   Barons  claim  to  bear  the  canopy  over  the  Queen 
as  well  as  the  King,  and  to  have  the  cloth;  this  claim  has  always  been 
VOL.  i. — 14 


158  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN's  CORNOATION. 

allowed,  e.  g.  in  the  20th  of  Henry  III,  when  the  Queen  alone  was 
crowned.  At  the  same  coronation,  as  appears  by  the  Red  Book  in 
the  Exchequer,  Gilbert  de  Sandford  claimed,  by  ancient  right  of  his 
predecessors,  to  be  chamberlain  to  the  Queen  at  her  coronation,  and 
to  keep  her  chamber  and  the  door  thereof,  and  have  the  entire  bed, 
and  all  things  belonging  to  it.  This  claim  was  allowed,  and  in  the 
Testa  de  Neville  (or  Book  of  Knights'  Fees'),  fo.  243,  it  is  set  forth, 
that  Gilbert  de  Sandford  holds  certain  manors  there  specified  "  by  the 
Serjeanty,  that  he  be  the  chamberlain  of  the  lady  the  Queen."  By 
the  same  Book  it  appears,  that  at  a  subsequent  period,  Robert  de 
Vere,  Earl  of  Oxford,  held  the  manor  by  the  like  serjeanty.  In  the 
Close  Roll  in  the  Tower,  there  remain  a  proclamation  to  the  Barons 
of  the  Cinque  Ports,  to  perform  the  canopy  service,  at  the  coronation 
of  Philippa,  Queen  of  Edward  III — a  Summons  S  Hen.  V,  to  all 
persons  to  attend  and  perform  service  at  the  coronation  of  Queen 
Katherine — and  an  order  to  the  Sheriffs  of  London,  20  Ric.  II,  to 
summon,  in  like  manner,  all  persons  owing  service  at  the  coronation 
of  the  Queen-Consort.  At  those  three  coronations  the  Queen  alone 
was  crowned.  By  the  Coronation  Roll  in  the  Tower,  a  claim  ap- 
pears to  have  been  allowed,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV,  of  Reginald 
de  Grey  de  Ruthyn,  in  right  of  the  manor  of  Ashele,  to  perform  the 
office  of  the  napery  at  the  coronation  of  Queens  as  well  as  Kings  of 
England.  It  is  moreover  certain  that  all  persons  performing  any 
service  at  the  Queen's  coronation,  attain  from  thence  the  degree  of 
Esquire.  (Doddridge's  Law  of  Nobility,  145.) 

It  is  impossible  to  contend  that  a  ceremony  so  ancient,  so  univer- 
sal, so  well  known  and  accurately  described,  so  regularly  observed 
without  any  variation,  far  beyond  the  time  of  legal  memory,  and  as 
far  back  as  history  reaches — a  ceremony  interwoven  with  other  usages, 
and  the  foundation  of  various  rights — is  a  mere  creature  of  accident 
— and  dependent  upon  the  individual  pleasure,  or  personal  will  of  the 
sovereign. 

If  no  purpose  could  be  discovered  to  which  it  can  now  be  subser- 
vient, or  if  even  its  original  could  not  be  traced,  there  would  not,  on 
that  account,  arise  a  presumption,  that  the  sovereign  may  ordain  or 
dispense  with  it.  He  is  himself  the  creature  of  the  law;  and  in  contem- 
plation of  law  he  has  no  caprice.  Mere  personal  matters  of  such  a 
nature,  as  plainly  belong  to  his  individual,  not  his  corporate  charac- 
ter, he  may  regulate  at  will;  but  the  leaning  of  the  law  and  constitu- 
tion of  this  country  is  to  narrow  the  class  of  those  personal  functions 
as  far  as  possible,  and  to  regard  the  natural  as  merging  in  the  politic 
capacity.  It  is  absurd,  and  wholly  inconsistent  with  every  thing  in 
the  history  and  in  the  ceremony  of  the  Queen's  coronation,  to  suppose 
that  it  may  be  ordered  or  omitted,  like  a  court  dinner  or  ball.  They 
who  maintain  that  it  is  optional,  must  contend  that  it  is  quite  indif 
ferent,  and  that  it  never  had  any  meaning  or  importance;  but  they 
must  further  be  prepared  to  show,  why  that  alone,  of  all  the  corona- 
tion customs  which  it  so  nearly  resembles,  both  in  its  nature  and 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  159 

history,  is  both  senseless  and  useless;  for  no  one  pretends  that  the 
King's  coronation  may  be  performed  or  omitted  at  pleasure,  and  yet 
it  rests  upon  the  same  foundation  of  usage  vvitli  the  Queen's.  They 
who  rely  upon  the  usage  have  no  occasion  to  show  either  the  origin 
or  the  purpose  of  the  solemnity;  but  then  they  must  take  all  the  parts 
of  it  together.  They  who  hold  one  part  to  be  necessary  and  the  other 
optional,  must  distinguish  the  two;  but  where  any  thing  is  found  so 
long  established,  the  law  will  intend  that  it  must  have  had  a  reasona- 
ble origin. 

The  King's  coronation  most  probably  was  connected  with  his  elec- 
tion. He  was  either  chosen  or  acknowledged  upon  that  occasion. 
But  it  does  not  follow  that  the  reception  of  hi^  Queen,  together  with 
him,  by  his  subjects,  was  an  unimportant  part  of  the  solemnity,  even 
if  no  farther  explanation  could  be  given  of  its  use — for  her  high  rank 
and  near  connection  with  him  might  render  it  fitting.  However,  the 
use  of  crowning  the  Consort  seems  abundantly  obvious  from  her 
connection  with  the  royal  progeny.  The  coronation  was  the  public 
recognition  of  the  King  as  sovereign,  and  of  the  Queen  as  his  lawful 
wife,  and  the  mother  of  the  heirs  to  the  crown;  it  was  the  cere- 
mony by  which  the  sovereign's  own  title,  and  that  of  his  issue  was 
authenticated.  Crowning  the  King,  acknowledged  him  as  the  rightful 
monarch.  Crowning  the  Queen,  perpetuated  the  testimony  of  the 
marriage,  on  the  validity  of  which  depended  the  purity  of  the  succes- 
sion to  the  throne;  and,  on  the  undisputed  acknowledgment  of 
which  depended  the  safety  and  peacefulness  of  that  succession.  The 
especial  favorite  of  the  law  of  England,  as  regards  the  Queen-Consort, 
is,  and  always  has  been,  the  legitimacy  of  the  royal  progeny.  The 
main  objects  are  to  prevent  a  spurious  issue  from  being  imposed  on 
the  realm;  and  to  remove  all  doubts  upon  this  point,  which,  if  con- 
tested, would  endanger  the  peace  of  the  country.  The  provisions  of 
the  Statute  of  Treasons  are  only  declaratory  of  the  Common  Law,  (3 
Infit.  8,)  and  the  Mirror  (c.  1,  s.  4,)  written  before  the  Conquest,  records 
the  jealous  care  which,  from  all  time,  has  been  taken  of  the  purity 
and  certainty  of  the  succession  to  the  crown;  for  it  classes  the  viola- 
tion of  the  royal  bed  among  treasons,  in  nearly  the  same  terms  with 
the  25  Ed.  III.  When  we  find  this  to  be  the  law  touching  the  Queen- 
Consort  in  those  remote  ages  which  also  established  the  practice 
of  invariably  requiring  her  to  be  crowned,  we  can  be  at  no  loss  to 
conclude  that  her  coronation  originated  in  the  same  principle,  and  was 
intended  to  prevent  any  doubts  arising  with  respect  to  the  validity  of 
her  marriage. 

It  is  a  further  confirmation  of  the  same  doctrine,  and  gives  addi- 
tional weight  to  the  whole  argument  for  the  right  claimed,  that  dis- 
tinct traci-s  remain  in  the  older  coronations  of  an  actual  acknowledg- 
ment, and  even  acceptance  of  the  Queen-Consort,  very  similar  to  the 
recognition  of  the  King.  In  the  Charier  Roll  in  the  Toicer,  5 
John,  is  a  grant  of  dower  to  Queen  Isabella:  "  Qua;  in  Anglia  de  rom- 
rnuni  assensu  et  concordi  voluntate  Archi-cpiscoportim,  Episcoporum, 


160          ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S 

Comitum,  Baronum,  Cleri,  et  Populi  totius  Angliee,  in  Reginam  est 
Coronata."  So  that  the  origin  of  the  two  ceremonies  was  exactly 
the  same.  The  one  party  was  acknowledged  or  received  as  king  by 
common  consent  of  the  three  estates;  the  other  was  by  the  same  con- 
sent acknowledged  or  received  as  his  wife  or  queen,  for  the  words  in 
Saxon  are  synonymous,  queen  signifying  only  the  wife,  by  way  of 
eminence,  that  is,  the  King's  wife. 

It  follows  from  these  positions,  that  though  the  reason  of  the  thing 
may  long  since  have  ceased  as  to  the  King's  coronation,  yet  it  remains 
in  some  sort  to  this  day  with  respect  to  the  Queen's.  For  happily 
there  has  long  ceased  to  be  any  semblance  of  election  in  this  monar- 
chy, and  the  only  vestige  that  remains  of  it  is  the  coronation  cere- 
mony; but  doubts  may  exist  as  to  the  validity  of  a  King's  marriage, 
and  as  celebrating  the  coronation  of  the  consort  tends  to  make  the 
testimony  of  it  public  and  perpetual,  so  omitting,  and  still  more  the 
withholding  that  solemnity,  has  a  tendency  to  raise  suspicions  against 
the  marriage,  and  to  cast  imputations  upon  the  legitimacy  of  the  issue, 
contrary  to  the  genius  and  policy  of  the  law. 

It  is  another  corollary  from  the  same  principles,  and  one  which 
greatly  supports  the  present  claim,  that  the  omitting,  and  still  more 
the  withholding  the  solemnity  with  respect  to  the  Queen,  when  a  mar- 
ried king  is  crowned,  tends  much  more  to  defeat  the  objects  of  the 
law,  than  the  neglecting  or  refusing  to  crown  a  queen  married  after 
her  husband's  accession.  For  the  marriage  of  a  reigning  sovereign 
must  needs  be  public  and  well  known  to  all  the  world:  whereas  an 
heir  to  the  crown,  being  a  prince  or  a  common  person,  may,  when 
in  a  private  station,  have  secretly  contracted  a  marriage,  of  the  exist- 
ence or  validity  of  which  great  doubts  shall  afterwards  be  entertained. 
And  this  argument  is  most  consistent  with  the  invariable  course  of  the 
custom  respecting  the  coronation  of  married  kings. 

A  further  consequence  from  the  premises  is,  that  the  Queen-Con- 
sort's coronation  is  not  so  much  a  right  in  herself  as  in  the  realm;  or 
rather  it  is  a  right  given  to  her  for  the  benefit  of  the  realm,  in  like 
manner  as  the  King's  rights  are  conferred  upon  him  for  the  common 
weal;  and  hence  is  derived  an  answer  to  the  objection,  that  the  queen 
has  always  enjoyed  it  by  favor  of  her  consort,  who  directs  her  to  be 
crowned  as  a  matter  of  grace.  The  law  and  constitution  of  this 
country  are  utterly  repugnant  to  any  such  doctrine  as  grace  or  favor 
from  the  crown  regulating  the  enjoyment  of  public  rights.  The 
people  of  these  realms  hold  their  privileges  and  immunities  by  the 
same  title  of  law  whereby  the  King  holds  his  crown,  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  the  crown  is  only  holden  for  the  better  maintaining  those 
privileges  and  immunities;  and  they  do  imagine  a  vain  thing  who 
contend,  that  a  firmly  established  usage,  well  known  in  all  ages,  and 
subservient  to  important  public  purposes,  can  depend  upon  any  thing 
but  the  law  and  practice  of  the  monarchy. 

The  same  answer  may  be  made  to  the  objection,  that  the  Queen's 
coronation  has  always  been  solemnised  by  force  of  a  proclamation 


ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION.  161 

from  the  crown,  which  is  indeed  only  another  form  of  the  last  objec- 
tion, and  is  not  much  aided  by  referring  to  the  words  in  the  proclama- 
tion, "  We  have  resolved  to  celebrate,"  &c.  The  right  is  not  claimed 
adversely  as  against  the  King;  it  is  his  right  as  well  as  the  Queen's 
that  she  should  be  crowned;  or  rather,  it  is  the  right  of  the  realm  by 
law,  and  the  king,  as  executor  of  the  law,  is  to  see  that  the  ceremony 
be  performed.  But  this  objection  would  disprove  the  existence  of  all 
rights,  public  and  private;  for  without  the  nominal  intervention  of 
the  crown,  none  can  be  enforced  if  resisted,  and  many  of  the  most 
important  cannot  be  enjoyed  by  the  realm,  or  by  individuals.  All 
writs  run  in  the  King's  name.  Not  to  mention  judicial  writs,  the  heir 
to  whom  a  peerage  is  limited  cannot  enjoy  his  highest  privilege  with- 
out a  writ  of  summons  to  parliament.  And  though  this  is  issued  by 
the  King,  and  though,  except  by  impeachment  of  his  ministers,  there 
be  no  remedy  if  it  be  withholden,  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
subject  luis  a  right  to  it. — (Skin.  432,  441,  Verncy's  case.}  So,  of  a 
petition  of  right,  the  subject's  only  remedy  for  the  crown's  intrusion 
upon  his  lands  or  goods.  So,  of  the  right  which  the  realm  has  by 
statute  to  a  new  parliament  once  in  seven  years  at  the  least,  the  enact- 
ment being, that  the  "King,  his  heirs  and  successors,  shall  within,  &c. 
direct  legal  writs  to  be  issued  under  the  great  seal  for  calling  and 
holding  a  new  parliament."  (16th  Car.  I,  cap.  1;  16th  Bar.  II,  cap. 
1;  6tir\V.  &  M.  cap.  2.;  1st  Geo.  I,  cap.  38,  st.  2.)  Now,  in  all  these 
cases  the  right  is  not  the  less  admitted  to  be  in  the  subject,  because  it 
can  only  be  enforced  or  enjoyed  through  the  interposition  of  the 
crown.  A  right  to  that  interposition  is  exactly  part  of  the  right 
in  question;  if  it  be  withholden,  a  wrong  is  done;  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  this  is  so  far  from  disproving  the  right,  that  the  law  will 
not  suppose  such  a  possibility.  Then,  as  to  the  language  of  the  pro- 
clamation, it  proves  nothing.  Other  writs  run  in  similar  terms;  and 
the  writ  of  error  states,  "  nos  volentcs  errorem  corrigi  et  justitiam 
fieri,  prom  decet."  (F.  N.  B.  24.) 

It  is  further  said,  that  the  Queen  cannot  prescribe  for  being  crowned, 
because  she  is  neither  a  corporation  nor  does  she  prescribe,  in  a  que 
estate.  Now,  first,  it  is  indifferent  whether  she  takes  it  by  prescrip- 
tion or  custo.n — by  force  of  ancient  grant  or  ancient  statute;  next, 
she  is  to  many  intents  a  corporation,  and  lastly  she  may  prescribe  as 
well  as  a  chancellor,  who  only  holds  an  office  at  will,  and  yet  has  been 
permitted  to  prescribe  for  privileges  "  in  him,  and  those  whose  estate 
he  hath" — (Com.  Dig.  Prseficription,  A.;)  or  a  serjeant,  attorney,  or 
nnder-sherilf,  who  can  all  in  like  manner  prescribe  —  (1  I\oll.  204.  11 
Ed.  IV.  2,  and  21  Hen.  Vll.  16. /A)  Surely  if  such  functionaries 
may  say,  that  all  those  who  have  held  tho  same  place  enjoyed  certain 
privileges,  the  Queen-Consort  may  say  the  like.  Yet  here  is  no  ques- 
tion of  pleading,  to  which,  rather  than  to  the  more  general  assertion 
of  the  right,  those  doubts  are  applicable. 

This  is  the  argument  submitted  to  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council 
on  behalf  of  the  Queen-Consort.  The  question  is  raised  for  the  first 

14* 


162  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  QUEEN'S  CORONATION. 

time,  it  must  be  determined  by  legal  principles,  without  reference  to 
the  occurrences  which  have  lately  agitated  the  country.  Future  ages, 
in  pronouncing  upon  it,  and  in  judging  the  judges  of  the  present  day, 
will  view  the  subject  as  calmly  as  we  do  the  remains  of  the  Saxon 
Heptarchy,  or  the  monuments  of  the  Norman  line;  and  will  only 
recur  to  the  events  which  occupy  us,  in  case  the  sentence  now  given 
should  be  otherwise  unintelligible.  If  that  sentence  shall  be  one 
worthy  of  the  great  names  which  sanction  it,  there  will  be  no  such 
explanation  wanted. 


CASE 


OF 


THE    REV.    RICHARD    BLACOW 


INTRODUCTION. 

LICENTIOUSNESS  OF  THE  PRESS. — TRIUMPHAL    PROCESSION  OF  THE 

QUEEN. 

QUEEN  CAROLINE  was  at  all  times  extremely  averse  to  Prosecutions  for  Libel. 
She  had  early  in  her  life,  that  is  to  say,  soon  after  the  course  of  her  persecutions 
commenced,  well  considered  the  subject,  and  become  aware  of  the  extremely  un- 
satisfactory state  of  our  law  regarding  the  offences  of  the  press.  The  result  of  all 
her  reflection  and  observation  upon  the  subject  was,  that  the  submitting  to  slander 
was  the  lesser  evil,  and  that  legal  proceedings  only  made  the  injury  more  severe, 
by  giving  the  invectives  a  more  extensive  circulation.  She  felt  that,  by  prosecuting 
a  libel,  she  lent  herself  to  the  designs  of  the  slanderer,  and  suffered  so  much  the 
more,  only  that  others  might  be  deterred  from  publishing  their  calumnies  against 
other  individuals,  probably  against  her  enemies  themselves.  Add  to  this,  that  she 
was  of  a  fearless  nature,  and  never  doubted  that  the  efforts  of  malice  would  fail  to 
affect  her  general  reputation. 

This  aversion  to  all  penal  proceedings  was  certainly  not  diminished  by  the  trial 
before  the  Lords,  if  a  word  usually  consecrated  to  the  administration  of  justice 
may  be  prostituted  to  describe  the  case  of  1820,  in  which  it  would  be  hard  to  say 
whether  greater  violence  was  done  to  the  forms  of  justice,  or  a  more  entire  disre- 
gard shown  to  its  substance.  She  had  been  kept  for  many  months  in  a  state  of 
annoyance  and  vexation,  of  irritation  and  suspense,  during  those  shameful  pro- 
ceedings, which,  regulated  by  no  principles  known  in  courts  of  law,  were  calculated 
to  affright  the  person  most  conscious  of  innocence,  and  to  make  every  observer 
feel  that  the  event  depended  as  little  upon  the  real  merits  of  the  case  as  any  divi- 
sion in  either  House  of  Parliament  upon  a  party  question  turns  upon  the  soundness 
of  the  arguments  advanced  in  the  debate,  or  the  personal  qualities  of  the  different 
speakers.  She  was  compelled  to  bear  with  her  advisers,  while  they  were  discuss- 
ing the  propriety  of  prosecuting  the  perjured  witnesses,  although  she  felt  rather 
relieved  than  disappointed  when  it  was  found  that  technical  difficulties  stood  in 
the  way  of  any  such  course  being  taken.  Hut  she  had  a  very  decided  aversion  to 
going  before  the  legal  tribunals,  and  being  involved  in  a  lengthened  litigation,  well 
knowing  how  unsatisfactory  the  result  might  prove,  and  how  little  likely  a  convic- 
tion was  to  silence  the  calumniators,  who  were  hired  and  set  on  by  a  court  wholly 
unscrupulous  in  using  tho  strong  influence  which  it  possessed  over  the  press,  and 
the  ample  resources  of  corruption  placed  at  its  disposal.  After  the  tempestuous 
scene  through  which  slie  had  passed,  tranquillity  was  the  object  of  all  her  wishes; 
and  she  felt  confident  that  her  conduct  would  be  rightly  appreciated  by  the  country 
at  large,  how  active  soever  her  unprincipled  adversaries  might  be  in  the  dissemi- 
nation of  their  slanders.  Her  wishes  accordingly  prevailed,  and  tho  consequence 


164  INTRODUCTION. 

was,  that  the  press  was  polluted  with  a  degree  of  malignity  and  impurity  before 
wholly  unknown.  Newspapers  that  used  formerly  to  maintain  some  character  for 
liberality  towards  political  adversaries,  became  the  daily  and  weekly  vehicles  of 
personal  abuse  against  all  who  took  the  Queen's  part.  Journals  which  had  never 
suffered  their  pages  to  be  defiled  by  calumnies  against  individuals,  nor  ever  had 
invaded  the  privacy  of  domestic  life  for  the  purpose  of  inflicting  pain  upon  the 
families  of  political  enemies,  devoted  their  columns  to  the  reception  of  scandal 
against  men,  and  even  women,  who  happened  to  be  connected  with  the  Queen's 
supporters.  As  if  the  publications  already  established  were  too  few  for  the  slan- 
derer's purpose,  or  too  scrupulous  in  lending  themselves  to  his  views,  new  papers 
were  established  with  the  professed  object  of  maintaining  a  constant  war  against 
all  who  espoused  Her  Majesty's  cause.  Nay,  it  was  enough  that  any  persons,  of 
any  age  or  of  either  sex,  held  any  intercourse  whatever  with  that  illustrious  Prin- 
cess, to  make  their  whole  life  and  conversation  the  subject  of  unsparing  severity 
and  unmeasured  and  unmanly  vituperation.  A  single  error,  far  short  of  fault,  once 
detected,  was  made  the  nucleus  round  which  were  gathered  all  the  falsehoods 
which  a  slanderous  and  malignant  fury  could  invent,  and  the  defects  of  the  law 
being  well  known  to  those  who  had  studied  them  in  order  to  evade  its  sanctions, 
little  fear  was  entertained  of  the  propagation  of  those  falsehoods  being  visited  with 
punishment,  as  long  as  any,  the  least  imperfection  existed  in  any  one's  conduct, 
which  could  not  be  denied  upon  oath.  In  one  respect,  the  whole  thing  was  so 
much  overdone,  that  it  failed  to  produce  its  full  effect.  Slander  like  every  thing 
else,  may  be  made  so  abundant  as  to  lose  its  value.  Fierce  and  indiscriminate 
calumnies  daily  and  weekly  circulated  in  journals,  and  in  pamphlets,  and  in  private 
society,  began  to  lose  their  relish,  and  to  pall  upon  the  appetite  which,  by  loading 
it  to  excess,  they  ceased  to  provoke.  After  a  little  while  people  began  to  care 
very  much  less  for  these  attacks;  they  seemed  to  be  considered  as  matters  of  course; 
and  it  was  found  that  the  press  had  lost  the  greater  part  of  its  power  as  regarded 
inectivcs  or  imputations.  Nay,  so  many  things  were  published,  notoriously  with- 
out the  least  foundation,  that  the  truths  which  from  time  to  time  became  mixed 
with  the  falsehoods,  shared  the  same  fate,  and  all  were  disbelieved  alike;  nor  did 
persons  of  indifferent  life  and  doubtful  fame  fail  to  feel  the  comforts  of  their  new 
position,  kept  in  countenance  as  they  now  were  by  the  most  respected  individuals, 
whose  hitherto  unassailed  reputation  were  as  much  the  objects  of  the  prevailing 
malignant  epidemic,  as  their  own  more  frail  reputations.  Thus  the  press  not  only 
ceased  to  have  its  appropriate  effect  of  encouraging  virtue  and  controlling  vice,  but 
it  operated  as  some  little  annoyance  to  the  good,  while  it  cherished  and  protected 
the  bad:  all  men  perceiving  that  the  purest  life  was  no  kind  of  security  against  its 
assaults,  while  it  confounded  the  licentious  with  the  blameless,  causing  its  showers 
to  fall  alike  on  the  just  and  the  unjust. 

To  the  Queen's  resolution  against  prosecuting  her  slanderers,  her  advisers  ad- 
hered throughout  with  one  remarkable  exception.  A  reverend  clergyman  of  the 
established  church  thought  fit,  in  the  discharge  of  his  sacred  duties,  to  preach  a 
sermon  abounding  in  the  most  gross  scurrility.  The  main  subject  of  his  attack 
was  Her  Majesty's  going  in  procession  to  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  where  she  attended 
divine  service  in  the  month  of  November,  to  offer  up  thanks  for  her  providential 
deliverance  from  her  enemies;  and  was  surrounded  by  countless  thousands  of  the 
people,  her  steady  and  unflinching  supporters.  The  wonderful  spectacle  which  the 
great  capital  of  the  empire  exhibited  on  that  remarkable  occasion,  has  never  per- 
haps been  adequately  described.  But  it  perhaps  may  be  better  understood  if  we 
add,  that  those  who  witnessed  the  extraordinary  pomp  of  her  present  Majesty's 
visit  to  the  Guildhall  Banquet  last  November,  and  who  also  recollect  the  far  more 
simple  and  unbought  grandeur  of  the  former  occasion,  treat  any  comparison  be- 
tween the  two  as  altogether  ridiculous.  When  Queen  Caroline  went  to  celebrate 
her  triumph,  and  to  thank  God  for  "giving  her  the  victory  over  all  her  enemies," 
the  eye  was  met  by  no  troops— no  body-guards — no  vain  profusion  of  wealth — no 
costly  equipages — no  gorgeous  attire — no  heaving  up  of  gold — no  pride  of  heraldry 
—no  pomp  of  power,  except  indeed  the  might  that  slumbered  in  the  arms  of  my- 
riads ready  to  die  in  her  defence.  But  in  place  of  all  this,  there  was  that  which 
the  late  solemnity  wanted — a  real  occasion.  It  was  the  difference  between  make- 


INTRODUCTION.  1G5 

believe  and  reality — between  play  and  work — between  representation  and  business 
— between  the  drama  and  the  deed.  When  the  young  Queen  moved  through  her 
subjects,  she  saw  thousands  of  countenances  lit  up  with  hope,  and  beaming  with 
good-will,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  faces  animated  with  mere  curiosity. 
Queen  Caroline  had  been  oftentimes  seen  by  all  who  then  beheld  her;  she  had 
been  long  known  to  them;  her  whole  life  had  but  recently  been  the  subject  of 
relentless  scrutiny:  hope  from  her  of  any  kind  there  was  none.  All  that  she  was 
ever  likely  to  do,  she  had  already  done;  but  she  had  been  despiteful!}'  used  and 
persecuted;  she  had  faced  her  enemies  and  defied  their  threats,  dared  them  to  the 
combat  and  routed  them  with  disgrace.  In  her  person  justice  had  triumphed;  the 
people  had  stood  by  her,  and  had  shared  in  her  immortal  victory.  The  solemnity 
of  November,  1820,  was  the  celebration  of  that  great  event,  and  although  they 
who  partook  of  it  had  no  sordid  interest  to  pursue,  no  selfish  feeling  of  any  kind 
to  gratify;  although  they  were  doing  an  act  that  instead  of  winning  any  smile  from, 
royalty,  drew  down  the  frowns  of  power,  and  were  steering  counter  to  the  stream, 
of  court  favor,  adown  which  Englishmen,  of  all  people  in  the  world,  are  the  most 
delighted  to  glide;  yet  the  occasion  was  one  of  such  real  feeling,  so  much  the 
commemoration  of  a  real  and  a  great  event,  and  the  display  of  practical  and  deter- 
mined feelings  pointed  to  a  precisely  defined  and  important  object,  that  its  excite- 
ment baffles  all  description,  and  cannot  be  easily  comprehended  by  those  who  only 
witnessed  the  comparatively  tame  and  unmeaning  pageant  of  November  1837. 

In  the  proportion  of  its  interest  to  the  people  at  large,  was  the  indignation  which 
this  celebrated  festival  excited  at  Court;  and  the  time-servers  speedily  finding  that 
they  could  not  in  any  thing  so  well  recommend  themselves  to  favor  in  high  quarters 
as  by  attacking  this  solemnity  in  any  wa}',  lost  no  time  in  opening  their  batteries 
of  slander.  According  to  the  plan  which  had  been  adopted  by  Her  Majesty's  ad- 
visers, all  the  ordinary  herd  of  libellers  were  suffered  to  exhaust  their  malice 
unresented  and  unprovoked.  But  a  sermon  preached  to  a  large  congregation,  and 
one  of  exemplary  piety,  by  a  minister  of  the  Established  Church,  and  one  laying 
claims  to  extraordinary  sanctity  of  life  and  fervor  of  religious  feeling,  could  not  be 
thus  passed  over.  Her  Majesty's  Attorney-general  therefore  moved  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench  for  a  Criminal  Information  against  Mr.  Blacow  the  offender;  and 
obtained  a  Rule  to  show  cause  upon  a  simple  affidavit  setting  forth  the  fact  of  the 
slander  and  the  publication  by  preaching,  but  not  denying  the  matters  alleged.  It 
was  found  upon  examining  the  precedents  and  the  other  authorities,  that  the  Queen- 
Consort  had  a  right  to  have  her  Rule  without  the  usual  affidavit  of  denial,  and  that 
it  would  be  irregular  to  make  this  affidavit.  Her  Majesty  was  quite  prepared,  and 
indeed  she  wished,  to  deny  upon  oath  the  whole  matter  laid  to  her  charge,  but  her 
inclination  was  overruled,  on  the  result  of  the  search  for  precedents.  No  cause 
was  shown  by  the  defendant,  and  the  trial  coming  on  at  Lancaster,  Mr.  Brougham 
who  had  obtained  the  Rule  while  he  held  the  office  of  Attorney-general  to  the 
Queen,  led  for  the  prosecution,  in  opening  which,  the  following  speech  was  deli- 
vered. The  reverend  defendant  was  his  own  counsel,  and  made  a  long  abusive 
speech,  full  of  every  kind  of  irrelevant  matter,  and  continually  interrupted  and 
threatened  with  punishment  by  Mr.  Justice  Holroyd,  the  learned  judge  who  tried 
the  cause.  The  jury  without  hesitation  found  him  guilty. 

During  the  interval  between  the  Information  being  obtained  and  tried,  an  event 
happened  which  gave  a  peculiarly  mournful  interest  to  the  proceeding — the  death 
of  ibis  great  Princess,  who  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  unwearied  and  unrelenting  perse- 
cution of  her  enemies!.  A  circumstance  well  fitted  to  disarm  any  malignity  merely 
human,  seemed  only  to  inspire  fresh  bitterness  and  new  fury  into  the  breast  of  the 
ferocious  priest.  The  indignation  and  disgust  of  the  country  was  roused  to  its 
highest  pilch  by  tin-  unbridled  violence  of  his  defence;  and  when  men  regarded  the 
groundlessness  of  those  charges  of  which  it  was  made  up,  against  all  he  had  oc- 
casion to  mention,  they  were,  forcibly  reminded  of  a  passage  in  Dr.  King's  lato 
History  of  the  Rebellion  of  17-15,  a  favorite;  Jacobite  production — "  Ualcones  apud 
Anglos  sunt  infames  delatores,  gigantmn  filii;  quos  nattini  malcvolos  spes  pni'tnii 
induxit  in  sumniuin  serins:  qui  quiim  caslos  el  integerrimos  viros  accusare  soleant, 
omnia  confingunt,  et  non  modo  perjuna  sua  vendunt,  verum  etiam  alios  impi  Hunt 


166  INTRODUCTION. 

ad  pejurandum  nomen  sumunt  a  Blacow  quodam  sacerdote,  qui  ob  nefarias  suas 
delationes  donatus  est  canonicatu  Vindsoriensi  a  regni  prafecto." 

This  man  was  brought  up  for  judgment  in  the  following  Michaelmas  term,  and 
only  sentenced  by  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  to  three  months'  imprisonment — 
Messrs.  Hunt  having  suffered  a  confinement  of  two  years,  and  paid  a  fine  of  1000/., 
for  a  far  less  slanderous  attack  on  the  Regent  in  1802;  and  Mr.  Drakard  having,  as 
we  have  seen,  been  confined  eighteen  months,  for  publishing  some  remarks  on 
military  punishments,  which  a  Middlesex  jury  had  just  before  pronounced  to  be 
no  libel  at  all.  Three  years  after  Blacow's  trial,  Mr.  D.  W.  Harvey  and  his 
printer  were  tried  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  for  a  libel  upon  George  IV,  in  a 
country  paper  published  by  them.  It  represented  that  sovereign  as  guilty  of  almost 
every  crime  which  a  prince  can  commit,  and  farther  charged  him  with  having 
rejoiced  exceedingly  at  the  death  of  his  wife,  his  brother,  and  especially  his  only 
child,  the  Princess  Charlotte.  It  was,  perhaps,  the  worst  case  of  libel  ever  brought 
before  the  court.  When  the  defendants  were  brought  up  for  judgment,  they  ap- 
peared without  any  counsel;  but  just  as  the  sentence  was  about  being  pronounced, 
Mr.  Brougham,  who  with  Mr.  Denman  had  defended  them  at  the  trial,  beckoned 
to  Mr.  Harvey,  who  crossed  the  court  apparently  to  receive  some  suggestion  for 
his  speech  in  mitigation  of  punishment.  He  then  addressed  the  court,  and  on  his 
concluding,  was  again  beckoned  to  by  his  counsel,  as  if  he  had  still  omitted  some- 
thing. The  court  complained  of  this  interference,  as  Mr.  Brougham  was  not  then 
retained  for  either  of  the  defendants.  Whereupon  he  stated  that  the  reason  why 
he  made  Mr.  Harvey  cross  the  court  was  to  suggest,  what  he  now  took  leave  to  do 
as  amicus  curix,  that  Mr.  Blacow  for  his  scandalous  sermon  against  the  late  Queen, 
had  only  been  sentenced  to  three  months'  imprisonment,  and  that  of  course  more 
could  not  be  given  in  the  present  case.  Their  lordships  expressed  much  displeasure 
at  this  interference,  seeming  not  to  set  a  high  value  upon  the  "  amicilia  curias," 
which  had  been  testified;  but  after  a  short  consultation,  they  sentenced  Mr.  Harvey 
and  his  co-defendant  to  the  same  period  of  confinement  with  Mr.  Blacow. 


SPEECH 


COURT  OF  COMMON  PLEAS  AT  LANCASTER, 
ON  OPENING  THE  PROSECUTION 


AGAINST 


RICHARD    BLACOW,    CLERK, 

SEPTEMBER,  1821. 


MAY  IT   PLEASE    YOUR    LORDSHIP — GENTLEMEN    OF    THE    JuRY:  — 

It  is  my  painful  duty  to  bring  before  you  the  particulars  of  this  case; 
it  is  yours  to  try  it;  and  my  part  shall  be  performed  in  a  very  short 
time  indeed;  for  I  have  little  if  any  thing,  more  to  do,  than  merely  to 
read  what  I  will  not  characterise  by  words  of  my  own,  but  I  will 
leave  to  you,  and  may  leave  to  every  man  whose  judgment  is  not 
perverted  and  whose  heart  is  not  corrupt,  to  affix  the  proper  descrip- 
tion to  the  writing,  and  his  fitting  character  to  the  author.  I  will  read 
to  you  what  the  defendant  composed  and  printed;  and  I  need  do  no 
more.  You  have  heard  from  my  learned  friend — and  if  you  still  have 
any  doubt,  it  will  soon  be  removed — to  whom  the  following  passage 
applies.  Of  the  late  Queen  it  is  that  this  passage  is  written,  and  pub- 
lished. 

"The  term  'cowardly'  which  they  have  now  laid  to  my  charge,  I 
think  you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  say,  does  not  belong  to  me;  that 
feeling  was  never  an  inmate  of  my  bosom;  neither  when  the  Jacobins 
raged  around  us  with  all  their  fury,  nor  in  the  present  days  of  radical 
nproar  and  delusion.  The  latter,  indeed,  it  must  be  allowed,  have 
one  feature  about  them  even  more  hideous  and  disgusting  than  the 
Jacobins  themselves.  They  fell  down  and  worshipped  the  goddess  of 
reason,  a  most  respectable  and  decent  sort  of  being." — And  you 
know,  gentlemen,  that  she  was  a  common  prostitute,  taken  from  the 
stews  of  Paris.  "  A  most  respectable  and  decent  sort  of  being  com- 


168  LIBEL  ON  THE  QUEEN. 

pared  with  that  which  the  radicals  have  set  up  as  the  idol  of  their 
worship.  They  have  elevated  the  goddess  of  hist  on  the  pedestal  of 
shame;  an  object  of  all  others  the  most  congenial  to  their  taste,  the 
most  deserving  of  their  homage,  the  most  worthy  of  their  adoration. 
After  exhibiting  her  claims  to  their  favor  in  two  distinct  quarters  of 
the  globe;  after  compassing  sea  and  land  with  her  guilty  paramour, 
to  gratify  to  the  full  her  impure  desires,  and  even  polluting  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  itself  with  her  presence — to  which  she  was  carried  in  mock 
majesty  astride  upon  an  ass — she  returned  to  this  hallowed  soil  so 
hardened  in  sin  —  so  bronzed  with  infamy — so  callous  to  every  feel- 
ing of  decency  or  shame,  as  to  go  on  Sunday  last" — here,  gentlemen, 
the  reverend  preacher  alluded,  not  to  the  public  procession  at  St. 
Pauls — where  her  late  Majesty  returned  thanks  for  her  delivery — or 
to  other  processions  which  might,  partly  at  least,  be  considered  as  po- 
litical, but  to  her  humble,  unaffected,  pious  devotion  in  the  church  of 
Hammersmith — "  to  go  on  Sunday  last  clothed  in  the  mantle  of  adul- 
tery, to  kneel  down  at  the  altar  of  that  God  who  is  '  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  iniquity,'  when  she  ought  rather  to  have  stood  bare- 
footed in  the  aisle,  covered  with  a  shirt  as  white  as  '  unsunned  snow,' 
doing  penance  for  her  sins.  Till  this  had  been  done,  I  would  never 
have  defiled  my  hands  by  placing  the  sacred  symbols  in  hers;  and 
this  she  would  have  been  compelled  to  do  in  those  good  old  days 
when  Church  discipline  was  in  pristine  vigor  and  activity." 

Gentlemen,  the  author  of  this  scandalous,  this  infamous  libel,  is  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  The  libel  is  a  sermon — the  act  of  publication 
was  preaching  it — the  place  was  his  church — the  day  was  the  Sab- 
bath— the  audience  was  his  flock.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  treat  lightly 
that  office  of  which  he  wears  the  outward  vestments,  and  which  he 
by  his  conduct  profanes.  A  pious,  humble,  inoffensive,  charitable 
minister  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  is  truly  entitled  to  the  tribute  of  affec- 
tion and  respect  which  is  ever  cheerfully  bestowed.  But  I  know  no 
title  to  our  love  or  our  veneration  which  is  possessed  by  a  meddling, 
intriguing,  unquiet,  turbulent  priest,  even  when  he  chooses  to  sepa- 
rate his  sacred  office  from  his  profane  acts;  far  less  when  he  mixes  up 
both  together — when  he  refrains  not  from  polluting  the  sanctuary 
itself  with  calumny — when  he  not  only  invades  the  sacred  circle  of 
domestic  life  with  the  weapons  of  malicious  scandal,  but  enters  the 
hallowed  threshold  of  the  temple  with  the  torch  of  slander  in  his  hand, 
and  casts  it  flaming  on  the  altar;  poisons  with  rank  calumnies  the 
air  which  he  especially  is  bound  to  preserve  holy  and  pure — making 
the  worship  of  God  the  means  of  injuring  his  neighbor;  and  defiling 
by  his  foul  slanders  the  ears,  and  by  his  false  doctrines  perverting  the 
minds,  and  by  his  wicked  example  tainting  the  lives  of  the  flock  com- 
mitted by  Christ  to  his  care! 

Of  the  defendant's  motives  I  say  nothing.  I  care  not  what  they 
were;  for  innocent  they  could  not  be.  I  care  not  whether  he  was 
paying  court  to  some  patron,  or  looking  up  with  a  general  act  of  syco- 
phancy to  the  bounty  of  power,  or  whether  it  was  mere  mischief  and 
wickedness,  or  whether  the  outrage  proceeds  from  sordid  and  malig- 


LIBEL  ON  THE  QUEEN.  169 

nant  feelings  combined,  and  was  the  base  offspring  of  an  union  not 
unnatural,  however  illegitimate,  between  interest  and  spite.  But  be 
his  motives  of  a  darker  or  lighter  shade,  innocent  they  could  not  have 
been:  and  unless  the  passage  I  have  read  proceeded  from  innocency,  it 
would  be  a  libel  on  you  to  doubt  that  you  will  find  it  a  libel. 

Of  the  illustrious  and  ill-fated  individual  who  was  the  object  .of  this 
unprovoked  attack,  I  forbear  to  speak.  She  is  now  removed  from 
such  low  strife,  and  there  is  an  end,  I  cannot  say  of  her  chequered 
life,  for  her  existence  was  one  continued  scene  of  suffering — of  dis- 
quiet— of  torment  from  injustice,  oppression,  and  animosity — by  all 
who  either  held  or  looked  up  to  emolument  or  aggrandisement — all 
who  either  possessed  or  courted  them — but  the  grave  has  closed  over 
her  unrelenting  persecutions.  Unrelenting  I  may  well  call  them,  for 
they  have  not  spared  her  ashes.  The  evil  passions  which  beset  her 
steps  in  life,  have  not  ceased  to  pursue  her  memory,  with  a  resent- 
ment more  relentless,  more  implacable  than  death.  But  it  is  yours  to 
vindicate  the  broken  laws  of  your  country.  If  your  verdict  shall  have 
no  effect  on  the  defendant — if  he  still  go  on  unrepenting  and  una- 
bashed— it  will  at  least  teach  others,  or  it  will  warn  them  and  deter 
them  from  violating  the  decency  of  private  life,  betraying  sacred  pub- 
lic duties,  and  insulting  the  majesty  of  the  Law. 


VOL.   I. 15 


SPEECHES 
IN     TRIALS     FOR     LIBELS 


ON 


THE  DURHAM    CLERGY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

DEATH  OF  QUEEN  CAROLINE — CONDUCT  OP  THE  DURHAM  CLERGY. 

WHEN  the  late  Queen  Caroline,  yielding  to  the  altogether  unexampled  course  of 
persecution  in  every  form  under  which  she  had  suffered,  was  stricken  with  a  mor- 
tal sickness,  the  immediate  consequence  of  mental  distress,  parties  were  variously 
affected  hy  the  intelligence  that  her  life  was  in  danger.  The  people  universally, 
and  with  but  little  distinction  of  party  or  of  sect,  were  thrown  into  a  state  of  the 
most  painful  anxiety,  and  waited  in  suspense  the  arrival  of  the  tidings  which  were 
to  confirm  or  to  dissipate  the  prevailing  gloom.  After  a  passing  interval  of  better 
prospects,  all  hope  was  soon  banished  by  information  that  she  was  given  over;  and 
the  news  of  her  decease,  which  happened  on  the.  7th  of  August,  1821,  followed 
immediately  after.  In  all  the  places  where  the  event  was  made  known,  and  where 
no  undue  influence  or  superior  authority  was  exerted  to  suppress  the  public  feelings, 
the  utmost  concern  was  manifested,  not  unaccompanied  with  indignation  at  tiie 
author  of  those  wrongs  which  had  led  to  this  sorrowful  event.  Among  the  more 
ordinary,  and  therefore,  if  displayed,  the  more  unimportant  manifestations  of  con- 
cern, was  that  of  tolling  the  bells  in  cathedrals  and  churches,  the  constant  mark  of 
respect  paid  to  all  the  royal  family,  even  the  most  insignificant  and  the  least  popu- 
lar— a  ceremony  so  much  of  course  that  nothing  could  give  it  any  importance  ex- 
cept the  rudeness  or  the  servility  which  might  obstruct  its  being  performed.  Accord- 
ingly, the  tribute  of  respect  had  almost  universally  been  paid,  and  had  excited  no 
comment  any  where.  It  was  reserved  for  the  heads  of  the  Durham  Cathedral  to 
form  an  exception,  the  only  exception  of  any  importance,  to  the  general  course  of 
conduct  pursued  upon  this  mournful  occasion.  They  would  not  sutler  the  bells  of 
that  venerable  edifice  to  be  tolled  in  the  wonted  manner. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  even  had  it  been  decent  for  churchmen  to  take 
part  in  such  a  controversy,  and  during  the  queen's  life  to  side  with  the  oppressors 
against  the  injured  party,  the  event  which  removed  the  latter  from  all  worldly  con- 
cerns, would  have  allayed  also  the  animosity  of  her  clerical  antagonists;  and  that, 
though  they  had  refused  her  the  benefit  of  their  prayers  while  living,  they  would 
riot  m. ike  themselves  the  solitary  exception  among  Chapters  and  other  Collegiate 
bodies,  to  the  regular  course  of  paying  an  accustomed  mark  of  respect  to  the  con- 
sort of  the  sovereign,  now  only  known  to  them  as  one  whose  death  had  made  his 
Majesty  a  widower,  and  enabled  him  to  gratify  his  desires  without  violating  hi-< 
own  coiijngal  du'ies.  These  reverend  personages,  however,  thought  otiii  ru  ise; 
they  forbade  their  bells  to  toll;  and  tho  consequence  was  some  remarks  in  the  l)ur- 


172  INTRODUCTION. 

ham  Chronicle,  a  provincial  pnper  long  distinguished  for  its  steady  though  tem- 
perate support  of  liberal  opinions,  both  on  civil  and  on  ecclesiastical  subjects. 
These  remarks  were  as  follows,  and  they  were  published  on  the  10th  of  August, 
while  the  event  was  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  all,  and  the  feeling  had  not 
subsided  which  it  was  calculated  to  excite. 

"  So  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  judge  from  the  accounts  in  the  public  papers,  a 
mark  of  respect  to  her  late  majesty  has  been  almost  universally  paid  throughout 
the  kingdom,  when  the  painful  tidings  of  her  decease  were  received,  by  tolling  the 
bells  of  the  Cathedrals  and  Churches.  But  there  is  one  exception  to  this  very 
creditable  fact  which  demands  especial  notice.  In  this  episcopal  city,  containing 
six  churches  independently  of  the  cathedral,  not  a  single  bell  announced  the  depar- 
ture of  the  magnanimous  spirit  of  the  most  injured  of  queens — the  most  perse- 
cuted of  women.  Thus  the  brutal  enmity  of  those  who  embittered  her  mortal  exist- 
ence pursues  her  in  her  shroud. 

"  We  know  not  whether  any  actual  orders  were  issued  to  prevent  this  customary 
sign  of  mourning;  but  the  omission  plainly  indicates  the  kind  of  spirit  which  predo- 
minates among  our  clergy.  Yet  these  men  profess  to  be  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
walk  in  his  footsteps,  to  teach  his  precepts,  to  inculcate  his  spirit,  to  promote  har- 
mony, charity,  and  Christian  love!  Out  upon  such  hypocrisy!  It  is  such  conduct 
which  renders  the  very  name  of  our  established  clergy  odious  till  it  stinks  in  the 
nostrils;  that  makes  our  churches  look  like  deserted  sepulchres,  rather  than  temples 
of  the  living  God;  that  raises  up  conventicles  in  every  corner,  and  increases  the 
brood  of  wild  fanatics  and  enthusiasts;  that  causes  our  beneficed  dignitaries  to  be 
regarded  as  usurpers  of  their  possessions;  that  deprives  them  of  all  pastoral  influ- 
ence and  respect;  that  in  short  has  left  them  no  support  or  prop  in  the  attach- 
ment or  veneration  of  the  people.  Sensible  of  the  decline  of  their  spiritual  and 
moral  influence,  they  cling  to  temporal  power,  and  lose  in  their  officiousness  in  poli- 
tical matters,  even  the  semblance  of  the  character  of  ministers  of  religion.  It  is 
impossible  that  such  a  system  can  last.  It  is  at  war  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  as 
well  as  with  justice  and  reason,  and  the  beetles  who  crawl  about  amidst  its  holes 
and  crevices,  act  as  if  they  were  striving  to  provoke  and  accelerate  the  blow,  which, 
sooner  or  later,  will  inevitably  crush  the  whole  fabric  and  level  it  with  the  dust." 

In  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  Mr.  Scarlett,  then  Attorney-general  for  the  County 
Palatine,  obtained  on  the  14th  November  a  rule  to  show  cause  why  a  Criminal  In- 
formation should  not  be  filed  against  John  Ambrose  Williams,  as  the  reputed  pub- 
lisher of  this  paragraph,  who  indeed  neverdenied  that  he  was  also  its  author.  The 
first  of  the  following  speeches  is  the  argument  of  Mr.  Brougham,  who  with  the 
late  learned,  able,  and  most  excellent  John  Bonham  Carter,  (Member  for  Ports- 
mouth, and  son-in-law  of  William  Smith,)  was  of  counsel  for  the  defendant.  The 
rule  was,  not  without  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  court,  made  absolute,  there  being 
indeed,  no  similar  instance  of  a  rule  so  granted,  where  the  party  applying  did  not 
deny  upon  oath  the  matters  charged  against  him  in  the  alleged  libel.  It  was  not 
very  easy  to  support  by  precedents  a  prosecution  in  this  form,  instituted  for  a  libel 
against  a  body  so  little  defined  as  "  the  Clergy  of  Durham;"  still  less  such  a  body 
as  the  Information  afterwards  filed  words  them,  "the  Clergy  residing  in  and  near 
the  city  of  Durham;"  there  being  no  means  of  ascertaining  what  distance  this  in- 
cluded, and  consequently  who  the  parties  libelled  really  were.  But  it  was  a  no- 
velty still  greater  and  more  alarming  to  receive  as  prosecutors  by  Criminal  Infor- 
mation a  purty  who,  under  the  shelter  of  this  vagueness,  made  no  affidavit  of  the 
falsehood  r>f  the  charge,  and  thus  escaped  the  performance  of  that  condition  under 
which  all  other  parties  are  laid  by  the  rule  of  the  court  when  they  apply  for  its  ex- 
traordinary interposition,  instead  of  proceeding  by  indictment. 

The  Huh:  being  thus  made  absolute,  the  Information  was  filed,  and  went  down 
to  trial  at  the  next  summer  assizes  for  the  County  Palatine,  where  it  excited 
extraordinary  interest  from  the  parties,  the  subject  and  the  spirit  of  political  ani- 
mosity prevailing  between  the  College  and  a  large  portion  of  the  community.  The 
cause  was  tried  before  Mr.  Baron  Wood,  and  the  speech  in  Mr.  Williams's  defence 
forms  the  second  and  the  principal  of  those  connected  with  this  extraordinary  pro- 
ceeding. The  jury  were  enclosed  for  above  five  hours,  and  returned  a  verdict 
which  restricted  the  libel,  and  again  raised  one  of  the  questions  on  the  record, 


INTRODUCTION.  173 

which  had  been  argued  in  showing-  cause  against  the  Rule.  The  verdict  was, 
"Guilty  of  publishing  a  libel  n<rainst  the  clergy  residing  in  and  near  the  city  of 
Durham  and  the  suburbs  thereof." 

The  defendant,  accordingly,  next  Michaelmas  term,  moved  in  arrest  of  judgment, 
and  also  for  a  new  trial,  when  the  third  of  these  speeches  was  delivered — viz.,  the 
argument  on  that  motion.  The  result  was,  that  Mr.  Brougham  obtained  a  Rule  to 
show  cause,  but  the  matter  stood  over,  the  prosecutors  never  showing  any  cause, 
and  consequently  no  judgment  was  ever  pronounced,  either  upon  the  Rule  or  upon 
the  defendant — who  thus  was  let  go  free  as  if  he  had  been  acquitted  altogether  by 
the  jury.  It  was  the  general  opinion  of  Westminster  Hall,  that  no  judgment 
could  have  been  given  upon  the  verdict  which  had  been  found.  It  was  all  but  the 
general  opinion  there,  that  the  granting  this  Rule  for  a  libel  so  conceived,  and 
above  all,  without  the  usual  denial  on  the  prosecutor's  oath,  was  a  wide  and  wholly 
unprecedented  departure  from  the  established  practice  in  this  most  delicate  and 
important  matter,  and  the  precedent  now  made  has  certainly  never  since  been  fol- 
lowed. 

The  speech  delivered  on  the  trial  at  Durham  naturally  excited  much  attention  at 
the  time,  from  the  nature  of  the  subject;  and  perhaps  this  was  increased  by  the 
notion  which  prevailed,  that  individuals  of  the  cathedral  were  alluded  to  in  it. 
But  for  this  there  could  be  no  foundation.  It  was  uniformly  denied  by  Mr. 
Brougham;  whose  professional  duty,  while  it  required  him  freely  to  discuss  the 
merits  of  the  Chapitral  establishment  and  the  conduct  of  those  forming  its  present 
members  as  a  body,  certainly  did  not  call  for  any  singling  out  of  individuals;  much 
less  for  any  deviation  from  the  act  with  which  alone  they  were  charged,  namely, 
disrespect,  for  party  purposes,  towards  the  memory  of  the  late  Queen.  The  Chap- 
ter consisted  of  many  most  worthy,  pious,  learned,  and  able  individuals;  and 
though,  while  under  the  influence  of  party  feelings,  which  clergymen  ought  never 
to  indulge,  they  had  been  led  astray  on  the  particular  occasion,  their  general  con- 
duct was  not  in  question,  and  was  not  made  the  subject  of  forensic  discussion, 
either  at  the  trial  or  in  the  court  above. 


15' 


ARGUMENT 

IN  THE   COURT   OF  KING'S   BENCH, 


IN  THE  CASE  OF 


JOHN  AMBROSE  WILLIAMS. 

JANUARY  25,  1822. 


MR.  BROUGHAM,  on  the  25th  January,  being  called  upon  to  show 
cause  why  the  Rule  Nisi  should  not  be  made  absolute,  addressed  the 
Court  to  the  following  effect: — 

This  was  a  Rule  obtained  by  my  friend,  Mr.  Scarlett,  last  term, 
calling  on  the  defendant  to  show  cause  why  a  criminal  information 
should  not  be  filed  against  him  for  a  libel  on  the  Clergy  of  Durham, 
the  matter  being  alleged  to  be  libellous.  My  lords,  before  I  proceed 
to  call  your  attention  to  the  alleged  libel,  and  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  was  published,  I  shall  in  the  first  instance  submit  (as  I  think 
it  will  save  a  great  deal  of  time)  a  preliminary,  and,  as  it  appears  to 
me,  a  fatal  objection  to  the  proceedings  altogether,  arising  out  of 
the  manner  in  which  this  Rule  has  been  obtained.  Your  lordships 
will  observe  that  this  is  not  one  of  those  cases  of  which  a  good  deal 
has  been  heard  lately,  namely,  of  a  prosecutor  unknown  to  the  law, 
but  it  is,  in  fact,  the  case  of  a  prosecutor  altogether  unknown  to  the 
particular  party — it  is  an  anonymous  prosecution — it  is  the  most  novel 
of  all  these  recent  novelties.  I  will  defy  any  man  to  tell  who  the 
person  is,  or  who  the  persons — who  the  corporation,  corporate  or  sole 
— upon  whose  application  this  Rule  was  obtained.  It  is  unnecessary 
for  me  to  remind  your  lordships,  that  if  an  ofl'ence  lias  been  com- 
mitted— if  a  libel  has  been  published — or  if  any  thing  has  been  done 
which  requires  that  the  doors  of  justice  should  be  open  for  punish- 
ment or  redress — the  discharging  this  Rule  does  not  close  those  doors; 
for,  as  was  observed  by  my  Lord  Kenyon,in  a  case  somewhat  similar 
to  the  present,  "the  refusing  this  application  does  not  close  the  door 
of  justice;  it  only  bars  the  access  to  justice  by  this  particular  avenue." 
So  if  a  libel  has  been  published,  it  is  still  Actionable  or  Indictable  in 
the  ordinary  and  regular  manner.  I  submit  that  it  is  a  mere  novelty 
for  a  party  to  ask  of  the  Court  a  Criminal  Information  in  this  extraor- 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  175 

dinary  fashion,  without  making  himself  known  to  your  lordships,  and 
appearing  hero  by  atlidavit,  it'  need  be;  tor  your  lordships  will  easily 
remember,  and  indeed  it  has  recently  come  a  good  deal  under  discus- 
sion, that  where  there  are  libellous  publications  of  any  specific  matter, 
whether  alone,  or  connected  with  others  of  a  more  vague  description 
— where,  in  short,  either  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  charge  is  of  so 
precise  a  nature  that  an  answer  may  be  given — it  is  necessary,  before 
the  application  can  be  complied  with,  that  those  matters  should  be 
denied  on  the  oath  of  the  applicant.  But  even  if  there  be  no  specific 
matter  in  the  publication  now  in  question  before  the  Court;  supposing 
it  to  be  a  case  of  a  general  and  strictly  political  nature — of  an  attack 
on  the  Church  and  State — supposing  it  to  be  the  case  of  a  different, 
nay  of  an  opposite  description  to  that  of  the  paper  now  accused — for 
argument's  sake  I  will  suppose  it  to  be  any  one  of  those  publications 
which  have  been  lately  under  the  consideration  of  your  lordships, 
and  against  which  first  a  verdict,  and  then  judgment  have  passed,  so 
that  no  man  can  now  be  suffered  to  deny  their  libellous  nature — still  I 
say  that  my  learned  friend,  who  obtained  this  Rule,  must,  before  he  can 
make  it  absolute,  show  a  single  instance  in  which  your  lordships  have 
allowed  such  a  libel  to  be  prosecuted  in  this  extraordinary  manner, 
by  Information.  It  may  be  prosecuted  ex-ojfficio  by  the  law  officers 
of  the  Crown,  or  it  may  be  indicted  by  an  individual;  but  it  cannot 
be  prosecuted  in  this  unheard-of  manner,  by  a  person  unknown  to 
the  Court,  and  who,  for  any  thing  the  Court  can  know,  may  have  no 
existence.  If  it  may,  then  may  any  person  come  forward  as  a  pro- 
secutor: any  gentleman  at  tho  bar,  who  chances  to  be  unoccupied, 
may  rise  in  his  place  and  move;  he  will  only  have  to  say,  "  I  call  on 
your  lordships  to  put  in  motion  the  process  of  this  Court;  a  libel  has 
been  published,  and  I  call  on  you  to  grant  me  this  application."  But 
I  think  the  court  would  exercise  its  discretion  before  it  interposed  to 
grant  a  Criminal  Information  in  such  a  case.  I  say  it  is  a  mere 
novelty  for  the  party  who  makes  this  application  to  be  unknown  to 
the  Court,  and  I  will  defy  my  learned  friend  to  show  a  single  instance 
of  the  kind;  at  any  rate,  there  is  no  one  to  be  found  since  the  statute 
of  William  and  Mary  was  passed  for  regulating  proceedings  of  this 
kind.  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  waste  the  time  of  the  Court  in 
showing  the  consequence  of  your  lordships  granting  this  Information. 
Ii  a  person  may  come  forward  and  apply,  putting  himself  in  the 
office  of  public  prosecutor  (an  office  unknown  in  our  law),  what 
would  happen?  Why,  any  gentleman  at  the  bar,  without  retainer, 
authority,  or  instructions — any  young  amateur  in  prosecutions — might 
rise  up  and  say,  "  I  am  to  move  for  a  Rule  to  show  cause  why  a 
Criminal  Information  should  not  be  filed  against  A.  B  ,"  and  he  would 
obtain  it  without  more  ado;  nay,  the  process  of  the  court  would 
immediately  after  is>ue,  provided  he  only  complied  with  the  statu- 
tory condition  of  entering  into  a  recognizance  for  20/.,  which,  indeed, 
any  one  might  do  for  him.  1  say,  if  your  lordships  acquiesce  in  the 
present  application;  if  the  Information  is  granted  to  my  friend  Mr. 
Scarlett;  I  can  sec  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  granted  to  any 


176  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

other  gentleman  at  the  bar.  My  lords,  I  am  exceedingly  unwilling  to 
enter  into  the  particular  merits  of  this  case;  bnt  I  think  I  can  satisfy 
your  lordships  that,  independent  of  the  preliminary  objection  which  I 
have  taken,  this  court  cannot  interpose  to  relieve  the  parlies  in  the 
particular  circumstances  of  this  case;  supposing  those  parties  to  be 
the  Durham  clergy;  but  that  it  will  leave  them  to  their  proper  and 
ordinary  course  of  proceeding  by  Indictment.  I  think  I  could  satisfy 
your  lordships  that  there  is  no  ground  for  this  Court's  interposing,  by 
shortly  adverting  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case;  but  it  would  be  an 
unpleasant  discussion,  as  it  respects  the  character  of  individuals,  mem- 
bers of  an  ecclesiastical  body  of  great  note,  which  is  justly  venerated 
in  this  country.  I  say,  my  lords,  I  am  extremely  unwilling  to  be 
dragged  into  the  details  connected  with  this  case,  unless  I  am  told  that 
it  is  necessary  by  yonr  lordships  disposing  of  this  preliminary  objection. 

The  Judges  consulted  for  several  minutes,  and  while  they  were 
deliberating, 

MR.  BROUGHAM  said,  perhaps  your  lordships  will  allow  me  to  refer 
you  to  a  case;  it  is  the  only  one  that  I  can  refer  you  to;  for,  as  I  said 
before,  this  is  the  first  time  that  an  attempt  of  the  sort  has  been  made: 
I  allude  to  the  King  v.  Phillips,  in  4th  Burr.,  2009.  That  was  a  case 
in  which  the  then  Attorney-general,  in  his  place  in  Court,  moved  for 
a  Rule  to  show  cause  why  a  Criminal  Information  should  not  be  filed, 
and  the  Court  said,  "  for  whom  do  you  apply?" 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Was  that  a  case  of  public  or  private 
libel?  That  was  a  libel  upon  a  private  individual.  Was  it  not,  Mr. 
Brougham? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — It  was  not  a  libel,  my  lord;  it  was  for  an  offence 
of  a  public  nature. 

MR.  CARTER. — It  was  for  a  misdemeanor,  committed  by  a  magis- 
trate in  the  execution  of  his  office. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Ah,  it  was  an  offence  against  some  par- 
ticular individual. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Yes,  my  lord, and  there  the  court  said,  "  for  whom 
do  you  make  this  application?"  when  the  Attorney-general  immedi- 
ately said, "  I  make  it  on  behalf  of  the  Crown."  There  the  court  seemed 
to  have  reckoned  that  it  was  incumbent  on  them  to  ascertain  who  the 
party  applying  was. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — I  think  that  was  very  properly  said 
to  the  Attorney-general.  1  recollect  something  of  the  same  kind 
happening  here,  when  I  said,  "  for  whom  do  you  move?"  It  was 
replied,  "I  move  individually;"  there  the  counsel  was  appearing 
in  the  character  of  any  other  gentleman  at  the  bar;  but  if  lie  says  I 
move  as  Attorney-general,  or  generally  for  the  Crown,  that  is  the  dis- 
tinction. 

The  Judges  again  consulted  for  a  short  time,  after  which, 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  said — It  will  not  be  convenient  to  take 
the  parts  separately. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Not  to  take  them  separately,  did  your  lordship 
say? 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  177 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Yes. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Then  I  liave  further  to  request  your  lordship's 
attention  to  the  very  strict  manner  in  which  the  court  has  in  all  in- 
stances required  an  affidavit  denying  the  truth  of  any  matters  charged, 
where  those  matters  were  specific  enough  to  be  made  the  subject  of 
denial  by  affidavit,  or  where  any  portion  of  the  matter  was  so  specific 
as  to  be  capable  of  being  denied  by  affidavit. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — If  the  libel  charges  a  crime  on  an  individual, 
it  must  be  denied;  but  not  if  the  character  of  the  libel  is  the  same, 
whether  it  is  true  or  false. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — I  apprehend  that  when  a  party  is  charged  with 
a  libel,  and  that  charge  consists  of  any  specific  fact,  that  fart  ought  at 
all  events  to  be  denied. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — What  is  the  fact  that  you  say  ought  to 
be  denied? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — There  are  several  facts,  my  lord. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Well,  what  are  they?  state  what  they 
are. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — The  first  is  that  which  is  alleged  respecting  the 
Cathedral  church  and  other  churches  of  the  city  of  Durham,  namely, 
that  they  did  riot  show  the  usual  mark  of  respect  to  the  royal  family; 
and  this  resolves  itself  into  a  charge  against  the  clergy  of  Durham, 
that  they  failed  in  paying  the  respect  due  to  the  royal  family,  by 
forbidding  the  bells  to  be  tolled  on  the  demise  of  one  of  its  most 
considerable  branches.  That  is  the  charge,  and  it  rests  upon  a  fact  of 
such  a  specific  nature,  that  it  might  have  been  made  the  subject  of  a 
distinct  denial,  and,  we  contend,  ought  to  have  been  denied:  if,  indeed, 
after  all,  this  party,  namely,  the  clergy  of  Durham,  is  the  party  con- 
cerned in  the  present  application. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — In  granting  a  criminal  information  there 
must  be  some  fact.  The;  question  here  is,  did  ihey  pay  that  mark  of 
respect;  and  if  that  fact  is  not  negatived  on  the  part  of  the  person 
making  this  application,  that  will  warrant  the  court  in  concluding  that 
the  fact  is  true.  We  may  assume  that  the  bell  was  not  tolled,  that  is 
a  matter  for  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

MR.  BROUGHAM.  —  I  do  not  mean  to  deny  that  it  is  entirely  mat- 
ter for  the  discretion  of  the  court;  because  this  whole  proceeding  is 
an  appeal  to  its  discretionary  powers;  but  it  is  equally  clear  that  the 
discretion  will  now  be  exercised,  as  it  always  has  been,  soundly,  and 
according  to  the  known  rules  and  principles  long  since  established 
by  the  court,  and  by  which  its  discretion  is  distinctly  limited.  One  of 
those  fixed  rules  is,  that  the  party  applying  for  a  Criminal  Information 
shall  deny  the  truth  of  the  charge  of  winch  lie  complains.  1  have 
already  reminded  your  lordships  of  this  principle,  and  that  such  an 
application  cannot  be  granted  unless  the  party  brings  forward  his 
denial  in  the  first  instance.  According  to  the  principles  of  all  the 
decided  cases,  it  is  not  enough  to  say  that,  be  the  matter  true  or  false, 
the  publication  is  libellous,  and  should  be  prosecuted.  Prosecuted  it 
may  be,  whether  true  or  false,  but  not  in  this  manner;  the  merits  of 


178  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

the  party  applying  for  this  extraordinary  interference  of  the  court  are 
the  sole  grounds  of  its  interposition.  For  example  there  is  the  case 
of  the  King  v.  Bate,  on  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  application,  where 
the  matter  was  much  discussed;  and  the  general  rule  was  laid  down, 
that  whoever  he  the  prosecutor,  he  must  deny  the  truth  of  all  specific 
charges. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — What  is  the  subject  matter  of  fact 
here;  your  assertion  is,  that  the  clergy  of  Durham  did  not  pay  that 
mark  of  respect  which  they  ought  to  have  paid  in  memory  of  the 
deceased  Queen.  Now  go  on  and  read  the  rest,  and  let  us  see 
whether  any  affidavit  can  be  made  with  respect  to  the  rest. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — In  the  Kingr.  Bate  it  is  laid  down  that  when  the 
fact  or  any  part  of  the  fact  charged  is  of  a  specific  nature,  it  must  be 
denied. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BATLET. — Then  we  must  look  to  what  was  the  sub- 
ject of  that  application;  if  a  libel  is  published  which  imputes  to  a  man 
a  crime,  and  he  will  not  state  by  his  affidavit  that  he  is  innocent  of 
that  crime;  in  that  case  the  court  will  say,  "  you  are  not  a  person  to 
whom  we  will  give  relief;"  if  a  man  is  charged  with  a  crime  and  he 
neglects  to  negative  that  fact  by  affidavit,  that  entitles  the  court  to 
consider  that  the  fact  which  is  so  charged  and  not  negatived,  is  a 
true  fact.  Now  in  this  case,  here  is  an  imputation  of  a  crime,  and  if 
the  court  is  to  take  the  fact  to  be  true,  that  is  a  ground  why  the  court 
should  not  interfere.  But  there  may  be  a  case,  (I  do  not  say  that 
there  is  one.)  but  there  may  be  a  case  where  the  imputation  is  not  a 
charge  of  a  crime,  and  there  the  fact  not  being  denied  may  be  taken 
to  be  true;  still  the  libel  may  justify  this  extraordinary  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — That  is  the  point  at  issue,  my  lord.  Next  I 
have  to  submit  that  all,  or  almost  all  this  paragraph  is  a  charge  against 
a  particular  body,  and  that  the  body  ought,  in  applying  for  this  Rule, 
to  have  negatived  it  by  affidavit.  Your  lordship  will  recollect  that  it 
is  laid  down  in  all  the  cases,  that  the  highest  as  well  as  the  lowest 
parties,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  Queen-Consort,  in  applying 
to  this  court  for  an  Information,  fall  equally  within  the  rule,  namely, 
that  their  merits  are  to  enter  into  the  consideration  of  the  court,  and  that 
they  are  bound  to  remove  the  imputation  from  themselves  when  they 
seek  this  peculiar  remedy. 

MR.  JUSTICE  HOLROYD. — It  is  not  so  in  every  case;  where  a  party 
seeks  for  the  interposition  of  a  court,  as  in  the  case  of  a  challenge  for 
instance,  on  account  of  the  public  safety  and  public  peace,  the  court 
does  not  refuse  the  information  upon  the  motion  of  the  party,  though 
the  applicant  be  not  blameless. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Undoubtedly,  my  lord;  but,  nevertheless,  lam 
sure  that  your  lordship  will  bear  me  out  in  the  assertion,  that  there 
never  is  an  application  to  this  Court  for  a  Criminal  Information  on 
account  of  a  quarrel,  in  which  the  whole  circumstances  attending  that 
quarrel  are  not  gone  into,  and  the  merits  of  the  party  making  the  ap- 
plication scrupulously  investigated.  The  party  resisting  the  applica- 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  179 

tion  is  allowed  to  go  at  large  into  all  the  circumstances  of  the  offence 
committed,  or  alleged  to  he  committed,  by  the  party  applying;  these 
are  always  most  fully  brought  before  the  Court  in  order  to  show  on 
what  ground  the  applicant  stands.  In  order  that  tin;  ends  of  justice 
may  be  satisfied,  a  minute  investigation  of  the  conduct  of  both  parties 
is  entered  into  by  the  Court:  and  though  the  conduct  of  the  person 
insulted  is  no  defence  in  law  for  the  person  insulting,  yet  if  it  has  been 
blameworthy,  it  is  held  an  answer  to  the  demand  made  for  leave  to 
proceed  by  Information.  And  now  I  am  compel'ed,  however  reluc- 
tant, to  go  into  the  merits  of  this  ease;  and  I  am  !'•  treed  to  seek  about 
in  order  to  ascertain  the  party  with  whom  I  am  contending.  It  is 
quite  obvious  that  it  must  be  some  person  connected  with  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Durham. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Certainly  it  is  not  the  conduct  of  the 
Cathedral  alone;  it  cannot  be  applied  to  them  alone. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — When  I  make  use  of  that  expression,  I  mean 
the  clergy  of  the  city — the  Cathedral  and  the  city  together — for  un- 
doubtedly it  refers  to  both,  though  most  especially  to  the  Cathedral. 
It  is  distinctly  sworn  in  the  affidavit  of  the  defendant,  that  those  ob- 
servations referred  exclusively  to  the  Durham  clergy;  and  that  they 
did  not  apply  to  the  clergy  of  the  Church  generally;  and  I  still  have 
again  to  complain,  even  in  this  part  of  the  argument,  of  not  knowing 
precisely  whom  I  am  contending  with;  because,  for  any  thing  I  know, 
it  may  be  the  very  description  of  persons  mentioned  in  the  preamble 
of  the  statute,  "  those  malicious  and  contentious  persons  who,  more  of 
late  than  in  former  times,  have  been  engaged  in  prosecutions  of  this 
kind."  Hut  whoever  the  persons  may  be  who  move  in  this  matter, 
it  is  plain,  at  any  rate,  that  the  merits  of  the  parties  of  and  concerning 
whom  this  charge  is  made,  are  directly  in  issue  before  your  lordships. 
Now,  in  tracing  the  origin  of  this  dissension,  I  have  first  of  all  to  state, 
that  the  altercations  in  which  those  clergymen  nnd  others  have  been 
for  some  time  past  engaged,  nrc  such  as  to  justify  your  lordships  in 
refusing  to  lend  yourselves  to  their  designs;  and  leaving  these  clerical 
parties  to  their  remedy  by  action,  or  by  indictment  before  a  grand 
jury,  that  you  will  be  justified  in  refusing  to  grant  the  request  now 
made.  It  is  sworn  by  the  defendant,  that  those  clergymen  have  of 
late,  nnd  for  some  years  past,  taken  a  very  active  part,  not  only  in  the 
political  dissensions  of  the  country,  but  most  especially  in  those  locally 
relating  to  the  county  and  city  of  Durham.  They  were  all  on  one 
side,  most  active  agents,  who  spared  no  pains  to  render  themselves 
serviceable  to  one  party;  and  not  only  to  thwart  the  designs,  but  to 
blacken  the  character  of  their  antagonists. 

The  LOUD  CHIEF  JUSTICE.  —  This  is  upon  the  affidavit  I  suppose, 
Mr.  Brougham? 

MH.  BROUGHAM. — It  is  in  substance  upon  the  affidavit,  my  lord; 
the  facts  are  set  forth  there  with  much  particularity,  and  I  shall  come 
to  them  immediately.  I  should  IK;  sorry  now  not  to  cuter  into  the 
details,  since  I  am  forced  to  abandon  my  preliminary  objection.  I 
may  add  that  they  not  only  made  themselves  the  most  active  political 


180  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

agents,  but  that  they  scrupled  at  no  means  of  annoyance,  and  hesi- 
tated at  no  excess  of  falsehood  and  malignity  in  order  to  accomplish 
their  purposes;  their  secular,  parly,  factious,  selfish  purposes.  I 
should  be  sorry  to  annoy  the  ears  of  your  lordships  with  a  specimen 
of  their  vile  abuse. 

MR.  SCARLKTT. — I  do  not  find  that  in  the  affidavit. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — I  mean  the  persons  whose  conduct  I  have  al- 
luded to. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Who  are  they? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Certain  members  of  the  clergy  of  the  church  of 
Durham. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  then  read  the  libel,  after  which  he  said, 
"  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  apply  to  the  clergy  of  Durham  only." 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — I  am  to  submit,  my  lord,  that  it  does  apply  to 
the  church  and  clergy  of  Durham  only.  We  have  distinctly  sworn 
that  it  applies  to  them,  and  if  we  had  no  other  means  of  showing  it, 
I  submit  that  that  is  the  fair  construction  of  the  commentaries  on  their 
conduct;  that  it  applies  exclusively  to  them.  It  is  made  in  the  course 
of  remarks  upon  a  particular  thing  done  by  the  Durham  clergy,  and 
stated  in  the  alleged  libel  to  be  done  by  them  alone.  Undoubtedly 
there  are  one  or  two  severe  expressions;  the  word  "  brutal"  for  in- 
stance, is  used,  but  the  defendant  may  well  say  to  that  "  non  meus 
hie  sermo;"  he  copied  the  word  from  an  attack  made  upon  many  per- 
sons, and  among  others  on  himself,  by  one  of  those  very  clergymen 
of  Durham.  In  this  attack  the  same  word  "  brutal'"  is  most  freely 
used.  The  passage  in  the  paragraph  which  says,  "it  is  such  conduct 
that  renders  the  very  name  of  our  Established  clergy  odious  till  it 
stinks  in  the  nostrils,"  is  a  strong,  a  harsh,  and  (if  you  will)  a  coarse 
mode  of  speech.  But,  again,  it  is  not  the  speech  of  the  defendant. 
For  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  a  venerable  author;  who  says 
of  a  certain  body,  that  they  are  "  as  the  Jlugex  Stabuhim,  and  do 
stink  in  the  nose  of  God  and  his  people."  These  expressions  are  ap- 
plied by  him  not  to  such  as  the  defendant  or  his  party,  but  to  higher 
quarters. — What  if  they  are  used  to  describe  a  clerical  body?  What 
if  that  body  be  this  very  Cathedral  of  Durham?  What  if  the  writer 
be  one  of  the  body  himself?  What  if  it  be  their  very  Bishop,  who 
thus  strongly  and  somewhat  coarsely  describes  them? 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — What  year  was  that  in? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — He  was  a  protestant  bishop — Bishop  Barnes.  It 
was  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  I  only  cite  his  lordship's  words  to 
show  that  those  expressions,  harsh  as  they  may  seem  to  be,  which  the 
defendant  has  used,  are  not  without  the  warrantry  of  high  authority, 
upon  a  parallel  occasion.  Now  I  have  to  remind  your  lordshi-ps,  not 
only  that  the  contents  of  the  publication  are  true,  but  that  it  has  been 
provoked  by  the  conduct  of  the  clergy  themselves,  who  have  thought 
proper  to  publish  pamphlets  filled  with  the  most  foul  and  false  asper- 
sions against  this  very  defendant.  One  of  them  has  written  a  tract, 
in  which  lie  distinctly  terms  Mr.  Williams,  if  not  by  name,  at  least  by 
his  designation  as  Editor  of  the  Durham  Chronicle,  "a  hireling  and 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  181 

fulsome  panegyrist;"  an  odious  character,  doubtless,  and  worthy  of 
all  contempt;  but  not  more  hateful  nor  more  despicable  than  the  man 
who  combines  with  it  in  his  own  person,  the  part  of  an  hireling  ca- 
lumniator; earning  a  portion  of  his  hire  by  fulsome  ilattery  to  his  rich 
and  powerful  employer,  and  working  out  the  residue  in  foul  slanders 
of  those  who  cannot  or  will  not  buy  him.  It  is  against  such  persons; 
it  is  of  and  concerning  such  vocations,  the  scandal  and  disgrace  of  the 
Church,  not  the  establishment  itself,  that  these  remarks  are  made;  it 
is  in  such  conduct,  and  such  characters,  that  ihese  strictures  find  their 
justification,  generally;  but  most  of  all  is  this  defendant  entitled  thus 
to  express  himself,  who  has  been  made  the  object  of  these  mercenary 
attacks.  Another  of  the  gentlemen,  with  his  name,  (a  Mr.  Philpotts) 
publishes  a  pamphlet,  in  which  he  describes  Mr.  Williams  as  "a  mi- 
serable mercenary  who  eats  the  bread  of  prostitution,  and  panders  to 
the  low  appetites  of  those  who  cannot  or  who  dare  not  cater  for  their 
own  malignity."  I  think  that  the  coarseness  and  virulence  with 
which  these  observations  have  been  made  by  those  reverend  gentle- 
men, will  at  once  be  allowed  fully  to  justify  the  remarks  of  the  defen- 
dant in  return;  and  when  your  lordships  see  that  abuse  has  been  thus 
bandied  about  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  in  the  violence  of  con- 
flicting secular  passions,  I  trust  that  you  will  not  lend  yourselves  to 
the  parties  whose  indecent  animosity  has  drawn  forth  the  comments 
of  the  defendant,  by  permitting  them  to  come  into  this  court  and  seek 
the  protection  reserved  for  those  whose  hands  are  pure,  and  whose 
demeanor  will  bear  the  closest  inspection. 

Nor  is  it  only  individuals  of  the  body  who  have  mixed  themselves 
with  such  intemperance  in  the  squabbles  of  party,  and  forgotten  the 
sacred  character  which  should  belong  to  their  station.  There  was  a 
meeting  of  the  whole  clergy  some  time  previous  to  the  date  of  the 
publication  in  question.  It  was  a  meeting — an  assembly  officially 
convened,  and  holden  at  the  house  of  the  Archdeacon  of  the  Diocese. 
Your  lordships  will  find  that  the  body  of  the  clergy  were  there  con- 
vened, upon  whose  conduct  as  political  men  these  remarks  have 
been  made;  and  at  that  meeting  they  thought  fit  to  pass  a  censure 
in  the  most  unmeasured  terms,  (amounting  certainly  to  a  breach  of 
privilege)  upon  a  part  at  least  of  the  Parliament — to  make  an  attack 
upon  what  passed  there,  charging  persons  and  parties  with  "having 
been  guilty  in  the  highest  places  of  conduct  which  would  disgrace 
the  lowest."  If  any  doubt  remains  as  to  whom  these  observations 
were  levelled  at,  the  author  of  the  address,  and  of  the  publication  to 
which  I  have  already  referred,  in  commenting  on  a  mistake  committed 
by  some  one,  removes  that  doubt,  for  he  clearly  shows  that  the  address 
referred  to  what  passed  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Now  I  will,  before 
concluding,  beg  leave  to  give  your  lordships  a  sample  of  the  decency 
and  regard  for  truth  which  guide  those  calumniators  who  are  now 
complaining  of  what  they  call  false  and  scandalous  libels.  In  the 
pamphlet  to  which  I  first  adverted,  you  will  find  statements  which 
are  not  only  positively  sworn  to  be  as  false  as  they  are  malignant,  but 
some  of  which  arc  so  notoriously  false,  (though  not  more  false  than 
VOL.  i. — 10 


182  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

foul,  allow  me  to  say)  that  I  will  venture  to  say  no  man,  let  him  he 
of  what  political  description,  or  of  what  rank  or  class  he  may,  can 
fail  to  receive  them  with  extreme  disgust.  Thus  it  is  positively 
asserted  by  one  of  those  reverend  partizans,  that  after  the  proceed- 
ings in  1806,  with  respect  to  the  late  Queen,  she  never  durst  go  to 
court,  but  that  she  remained  absent  from  court  from  1806  down  to 
1814,  and  of  course  down  to  the  date  of  the  proceedings  against  her 
— that  in  consequence  of  what  took  place  in  1S06,  she  remained 
under  a  CLOUD;  whereas,  it  is  as  notorious  as  the  sun  at  noonday, 
that  the  very  party  who  since  persecuted  her,  insisted,  on  her  being 
received  at  court,  the  instant  that  they  got  into  office  in  1807;  that  it 
was  at  their  instigation  she  was  received  at  court,  and  that  she  con- 
stantly attended  it  afterwards  while  the  late  King*  retained  his  health; 
that  so  far  from  those  ministers  being  able  to  maintain  that  the  pro- 
ceedings in  1806  had  left  her  Majesty  under  a  CLOUD,  their  objection 
to  these  proceedings  was  one  of  the  grounds  upon  which  they  made 
her  the  stepping-stone  to  place  and  power;  and  that,  not  satisfied  with 
the  resolution  of  1806  acquiting  her  of  guilt,  they  made  a  point  of 
revising  all  that  had  been  done,  and  entered,  as  far  as  the  strongest 
words  could  convey  it,  their  solemn  protest  against  all  the  proceedings 
which  had  taken  place  against  her,  leaving  on  record  their  most  ample 
assertion  of  her  innocence.  I  give  you  this  as  a  specimen,  (for  it  is 
only  by  sample  that  I  shall  deal  with  so  foul  a  cargo);  it  is  a  specimen 
of  the  conduct  of  those  clergymen  in  their  secular  capacity  of  political 
agents,  in  which  they  have  so  greately  abused  the  name — the  more 
sacred  name  that  ought  to  belong  to  them.  In  another  passage  of 
the  same  pamphlet,  her  late  Majesty  is  spoken  of  in  terms  closely 
resembling  those  for  which  another  reverend  slanderer  is  now  suffer- 
ing the  sentence  of  the  law.  If  there  be  a  squabble  between  con- 
flicting parties  in  a  county,  as  to  its  local  politics;  and  if  in  the  heats 
of  the  controversy,  the  character  of  an  individual  or  body  is  assailed, 
let  him  bring  his  action  in  the  ordinary  manner,  or,  if  he  pleases, 
prefer  a  Bill  of  Indictment.  In  the  present  case  I  submit  to  your 
lordships,  that,  independent  of  the  primary  objection  which  I  have 
taken,  namely,  that  this  is  the  first  time  an  application  of  the  kind 
has  been  made  without  the  appearance  of  the  party  in  his  own  name 
— independent  of  the  nature  of  the  publication  to  which  it  refers — I 
submit  that  your  lordships  will  not  feel  justified  in  granting  the  appli- 
cation which  has  been  made  without  the  appearance  of  the  party  in 
his  own  name;  and  that  you  will  leave  those  who  made  it  to  their 
ordinary  remedy  by  Indictment,  seeing  that  their  own  conduct  has 
called  forth  the  strictures  of  which  they  complain,  and  that  they  were 
the  first  to  slander  their  neighbor. 

*  George  III. 


SPEECH 


DEFENDANT,  AT  THE  DURHAM  ASSIZES, 

AUGUST  9,  1822. 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  LORDSHIP — GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  JURY: — My 
learned  friend,  the  Attorney-general  for  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  hav- 
ing at  considerable  length  offered  to  you  various  conjectures  as  to  the 
line  of  defence  which  he  supposed  I  should  pursue  upon  this  occasion; 
having  nearly  exhausted  every  topic  which  I  was  not  very  likely  to 
urge,  and  elaborately  traeed,  with  much  fancy,  all  the  ground  on 
which  I  could  hardly  be  expected  to  tread — perhaps  it  may  be  as 
well  that  /should  now,  in  my  turn,  take  the  liberty  of  stating  to  you 
what  really  is  the  defendant's  case,  and  that  you  should  know  from 
myself  what  I  do  intend  to  lay  before  you.  As  my  learned  friend 
has  indulged  in  so  many  remarks  upon  what  I  shall  not  say,  1  may 
take  leave  to  offer  a  single  observation  on  what  ho  has  said;  and  I 
think  I  may  appeal  to  any  one  of  you  who  ever  served  upon  a  jury, 
or  witnessed  a  trial,  and  ask  if  you  ever,  before  this  day,  saw  a  public 
prosecutor  who  stated  his  case  with  so  much  art  and  ingenuity — 
wrought  up  his  argument  with  such  pains — wandered  into  so  large 
a  field  of  declamation — or  altogether  performed  his  task  in  so  elabo- 
rate and  eloquent  a  fashion  as  the  Attorney-general  has  done  upon 
the  present  occasion.  I  do  not  blame  this  course.  I  venture  not 
even  to  criticise  the  discretion  he  has  exercised  in  the  management 
of  his  cause;  and  I  am  far  indeed  from  complaining  of  it.  But  I 
call  upon  you  to  declare  that  inference  which  I  think  you  must 
already  have  drawn  in  your  own  minds,  and  come  to  that  conclusion 
at  which  I  certainly  have  arrived — that  he  felt  what  a  laboring  case 
fie  had — that  lie  was  aware  how  very  different  his  situation  to-day 
is  from  any  he  ever  before  knew  in  a  prosecution  for  libel — and  that 
the  extraordinary  pressure  of  the  difficulties  he  had  to  struggle  with, 
drove  him  to  so  unusual  a  course.  lie  has  called  the  defendant 
"  that  iinlmpjiy  num."  Unhappy  he  will  be  indeed,  but  not  the 
only  unhappy  man  in  this  country,  if  the  doctrines  laid  down  l>y  my 
learned  friend  are  sanctioned  by  your  verdict;  for  those  doctrines,  I 


184  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

fearlessly  tell  you,  must,  if  established,  inevitably  destroy  the  whole 
liberties  of  us  all.  Not  that  he  has  ventured  to  deny  the  right  of 
discussion  generally  upon  all  subjects,  even  upon  the  present,  or  to 
screen  from  free  inquiry  the  foundations  of  the  Established  Church, 
and  the  conduct  of  its  ministers  as  a  body,  (which  I  shall  satisfy  you 
are  not  even  commented  on  in  the  publication  before  you).  Far  from 
my  learned  friend  is  it  to  impugn  those  rights  in  the  abstract;  nor  in- 
deed have  I  ever  yet  heard  a  prosecutor  for  libel — an  Attorney-gene- 
ral (and  I  have  seen  a  good  many  in  my  time)  whether  of  our  Lord 
the  King  or  our  Lord  of  Durham,  who,  while  in  the  act  of  crushing 
every  thing  like  unfettered  discussion,  did  not  preface  his  address  to 
the  jury  with  "  God  forbid  that  the  fullest  inquiry  should  not  be 
allowed;"  but  then  the  admission  had  invariably  a  condition  follow- 
ing close  behind,  which  entirely  retracted  the  concession — "provided 
always  the  discussion  be  carried  on  harmlessly,  temperately,  calmly" — 
that  is  to  say,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  leave  the  subject  untouched,  and 
the  reader  unmoved;  to  satisfy  the  public  prosecutor,  and  to  please  the 
persons  attacked. 

My  learned  friend  has  asked  if  the  defendant  knows  that  the 
Church  is  established  by  law?  He  knows  it,  and  so  do  I.  The 
Church  is  established  by  law,  as  the  civil  government — as  all  the 
institutions  of  the  country  are  established  by  law — as  all  the  offices 
under  the  Crown  are  established  by  law,  and  all  who  fill  them  are 
by  the  law  protected.  It  is  not  more  established,  nor  more  protected, 
than  those  institutions,  officers,  and  office-bearers,  each  of  which  is 
recognised  and  favored  by  the  law  as  much  as  the  Church:  but  I 
never  yet  have  heard,  and  I  trust  I  never  shall;  least  of  all  do  I 
expect  in  the  lesson  which  your  verdict  this  day  will  read,  to  hear, 
that  those  officers  and  office-bearers,  and  all  those  institutions,  sacred 
and  secular,  and  the  conduct  of  all,  whether  laymen  or  priests,  who 
administer  them,  are  not  the  fair  subjects  of  open,  untrammelled, 
manly,  zealous,  and  even  vehement  discussion,  as  long  as  this  coun- 
try pretends  to  liberty,  and  prides  herself  on  the  possession  of  a  Free 
Press. 

In  the  publication  before  you,  the  defendant  has  not  attempted  to 
dispute  the  high  character  of  the  Church;  on  that  establishment  or  its 
members,  generally,  he  has  not  endeavored  to  fix  any  stigma.  Those 
topics,  then,  are  foreign  to  the  present  inquiry,  and  I  have  no  interest 
in  discussing  them;  yet  after  what  has  fallen  from  my  learned  friend, 
it  is  fitting  that  I  should  claim  for  this  defendant,  and  for  all  others, 
the  right  to  question,  freely  to  question,  not  only  the  conduct  of  the 
ministers  of  the  Established  Church,  but  even  the  foundations  of  the 
Church  itself.  It  is  indeed  unnecessary  for  my  present  purpose,  be- 
cause I  shall  demonstrate  that  the  paper  before  you  does  not  touch 
upon  those  points  ;  but  unnecessary  though  it  be,  as  my  learned 
friend  has  defied  me,  I  will  follow  him  to  the  field,  and  say,  that  if 
there  is  any  one  of  the  institutions  of  the  country,  which  more  em- 
phatically than  all  the  rest,  justifies  us  in  arguing  strongly,  feeling 
powerfully,  and  expressing  our  sentiments  as  well  as  urging  our  rea- 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  185 

sons  with  vehemence,  it  is  that  branch  of  the  state  which,  because  it 
is  sacred,  because  it  bears  connection  with  higher  principles  than  any 
involved  in  the  mere  management  of  worldly  concerns,  for  that  very 
reason,  entwines  itself  with  deeper  feelings,  and  must  needs  be  dis- 
cussed, if  discussed  at  all,  with  more  warmth  and  zeal  than  any  other 
part  of  our  system  is  fitted  to  rouse.  But  if  any  hierarchy  in  all  the 
world  is  bound  on  every  principle  of  consistency — if  any  Church 
should  be  forward  not  only  to  stiller  but  provoke  discussion,  to  stand 
upon  that  title  and  challenge  the  most  unreserved  inquiry — it  is  the 
Protestant  Church  of  England;  first,  because  she  has  nothing  to  dread 
from  it;  secondly,  because  she  is  the  very  creature  of  free  inquiry — 
the  offspring  of  repeated  revolutions — and  the  most  reformed  of  the 
reformed  churches  of  Europe.  But  surely  if  there  is  any  one  corner 
of  Protestant  Europe  where  men  ought  not  to  be  rigorously  judged 
in  ecclesiastical  controversy — where  a  large  allowance  should  be  made 
for  the  conflict  of  irreconcilable  opinions — where  the  harshness  of 
jarring  tenets  should  be  patiently  borne,  and  strong,  or  even  violent 
language,  be  not  too  narrowly  watched — it  is  this  very  realm  in  which 
we  live  under  three  different  ecclesiastical  orders,  and  owe  allegiance 
to  a  sovereign,  who,  in  one  of  his  kingdoms,  is  the  head  of  the  church, 
acknowledged  as  such  by  all  men;  while,  in  another,  neither  he  nor 
any  earthly  being  is  allowed  to  assume  that  name — a  realm  com- 
posed of  three  great  divisions,  in  one  of  which  Prelacy  is  favored  by 
law  and  approved  in  practice  by  an  Episcopalian  people;  while,  in 
another,  it  is  protected  indeed  by  law,  but  abjured  in  practice  by  a 
nation  of  sectaries,  Catholic  and  Presbyterian;  and,  in  a  third,  it  is 
abhorred  alike  by  law  and  in  practice,  repudiated  by  the  whole  in- 
stitutions of  the  country,  scorned  and  detested  by  the  whole  of  its 
inhabitants.  His  Majesty,  almost  at  the  time  in  which  I  am  speaking, 
is  about  to  make  a  progress  through  the  northern  provinces  of  this 
island,  accompanied  by  certain  of  his  chosen  counsellors,  a  portion  of 
men  who  enjoy  unenvied,  and  in  an  equal  degree,  the  admiration  of 
other  countries  and  the  wonder  of  their  own — and  there  the  Prince 
will  see  much  loyalty,  great  learning,  some  splendor,  the  remains  of 
an  ancient  monarchy,  and  of  the  institutions  which  made  it  flourish. 
But  one  thing  he  will  not  sen.  Si  range  as  it  may  seem,  and  to  many 
who  hear  me  incredible,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other 
he  will  see  no  such  thing  as  a  bishop;  not  such  a  thing  is  to  be 
found  from  the  Tweed  to  John  o'  Groats;  not  a  mitre;  no,  nor  so  much 
as  a  minor  canon,  or  even  a  rural  dean;  and  in  all  the  land  not  one 
single  curate,  so  entirely  rude  and  barbarous  are  they  in  Scotland;  in 
such  outer  darkness  do  they  sit,  that  they  support  no  cathedrals,  main- 
tain no  pluralists,  suffer  non-residence;  nay,  the  poor  benighted  crea- 
tures are  ignorant  even  of  tithes.  Not  a  sheaf,  or  a  lamb,  or  a  pi?, 
or  the  value  of  a  plough-penny  do  the  hapless  mortals  render  from 
year's  end  to  year's  end!  Piteous  as  their  lot  is,  what  makes  it  infi- 
nitely more  touching,  is  to  witness  the  return  of  good  for  evil  in  the 
demeanor  of  this  wretched  race.  Under  all  this  cruel  neglect  of  their 
spiritual  concerns,  they  are  actually  the  most  loyal,  contented,  moral, 

1C* 


186  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

and  religious  people  anywhere,  perhaps,  to  be  found  in  the  world.  Let 
us  hope  (many,  indeed,  there  are,  not  afar  off,  who  will  with  unfeign- 
ed devotion  pray)  that  his  Majesty  may  return  safe  from  the  dangers 
of  his  excursion  into  such  a  country — an  excursion  most  perilous 
to  a  certain  portion  of  the  church,  should  his  royal  mind  be  infected 
with  a  taste  for  cheap  establishments,  a  working  clergy,  and  a  pious 
congregation! 

But  compassion  for  our  brethren  in  the  north  has  drawn  me  aside 
from  my  purpose,  which  was  merely  to  remind  you  how  preposterous 
it  is  in  a  country  of  which  the  ecclesiastical  polity  is  framed  upon 
plans  so  discordant,  and  the  religious  tenets  themselves  are  so  various, 
to  require  any  very  measured  expressions  of  men's  opinions,  upon 
questions  of  church  government.  And  if  there  is  any  part  of  Eng- 
land in  which  an  ample  license  ought  more  especially  to  be  admitted 
in  handling  such  matters,  I  say  without  hesitation  it  is  this  very 
Bishopric,  where  in  the  19th  century,  you  live  under  a  Palatine 
Prince,  the  Lord  of  Durham;  where  the  endowment  of  the  hierarchy, 
I  may  not  call  it  enormous,  but  I  trust  I  shall  be  permitted  without 
offence  to  term  splendid;  where  the  establishment  I  dare  not  whisper 
proves  grinding  to  the  people,  but  I  will  rather  say  is  an  incalculable, 
an  inscrutable  blessing — only  it  is  prodigiously  large;  showered  down 
in  a  profusion  somewhat  overpowering;  and  laying  the  inhabitants 
under  a  loadofobligaiion  overwhelming  by  its  weight.  It  is  in  Durham 
where  the  Church  is  endowed  with  a  splendor  and  a  power  unknown  in 
monkish  times  and  popish  countries,  and  the  clergy  swarm  in  every 
corner,  an'  it  were  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter — it  is  here  where  all  man- 
ner of  conflicts  are  at  each  moment  inevitable  between  the  people  and 
the  priests,  that  I  feel  myself  warranted  on  their  behalf,  and  for  their 
protection — for  the  sake  of  the  Establishment,  and  as  the  discreet 
advocate  of  that  Church  and  that  clergy — for  the  defence  of  their  very 
existence — to  demand  the  most  unrestrained  discussion  for  their  title 
and  their  actings  under  it.  For  them  in  this  ago,  to  screen  their  con- 
duct from  investigation  is  to  stand  self-convicted;  to  shrink  from  the 
discussion  of  their  title,  is  to  confess  a  flaw;  he  must  be  the  most 
shallow,  the  most  blind  of  mortals,  who  does  not  at  once  perceive 
that  if  that  title  is  protected  only  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law,  it  be- 
comes not  worth  the  parchment  on  which  it  is  engrossed,  or  the  wax 
that  dangles  to  it  for  a  seal.  I  have  hitherto  all  along  assumed,  that  there 
is  nothing  impure  in  the  practice  under  the  system;  I  am  admitting  that 
every  person  engaged  in  its  administration  does  every  one  act  which 
he  ought,  and  which  the  law  expects  him  to  do;  I  am  supposing  that 
up  to  this  hour  not  one  unworthy  member  has  entered  within  its  pale; 
I  am  even  presuming  that  up  to  this  moment  not  one  of  those  indi- 
viduals has  slept  beyond  the  strict  line  of  his  sacred  functions,  or 
given  the  slightest  offence  or  annoyance  to  any  human  being.  I  am 
taking  it  for  granted  that  they  all  act  the  part  of  good  shepherds, 
making  the  welfare  of  their  flock  their  first  care,  and  only  occasionally 
bethinking  them  of  shearing  in  order  to  prevent  the  too  luxuriant 
growth  of  the  fleece  proving  an  incumbrance,  or  to  eradicate  disease. 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM.  187 

If,  however,  those  operations  be  so  constant  that  the  flock  actually 
live  under  the  knife;  if  the  shepherds  are  so  numerous,  and  employ 
so  large  a  troop  of  the  watchful  and  eager  animals  that  attend  them 
(some  of  them  too  with  a  cross  of  the  fox,  or  even  the  wolf,  in  their 
breed)  can  it  be  wondered  at,  if  the  poor  creatures  thus  fleeced,  and 
hunted,  and  barked  at,  and  snapped  at,  and  from  time  to  time  wor- 
ried, should  now  and  then  bleat,  dream  of  preferring  the  rot  to  the 
shears,  and  draw  invidious,  possibly  disadvantageous  comparisons 
between  the  wolf  without,  and  the  shepherd  within  the  fold— it  can- 
not be  helped;  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  suffering  should  beget 
complaint;  but  for  those  who  have  caused  the  pain  to  complain  of 
the  outcry  and  seek  to  punish  it — for  those  who  have  goaded  to 
scourge  and  to  gag,  is  the  meanest  of  all  injustice.  It  is  moreover 
the  most  pitiful  folly  for  the  clergy  to  think  of  retaining  their  power, 
privileges,  and  enormous  wealth,  without  allowing  free  vent  for  com- 
plaints against  abuses  in  the  Establishment  and  delinquency  in  its 
members;  and  in  this  prosecution  they  have  displayed  that  folly  in 
its  supreme  degree.  I  will  even  put  it  that  there  has  been  an  attack 
on  the  hierarchy  itself;  I  do  so  for  argument's  sake  only;  denying  all 
the  while,  that  any  thing  like  such  an  attack  is  to  be  found  within  the 
four  corners  of  this  publication.  But  suppose  it  had  been  otherwise; 
I  will  show  you  the  sort  of  language  in  which  the  wisest  and  the 
best  of  our  countrymen  have  spoken  of  that  Establishment.  I  am 
about  to  read  a  passage  in  the  immortal  writings  of  one  of  the  great- 
est men,  I  may  say,  the  greatest  genius,  which  this  country  or  Europe, 
has  in  modern  times  produced.  You  shall  hear  what  the  learned 
and  pious  Milton  has  said  of  prelacy.  He  is  arguing  against  an 
Episcopalian  antagonist,  whom,  from  his  worldly  and  unscriptural 
doctrines,  he  calls  a  "  Carnal  Text  man;"  and  it  signifies  not  that  we 
may  differ  widely  in  opinion  with  this  illustrious  man;  I  only  give 
his  words  as  a  sample  of  the  license  with  which  he  was  permitted  to 
press  his  argument,  and  which  in  those  times  went  unpunished: — 

"Thai  which  he  imputes  as  sacrilege  to  his  country,  is  the  only 
way  left  them  to  purge  that  abominable  sacrilege  out  of  the  land, 
which  none  but  the  prelates  are  guilty  of;  who  for  the  discharge  of 
one  single  duty  receive  and  keep  that  which  might  be  enough  to 
satisfy  the  labors  of  many  painful  ministers  better  deserving  than 
themselves — who  possess  huge  benefices  for  lazy  performances,  great 
promotions  only  for  the  exercise  of  a  cruel  disgospelling  jurisdiction 
— who  engross  many  pluralities  under  a  non-resident  and  slumber- 
ing dispatch  of  souls — who  let  hundreds  of  parishes  famish  in  one 
diocese,  while  they  the  prelates  are  mute,  and  yet  enjoy  that  wealth 
that  would  furnish  all  those  dark  places  with  able  supply;  and  yet 
they  eat  and  yet  they  live  at  the  rate  of  earls,  and  yet  hoard  up;  they 
who  chase  away  all  the  faithful  shepherds  of  the  flock,  and  bring  in 
a  dearth  of  spiritual  food,  robbing  thereby  the  church  of  her  dearest 
treasure,  and  sending  herds  of  souls  starving  to  hell,  while  they  feast 
and  riot  upon  the  labors  of  hireling  curates,  consuming  and  purloin- 
ing even  that  which  by  their  foundation  is  allowed  and  left  to  the 


188  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

poor,  and  the  reparation  of  the  church.  These  are  they  who  have 
bound  the  land  with  the  sin  of  sacrilege,  from  which  mortal  engage- 
ment we  shall  never  be  free,  till  we  have  totally  removed  with  one 
labor,  as  one  individual  thing,  prelaty  and  sacrilege."  "  Thus  have 
ye  heard,  readers,"  (he  continues,  after  some  advice  to  the  Sovereign, 
to  check  the  usurpations  of  the  hierarchy)  "how  many  shifts  and 
wiles  the  prelates  have  invented  to  save  their  ill-got  booty.  And  if 
it  be  true,  as  in  Scripture  it  is  foretold,  that  pride  and  covetousness 
are  the  sure  marks  of  those  false  prophets  which  are  to  come,  then 
boldly  conclude  these  to  be  as  great  seducers  as  any  of  the  latter 
times.  For  between  this  and  the  judgment  day  do  not  look  for  any 
arch-deceivers,  who  in  spite  of  reformation  will  use  more  craft,  or  less 
shame  to  defend  their  love  of  the  world  and  their  ambition,  than 
these  prelates  have  done."* 

If  Mr.  Williams  had  dared  to  publish  the  tithe  part  of  what  I  have 
just  read;  if  any  thing  in  sentiment  or  in  language  approaching  to  it 
were  to  be  found  in  his  paper,  I  should  not  stand  before  you  with  the 
confidence  which  I  now  feel;  but  what  he  has  published  forms  a 
direct  contrast  to  the  doctrines  contained  in  this  passage.  Nor  is  such 
language  confined  to  the  times  in  which  Milton  lived,  or  to  a  period 
of  convulsion  when  prelacy  was  in  danger.  I  will  show  you  that  in 
tranquil,  episcopal  times,  when  the  church  existed  peacefully  and 
securely  as  by  law  established,  some  of  its  most  distinguished  mem- 
bers, who  have  added  to  its  stability  as  well  as  its  fame,  by  the  autho- 
rity of  their  learning  and  the  purity  of  their  lives,  the  fathers  and 
brightest  ornaments  of  that  church,  have  used  expressions  nearly  as 
free  as  those  which  I  have  cited  from  Milton,  and  tenfold  stronger 
than  any  thing  attributed  to  the  defendant.  I  will  read  you  a  passage 
from  Bishop  Burnet,  one  of  those  Whig  founders  of  the  Constitution, 
whom  the  Attorney-general  has  so  lavishly  praised.  He  says, 

"  I  have  lamented  during  my  whole  life  that  I  saw  so  little  true 
zeal  among  our  clergy;  I  saw  much  of  it  in  the  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  though  it  is  both  ill-directed  and  ill-conducted;  I  saw  much 
zeal,  likewise,  throughout  the  foreign  churches." 

Now  comparisons  are  hateful  to  a  proverb;  and  it  is  for  making  a 
comparison  that  the  defendant  is  to-day  prosecuted;  for  his  words  can 
have  no  application  to  the  church  generally,  except  in  the  way  of 
comparison.  And  with  whom  does  the  venerable  Bishop  here  com- 
pare the  clergy?  Why,  with  Antichrist — with  the  Church  of  Home 
— casting  the  balance  in  her  favor — giving  the  advantage  to  our 
ghostly  adversary.  Next  comes  he  to  give  the  Dissenters  the  prefer- 
ence over  our  own  clergy: — a  still  more  invidious  topic;  for  it  is  one 
of  the  laws  which  govern  theological  controversy  almost  as  regularly 
as  gravitation  governs  the  universe,  that  the  mutual  rancor  of  conflict- 
ing sects  is  inversely  as  their  distance  from  each  other;  and  with  such 
hatred  do  they  regard  those  who  are  separated  by  the  slightest  shade 
of  opinion,  that  your  true  intolerant  priest  abhors  a  pious  sectary  far 

*  Apology  for  Smectymnuus — published  in  1G42. 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  189 

more  devoutly  than  a  blasphemer  or  an  atheist:  yet  to  the  sectary  also 
does  the  good  Bishop  give  a  decided  preference: — 

"The  dissenters  have  a  great  deal  (that  is  of  zeal)  among  them, 
but  I  must  own  that  the  main  body  of  our  clergy  has  always  appeared 
dead  and  lifeless  to  me;  and  instead  of  animating  one  another,  they 
seem  rather  to  lay  one  another  asleep." — "  I  say  it  with  great  regret," 
(adds  the  Bishop)  "  I  have  observed  the  clergy  in  all  the  places  through 
which  I  have  travelled,  Papists,  Lutherans,  Calvinists  and  Dissenters; 
but  of  them  all,  our  clergy  is  much  the  most  remiss  in  their  labors  in 
private,  and  the  least  severe  in  their  lives.  And  let  me  say  this  freely 
to  you,  now  I  am  out  of  the  reach  of  envy  and  censure;"  (he 
bequeathed  his  work  to  be  given  to  the  world  after  his  death)  "unless 
a  better  spirit  possess  the  clergy,  arguments  and,  which  is  more,  laws 
and  authority  will  not  prove  strong  enough  to  preserve  the  church."* 

I  will  now  show  you  the  opinion  of  a  very  learned  and  virtuous 
writer,  who  \vas  much  followed  in  his  day,  and  whose  book,  at  that 
time,  formed  one  of  the  manuals  by  which  our  youth  were  taught 
the  philosophy  of  morals  to  prepare  them  for  their  theological  studies, 
I  mean  Dr.  Hartley: — 

"  I  choose  to  speak  of  what  falls  under  the  observation  of  all  serious 
attentive  persons  in  the  kingdom.  The  superior  clergy  are  in  general 
ambitious,  and  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  riches — flatterers  of  the  great, 
and  subservient  to  party  interest — negligent  of  their  own  particular 
charges,  and  also  of  the  inferior  clergy.  The  inferior  clergy  imitate 
their  superiors,  and  in  general  take  little  more  care  of  their  parishes 
than  barely  what  is  necessary  to  avoid  the  censure  of  the  law;  and 
the  clergy  of  all  ranks  are  in  general  either  ignorant,  or  if  they  do 
apply,  it  is  rather  to  profane  learning,  to  philosophical  or  political 
matters,  than  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  oriental  languages, 
and  the  Fathers.  I  say  this  is  in  general  the  case;  that  is,  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  clergy  of  all  ranks  in  the  kingdom  are  of  this 
kind." 

I  here  must  state  that  the  passage  I  have  just  read  is  very  far  from 
meeting  my  approval,  any  more  than  it  speaks  the  defendant's  senti- 
ments, and  especially  in  its  strictures  upon  the  inferior  clergy;  for  cer- 
tainly it  is  impossible  to  praise  too  highly  those  pious  and  useful  men, 
the  resident,  working  parish  priests  of  this  country.  I  speak  not  of 
the  dignitaries,  the  pluralists  and  sinecurists,  but  of  men  neither  pos- 
sessing the  higher  preferments  of  the  church,  nor  placed  in  that 
situation  of  expectancy  so  dangerous  to  virtue;  the  hard  working,  and 
I  fear  too  often  hard  living,  resident  clergy  of  this  kingdom,  who  are 
an  ornament  to  their  station,  and  who  richly  deserve  that  which  in 
too  many  instances  is  almost  all  the  reward  they  receive,  the  gratitude 
and  veneration  of  the  people  committed  to  their  care.  But  I  read 
this  passage  from  Dr.  Hartley,  not  as  a  precedent  followed  by  the 
defendant;  for  lie  has  said  nothing  approaching  to  it — not  as  propound- 
ing doctrine  authorised  by  the  fact;  or  which  in  reasoning  he  approves 

*  History  of  His  own  Times,  ii,  Gil. 


190  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

— but  only  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  what  lengths  such  discussion 
of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  (which,  it  seems,  we  are  now,  for  the  first 
time,  to  hold  our  peace  about)  was  carried  near  a  century  ago,  when 
the  freedom  of  speech,  now  to  be  stifled  as  licentiousness,  went  not 
only  unpunished,  but  unquestioned  and  unblamed.  To  take  a  much 
later  period,  I  hold  in  my  hand  an  attack  upon  the  hierachy  by  one 
of  their  own  body — a  respectable  and  beneficed  clergyman  in  the 
sister  county  Palatine  of  Chester,  who  undertook  to  defend  the 
Christian  religion,  itself  the  basis,  I  presume  I  may  venture  to  call  it, 
of  the  Church,  against  Thomas  Paine.  In  the  course  of  so  pious  a 
work,  which  he  conducted  most  elaborately,  as  you  may  perceive  by 
the  size  of  this  volume,  he  inveighs  in  almost  every  page  against  the 
abuses  of  the  Establishment,  but  in  language  which  I  am  very  far 
from  adopting.  In  one  passage  is  the  following  energetic,  and  I  may 
add.  somewhat  violent  invective,  which  I  will  read,  that  you  may  see 
how  a  man,  unwearied  in  the  care  of  souls,  and  so  zealous  a  Christian 
that  he  is  in  the  act  of  confuting  infidels  and  putting  scoffers  to  silence, 
may  yet,  in  the  very  course  of  defending  the  church  and  its  faith,  use 
language,  any  one  word  of  which,  if  uttered  by  the  defendant,  would 
make  my  learned  friend  shudder  at  the  license  of  the  modern  press 
upon  sacred  subjects. 

"  We  readily  grant,  therefore,  you  see,  my  countrymen,  that  the  cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity  shall  be  purged  and  done  away;  and  we  are 
persuaded  the  wickedness  of  Christians  so  called,  the  lukewarmness 
of  professors,  and  the  reiterated  attacks  of  infidels  upon  the  Gospel, 
shall  all,  under  the  guidance  of  infinite  wisdom,  contribute  to  accom- 
plish this  end." 

I  have  read  this  sentence  to  show  you  the  spirit  of  piety  in  which 
the  work  is  composed;  now  see  what  follows: 

"  The  lofty  looks  of  lordly  prelates  shall  be  brought  low;  the  super- 
cilious airs  of  downy  doctors  and  perjured  pluralists  shall  be  humbled; 
the  horrible  sacrilege  of  non-residents,  who  shear  the  fleece,  and  leave 
the  flock  thus  despoiled  to  the  charge  of  uninterested  hirelings  that  care 
not  for  them,  shall  be  avenged  on  their  impious  heads.  Intemperate 
priests,  avaricious  clerks,  and  buckish  parsons,  those  curses  of  Chris- 
tendom, shall  be  confounded.  All  secular  hierarchies  in  the  church 
shall  be  tumbled  into  ruin;  lukewarm  formalists  of  every  denomina- 
tion, shall  call  to  the  rocks  and  mountains  to  hide  them  from  the  wrath 
of  the  Lamb." 

This  is  the  language — these  are  the  lively  descriptions — these  the 
warm,  and  I  will  not  hesitate  to  say,  exaggerated  pictures  which  those 
reverend  authors  present  of  themselves;  these  are  the  testimonies 
which  they  bear  to  the  merits  of  one  another;  these  are  opinions  com- 
ing, not  from  the  enemy  without,  but  from  the  true, zealous,  and  even 
intemperate  friend  within.  And  can  it  be  matter  of  wonder  that  laymen 
should  sometimes  raise  their  voices  tuned  to  the  discords  of  the  sacred 
choir?  And  are  they  to  be  punished  for  what  secures  to  clergymen 
followers,  veneration,  and — preferment?  But  I  deny  that  Mr.  Williams 
is  of  the  number  of  followers;  I  deny  that  he  has  taken  a  leaf  or  a 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  191 

line  out  of  such  books;  I  deny  that  there  is  any  sentiment  of  this  cast, 
or  any  expression  approaching  to  those  of  Dr.  Simpson,  in  the  publi- 
cation before  you.  But  I  do  contend  that  if  the  real  friends  of  the 
church,  if  its  own  members,  can  safely  indulge  in  such  language,  it  is 
ten  thousand  times  more  lawful  for  a  layman,  like  the  defendant,  to 
make  the  harmless  observations  which  he  has  published,  and  in  which 
I  defy  any  man  to  show  me  one  expression  hostile  to  our  ecclesiastical 
establishment. 

[Mr.  Brougham  then  read  the  following  passage  from  the  libel:] 
"  We  know  not  whether  any  actual  orders  were  issued  to  prevent 
this  customary  sign  of  mourning;  but  the  omission  plainly  indicates 
the  kind  of  spirit  which  predominates  among  our  clergy.  Yet  these 
men  profess  to  be  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  walk  in  his  footsteps, 
to  teach  his  precepts,  to  inculcate  his  spirit,  to  promote  harmony,  cha- 
rity, and  Christian  love!  Out  upon  such  hypocrisy!" 

That  you  may  understand  the  meaning  of  this  passage,  it  is  neces- 
sary for  me  to  set  before  you,  the  picture  my  learned  friend  was  pleased 
to  draw  of  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  of  Durham,  and  I  shall  recall  it 
to  your  minds  almost  in  his  own  words.  According  to  him  they  stand 
in  a  peculiarly  unfortunate  situation;  they  are,  in  truth,  the  most  in- 
jured of  men.  They  all,  it  seems,  entertained  the  same  generous  sen- 
timent with  the  rest  of  their  countrymen,  though  they  did  not  express 
them  in  the  old,  free,  English  manner,  by  openly  condemning  the  pro- 
ceedings against  the  late  Queen;  and  after  the  course  of  unexampled 
injustice  against  which  she  victoriously  struggled  had  been  followed 
by  the  needless  infliction  of  inhuman  torture,  to  undermine  a  frame 
whose  spirit  no  open  hostility  could  daunt,  and  extinguish  a  life  so  long 
embittered  by  the  same  foul  arts — after  that  great  princess  had  ceased 
to  harass  her  enemies  (if  I  may  be  allowed  thus  to  speak,  applying, 
as  they  did,  by  the  perversion  of  all  language,  those  names  to  the 
victim  which  belong  to  the  tormentor)  after  her  glorious  but  unhappy 
life  had  closed,  and  that  princely  head  was  at  last  laid  low  by  death, 
which,  living,  all  oppression  had  only  the  more  illustriously  exalted — 
the  venerable  the  Clergy  of  Durham,  I  am  now  told  for  the  first  time, 
though  less  forward  in  giving  vent  to  their  feelings  than  the  rest  of 
their  fellow-citizens — though  not  so  vehement  in  their  indignation  at 
(he  matchless  and  unmanly  persecution  of  the  Queen — though  not  so 
unbridled  in  their  joy  at  her  immortal  triumph,  nor  so  loud  in  their 
lamentations  over  her  mournful  and  untimely  end — did,  nevertheless, 
in  reality,  all  the  while,  deeply  sympathise  with  her  sufferings,  in  the 
bottom  of  their  reverend  hearts!  When  all  the  resources  of  the  most 
ingenious  cruelty  hurried  her  to  a  fate  without  parallel — if  not  so  cla- 
morous as  others,  they  did  not  feH  the  least  of  all  the  members  of  the 
community — their  grief  was  in  truth  too  deep  for  utterance — sorrow 
clung  round  their  bosoms,  weighed  upon  their  tongues,  stifled  every 
sound — and,  when  all  the  rest  of  mankind,  of  all  sects  and  of  all  na- 
tions, freely  gave  vent  to  feelings  of  our  common  nature,  THRIH 
silence,  the  contrast  which  THEY  displayed  to  the  rest  of  their  species, 
proceeded  from  the  greater  depth  of  their  affliction;  they  said  the  less 


192  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

because  they  felt  the  more! — Oh!  talk  of  hypocrisy  after  this!  Most 
consummate  of  all  the  hypocrites!  After  instructing  your  chosen, 
official  advocate  to  stand  forward  with  such  a  defence — such  an  expo- 
sition of  your  motives — to  dare  utter  the  word  hypocrisy,  and  com- 
plain of  those  who  charged  you  with  it!  This  is  indeed  to  insult 
common  sense,  and  outrage  the  feelings  of  the  whole  human  race!  If 
you  were  hypocrites  before,  you  were  downright,  frank,  honest  hypo- 
crites to  what  you  have  now  made  yourselves — and  surely,  for  all 
you  have  ever  done,  or  ever  been  charged  with,  your  worst  enemies 
must  be  satiated  with  the  humiliation  of  this  day,  its  just  atonement, 
and  ample  retribution! 

If  Mr.  Williams  had  known  the  hundredth  part  of  this  at  the  time 
of  her  Majesty's  demise — if  he  had  descried  the  least  twinkling  of 
the  light  which  has  now  broke  upon  us,  as  to  the  real  motives  of  their 
actions— I  am  sure  this  cause  would  never  have  been  tried;  because 
to  have  any  one  of  his  strictures  upon  their  conduct,  would  have  been 
not  only  an  act  of  the  blackest  injustice — it  would  have  been  per- 
fectly senseless.  But  can  he  be  blamed  for  his  ignorance,  when  such 
pains  were  taken  to  keep  him  in  the  dark?  Can  it  be  wondered  at 
that  he  was  led  astray,  when  he  had  only  so  false  a  guide  to  their 
motives  as  their  conduct,  unexplained,  afforded?  When  they  were  so 
anxious  to  mislead,  by  facts  and  deeds,  is  his  mistake  to  be  so  severely 
criticised?  Had  he  known  the  real  truth,  he  must  have  fraternised 
with  them;  embraced  them  cordially;  looked  up  with  admiration  to 
their  superior  sensibility;  admitted  that  he  who  feels  most,  by  an 
eternal  law  of  our  nature,  is  least  disposed  to  express  his  feelings;  and 
lamented  that  his  own  zeal  was  less  glowing  than  theirs;  but  ignorant 
and  misguided  as  he  was,  it  is  no  great  marvel  that  he  did  not  rightly 
know  the  real  history  of  their  conduct,  until  about  three-quarters  of 
an  hour  ago,  when  the  truth  burst  in  upon  us,  that  all  the  while  they 
were  generously  attached  to  the  cause  of  weakness  and  misfortune! 

Gentlemen,  if  the  country,  as  well  as  Mr.  Williams,  has  been  all 
along  so  deceived,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  not  from  the  proba- 
bilities of  the  case.  Judging  beforehand,  no  doubt,  any  one  must 
have  expected  the  Durham  clergy  of  all  men,  to  feel  exactly  as  they 
are  now,  for  the  first  time,  ascertained  to  have  ft,- It.  They  are  Chris- 
tians; outwardly  at  least,  they  profess  the  gospel  of  charity  and  peace; 
they  beheld  oppression  in  its  foulest  shape;  malignity  and  all  unchari- 
tableness  putting  on  their  most  hideous  forms;  measures  pursued  to 
gratify  prejudices  in  a  particular  quarter,  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of 
the  people,  and  the  declared  opinions  of  the  soundest  judges  of  each 
party;  and  all  with  the  certain  tendency  to  plunge  the  nation  in  civil 
discord.  If  for  a  moment  they  had  been  led  away  by  a  dislike  of 
cruelty  and  of  civil  war,  to  express  displeasure  at  such  perilous  doings, 
no  man  could  have  charged  them  with  political  meddling;  and  when 
they  beheld  truth  and  innocence  triumph  over  power,  they  might  as 
Christian  ministers,  calling  to  mind  the  original  of  their  own  church, 
have  indulged  without  offence  in  some  little  appearance  of  gladness; 
a  calm,  placid  satisfaction,  on  so  happy  an  event,  would  not  have  been 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  193 

unbecoming  their  sacred  station.  When  they  found  that  her  suffer- 
ings were  to  have  no  end;  that  new  pains  were  inflicted  in  revenge 
for  her  escape  from  destruction,  and  new  tortures  devised  to  exhaust 
the  vital  powers  of  her  whom  open,  lawless  violence  had  failed  to 
subdue — we  might  have  expected  some  slight  manifestation  of  disap- 
proval from  holy  men  who,  professing  to  inculcate  loving-kindness, 
tender  mercy,  and  good  will  to  all,  offer  up  their  daily  prayers  for 
those  who  are  desolate  and  oppressed.  When  at  last  the  scene 
closed,  and  there  was  an  end  of  that  persecution  which  death  alone 
could  stay;  but  when  not  even  her  unhappy  fate  could  glut  the  re- 
venge of  her  enemies;  and  they  who  had  harassed  her  to  death  now 
exhausted  their  malice  in  reviling  the  memory  of  their  victim;  if 
among  them  had  been  found,  during  her  life,  some  miscreant  under 
the  garb  of  a  priest,  who,  to  pay  his  court  to  power,  had  joined  in 
trampling  upon  the  defenceless;  even  such  a  one,  bear  he  the  form  of 
a  man,  with  a  man's  heart  throbbing  in  his  bosom,  might  have  felt 
even  his  fawning,  sordid,  calculating  malignity  assuaged  by  the  hand 
of  death;  even  he  might  have  left  the  tomb  to  close  upon  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  victim.  All  probability  certainly  favored  the  supposition, 
that  the  clergy  of  Durham  would  riot  take  part  against  the  injured,  be- 
cause the  oppressor  was  powerful;  and  that  the  prospect  of  emolument 
would  not  make  them  witness  with  dry  eyes  and  hardened  hearts  the 
close  of  a  life  which  they  had  contributed  to  embitter  and  destroy.  But 
I  am  compelled  to  say  that  their  whole  conduct  has  falsified  those  ex- 
pectations. They  sided  openly,  strenuously,  forwardly,  officiously, 
with  power,  in  the  oppression  of  a  woman,  whose  wrongs  this  day 
they  for  the  first  time  pretend  to  bewail  in  their  attempt  to  cozen  you 
out  of  a  verdict,  behind  which  they  may  skulk  from  the  inquiring  eyes 
of  the  people.  Silent  and  subdued  in  their  tone  as  they  were  on  the 
demise  of  the  unhappy  Queen,  they  could  make  every  bell  in  all  their 
chimes  peal  when  gain  was  to  be  expected  by  flattering  present 
greatness.  Then  they  could  send  up  addresses,  flock  to  public  meet- 
ings, and  load  the  press  with  their  libels,  and  make  the  pulpit  ring 
with  their  sycophancy,  filling  up  to  the  brim  the  measure  of  their 
adulation  to  the  reigning  monarch,  Head  of  the  Church,  and  Dispenser 
of  its  Patronage. 

In  this  contrast  originated  the  defendant's  feelings,  and  hence  the 
strictures  which  form  the  subject  of  these  proceedings.  I  say  the  pub- 
lication refers  exclusively  to  the  clergy  of  this  city  and  its  suburbs, 
and  especially  to  such  parts  of  that  clergy  as  were  concerned  in  the 
act  of  disrespect  towards  her  late  Majesty,  which  forms  the  subject  of 
the  alleged  libel;  but  I  deny  that  it  has  any  reference  whatever  to  the 
rest  of  the  clergy,  or  evinces  any  designs  hostile  either  to  the  stability 
of  the  church,  or  the  general  character  and  conduct  of  its  ministers. 
My  learned  friend  has  said  that  Mr.  Williams  had  probably  been  bred 
a  sectary,  and  retained  sectarian  prejudices.  No  argument  is  neces- 
sary to  refute  this  supposition.  The  passage  which  lias  been  read  to 
you  carries  with  it  the  conviction  that  he  is  no  sectary,  and  entertains 
no  schismatical  views  against  the  church;  for  there  is  a  more  severe 
VOL.  i.  — 17 


194  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

attack  upon  the  sectaries  themselves,  than  upon  the  clergy  of  Durham. 
No  man  can  have  the  least  hesitation  in  saying,  that  the  sentiments 
breathed  in  it  are  any  thing  but  those  of  a  sectary.  For  myself,  I  am 
far  from  approving  the  contemptuous  terms  in  which  he  has  expressed 
himself  of  those  who  dissent  from  the  Establishment;  and  I  think  he 
has  not  spoken  of  them  in  the  tone  of  decent  respect  that  should  be 
observed  to  so  many  worthy  persons,  who,  though  they  differ  from 
the  church,  differ  from  it  on  the  most  conscientious  grounds.  This  is 
the  only  part  of  the  publication  of  which  I  cannot  entirely  approve, 
but  it  is  not  for  this  that  he  is  prosecuted.  Then,  what  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  obnoxious  remarks?  Are  they  directed  against  the  Estab- 
lishment? Are  they  meant  to  shake  or  degrade  it?  I  say  that  no 
man  who  reads  them  can  entertain  a  moment's  doubt  in  his  mind, 
that  they  were  excited  by  the  conduct  of  certain  individuals,  and  the 
use  which  he  makes  of  that  particular  conduct,  the  inference  which 
he  draws  from  it,  is  not  invective  against  the  Establishment,  but  a 
regret  that  it  should  by  such  conduct  be  lowered.  He  says  no  more 
than  this: — "These  are  the  men  who  do  the  mischief;  ignorant  and 
wild  fanatics  are  crowding  the  tabernacles,  whilst  the  church  is 
deserted,"  and  he  traces,  not  with  exultation  but  with  sorrow,  the 
cause  of  the  desertion  of  the  church,  and  the  increase  of  conventicles. 
"  Here,"  says  he,  "  I  have  a  fact  which  accounts  for  the  clergy  sink- 
ing in  the  estimation  of  the  communify,  and  I  hold  up  this  mirror,  not 
to  excite  hostility  towards  the  Established  Church,  nor  to  bring  its 
ministers  into  contempt  among  their  flocks,  but  to  teach  and  to  reclaim 
those  particular  persons  who  are  the  disgrace  and  danger  of  the  Estab- 
lishment, instead  of  being,  as  they  ought,  its  support  and  its  orna- 
ment." He  holds  up  to  them  that  mirror  in  which  they  may  see 
their  own  individual  misconduct,  and  calculate  its  inevitable  effects 
upon  the  security  and  honor  of  the  establishment  which  they  disgrace. 
This  is  no  lawyer-like  gloss  upon  the  passage — no  special  pleading 
construction,  or  far-fetched  refinement  of  explanation — I  give  the 
plain  and  obvious  sense  which  every  man  of  ordinary  understanding 
must  affix  to  it.  If  you  say  that  such  an  one  disgraces  his  profession, 
or  that  he  is  a  scandal  to  the  cloth  he  wears,  (a  common  form  of 
speech,  and  one  never  more  in  men's  mouths  than  within  the  last 
fortnight,  when  things  have  happened  to  extort  an  universal  expres- 
sion of  pain,  sorrow,  and  shame,)  do  you  mean  by  such  lamentations 
to  undermine  the  Establishment?  In  saying  that  the  purity  of  the 
cloth  is  defiled  by  individual  misconduct,  it  is  clear  that  you  cast  no 
imputation  on  the  cloth  generally;  for  an  impure  person  could  not 
contaminate  a  defiled  cloth.  Just  so  has  the  defendant  expressed 
himself,  and  in  this  light  I  will  put  his  case  to  you.  If  he  had  thought 
that  the  whole  Establishment  was  bad;  that  all  its  ministers  were  time- 
servers,  who,  like  the  spaniel,  would  crouch  and  lick  the  hand  that 
fed  it,  but  snarl  and  bite  at  one  which  had  nothing  to  bestow — fawn- 
ing upon  rich  and  liberal  patrons,  and  slandering  all  that  were  too 
proud  or  too  poor  to  bribe  them;  if  he  painted  the  church  as  founded 
upon  imposture,  reared  in  time-serving,  cemented  by  sordid  interest, 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  195 

and  crowned  with  spite,  and  insolence,  and  pride — to  have  said  that 
the  Durham  clergy  disgraced  such  a  hierarchy,  would  have  been  not 
only  gross  inconsistency,  hut  stark  nonsense.  He  must  rather  have 
said  that  they  were  worthy  members  of  a  base  and  grovelling  estab- 
lishment— that  the  church  was  as  bad  as  its  ministers — and  that  it 
was  hard  to  say  whether  they  more  fouled  it  or  were  defiled  by  it. 
But  he  has  said  nothing  that  can  bring  into  jeopardy  or  discredit  an 
institution  which  every  one  wishes  to  keep  pure,  and  which  has 
nothing  to  dread  so  much  as  the  follies  and  crimes  of  its  supporters. 
Gentlemen,  you  have  to-day  a  great  task  committed  to  your  hands. 
This  is  not  the  age — the  spirit  of  the  times  is  not  such — as  to  make  it 
safe,  either  for  the  country  or  for  the  government,  or  for  the  church 
itself,  to  veil  its  mysteries  iti  secrecy;  to  plant  in  the  porch  of  the 
temple  a  prosecutor  brandishing  his  flaming  sword,  the  process  of  the 
law,  to  prevent  the  prying  eyes  of  mankind  from  wandering  over  the 
structure.  These  are  times  when  men  ivill  inquire,  and  the  day  most 
fatal  to  the  Established  Church,  the  blackest  that  ever  dawned  upon 
its  ministers,  will  be  that  which  consigns  this  defendant,  for  these 
remarks,  to  the  horrors  of  a  gaol,  which  its  false  friends,  the  chosen 
objects  of  such  lavish  favor,  have  far  more  richly  deserved.  I  agree 
with  my  learned  friend,  that  the  Church  of  England  has  nothing  to 
dread  from  external  violence.  Built  upon  a  rock,  and  lifting  its  head 
towards  another  world,  it  aspires  to  an  imperishable  existence,  and 
defies  any  force  that  may  rage  from  without.  But  let  it  beware  of 
the  corruption  engendered  within  and  beneath  its  massive  walls;  and 
let  all  its  well-wishers — all  who,  whether  for  religious  or  political 
interests,  desire  its  lasting  stability — beware  how  they  give  encourage- 
ment, by  giving  shelter,  to  the  vermin  bred  in  that  corruption,  who 
"stink  and  sting"  against  the  hand  that  would  brush  the  roltenness 
away.  JMy  learned  friend  has  sympathised  with  the  priesthood,  and 
innocently  enough  lamented  that  they  possess  not  the  power  of  defend- 
ing themselves  through  the  public  press.  Let  him  be  consoled;  they 
are  not  so  very  defenceless — they  are  not  so  entirely  destitute  of  the  aid 
of  the  press  as  through  him  they  have  represented  themselves  to  be. 
They  have  largely  used  that  press  (I  wish  I  could  say  "  as  not  abusing 
it,")  and  against  some  persons  very  near  me — I  mean  especially  against 
the  defendant,  whom  they  have  scurrilously  and  foully  libelled  through 
that  great  vehicle  of  public  instruction,  over  which,  for  the  first  time, 
among  the  other  novelties  of  the  day,  I  now  hear  they  have  control. 
Not  that  they  wound  deeply  or  injure  much;  but  that  is  no  fault  of 
theirs — without  hurting,  they  give  trouble  and  discomfort.  The  insect 
brought  into  life  by  corruption, and  nestled  in  filth,  though  its  flight  be 
lowly  and  its  sting  puny,  can  swarm  and  buzz,  and  irritate  the  skin  and 
offend  the  nostril,  and  altogether  give  nearly  as  much  annoyance  as 
the  wasp,  whose  nobler  nature  it  aspires  to  emulate.  These  reverend 
slanderers — these  pious  backbiters — devoid  of  force  to  wield  the 
sword,  snatch  the  dagger,  and  destitute  of  wit  to  point  or  to  barb  it, 
and  make  it  rankle  in  the  wound,  steep  it  in  venom  to  make  it  fester 
in  the  scratch.  The  much  venerated  personages  whose  harmless  and 


196  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

unprotected  state  is  now  deplored,  have  been  the  wholesale  dealers  in 
calumny,  as  well  as  largest  consumers  of  the  base  article — the  especial 
promoters  of  that  vile  traffic,  of  late  the  disgrace  of  the  country — 
both  furnishing  a  constant  demand  for  the  slanders  by  which  the  press 
is  polluted,  and  prostituting  themselves  to  pander  for  the  appetites  of 
others;  and  now  they  come  to  demand  protection  from  retaliation, 
and  shelter  from  just  exposure;  and  to  screen  themselves,  would  have 
you  prohibit  all  scrutiny  of  the  abuses  by  which  they  exist,  and  the 
mal-practices  by  which  they  disgrace  their  calling.  After  abusing 
and  well-nigh  dismantling,  for  their  own  despicable  purposes,  the 
great  engine  of  instruction,  they  would  have  you  annihilate  all  that 
they  have  left  of  it,  to  secure  their  escape.  They  have  the  incredible 
assurance  to  expect  that  an  English  jury  will  conspire  with  them  in 
this  wicked  design.  They  expect  in  vain!  If  all  existing  institutions 
and  all  public  functionaries  must  henceforth  be  sacred  from  question 
among  the  people;  if,  at  length  the  free  press  of  this  country,  and 
with  it  the  freedom  itself,  is  to  be  destroyed — at  least  let  not  the  heavy 
blow  fall  from  your  hands.  Leave  it  to  some  profligate  tyrant;  leave 
it  to  a  mercenary  and  effeminate  Parliament — a  hireling  army,  de- 
graded by  the  lash,  and  the  readier  instrument  for  enslaving  its  country; 
leave  it  to  a  pampered  House  of  Lords — a  venal  House  of  Commons 
— some  vulgar  minion,  servant-of-all-work  to  an  insolent  court — some 
unprincipled  soldier,  unknown,  thank  God!  in  our  times,  combining 
the  talents  of  a  usurper  with  the  fame  of  a  captain;  leave  to  such 
desperate  hands,  and  such  fit  tools,  so  horrid  a  work!  But  you,  an 
English  jury,  parent  of  the  press,  yet  supported  by  it,  and  doomed  to 
perish  the  instant  its  health  and  strength  are  gone — lift  not  you  against 
it  an  unnatural  hand.  Prove  to  us  that  our  rights  are  safe  in  your 
keeping;  but  maintain,  above  all  things,  the  stability  of  our  institu- 
tions, by  well-guarding  their  corner  stone.  Defend  the  church  from 
her  worst  enemies,  who,  to  hide  their  own  misdeeds,  would  veil  her 
solid  foundations  in  darkness;  and  proclaim  to  them  by  your  verdict 
of  acquittal,  that  henceforward,  as  heretofore,  all  the  recesses  of  the 
sanctuary  must  be  visited  by  the  continual  light  of  day,  and  by  that 
light  its  abuses  be  explored! 

[After  the  learned  Judge  had  summed  up  to  the  Jury,  they  retired, 
and  remained  inclosed  for  above  five  hours.  They  then  returned  the 
following  special  verdict,  viz.: — "  Guilty  of  so  much  of  the  matter  in 
the  first  count  as  charges  a  libel  upon  the  Clergy  residing  in  and  near 
the  City  of  Durham,  and  the  suburbs  thereof,  and  as  to  the  rest  of 
the  first  count,  and  the  other  counts  of  the  Information,  Not  Guilty."] 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM.  197 

IN  MICHAELMAS  TERM  FOLLOWING. 
Nov.  1S22. 

MR.  SCARLETT  moved  for  judgment  on  this  defendant,  who  was 
found  guilty  at  the  last  assizes  for  the  County  of  Durham,  on  a  Crmi- 
nal  Information  granted  by  this  court,  for  a  libel. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Mr.  Brougham  moves  in  arrest  of 
judgment? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Yes,  my  lord,  and  also  for  a  new  trial. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Then  the  defendant  is,  I  presume,  in 
court? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — He  has  been  here,  my  lord;  but  we  did  not  in 
the  least  expect  the  case  to  come  on  to-day,  and  1  believe  he  is 
gone.  I  can,  at  least,  move  in  arrest  of  judgment,  and  I  dare  say  he 
will  be  here  before  I  find  it  necessary  to  state  my  grounds  for  a  new 
trial. 

MR.  SCARLETT. — I  know  that  the  defendant  is  in  town,  and  has 
been  here  this  morning.  As  far,  therefore,  as  I  am  concerned  I  beg  to 
waive  any  objection  to  Mr.  Brougham's  proceeding. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Then  Mr.  Brougham  may  proceed. 
You  move  first  for  a  new  trial? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — No,  first  in  arrest  of  judgment ;  and  then  I 
shall  show  my  grounds  for  thinking  that  a  new  trial  ought  to  be 
granted. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BEST  then  read  Mr.  Baron  Wood's  report  of  the  trial. 
The  learned  Judge  had  stated  the  verdict  to  be — "  Guilty  on  the  second 
coi  nt  of  the  Information." 

MR.  BROUGHAM  said  he  should  first  draw  the  attention  of  the  court 
to  the  record,  and  show  that  it  was  so  defective  that  no  judgment  could 
be  pronounced  upon  it.  This  would  appear  on  more  particularly  com- 
paring the  verdict  with  the  Information. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — The  verdict  is  entered  upon  the  second 
count  of  the  Information. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — No,  my  lord;  it  is  on  the  first  count,  and  is  in  these 
words — "Guilty  of  a  libel  on  the  Clergy  residing  in  and  near  the  City 
of  Durham,  and  the  suburbs  thereof." 

MR.  SCARLETT. — No,  it  is  on  the  learned  Judge's  notes. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  begged  to  refer  to  the  record. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY  accordingly  looked  at  the  record.  The 
endorsement  on  the  postea  corresponded  with  the  learned  Judge's 
notes,  but  the  record  itself  was  in  these  words — "  And  the  jurors 
aforesaid  say  that  he,  the  said  defendant,  is  guilty  of  so  much  of  the 
first  count  as  charges  a  libel  on  the  Clergy  residing  in  and  near  the 
City  of  Durham,  and  the  suburbs  thereof— and  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
first  count  and  the  other  counts  of  the  Information,  he  is  not  guilty." 

MR.  BROUGHAM  proceeded.     He  would  now  draw  the  attention  of 


198  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

the  court  to  the  first  count  in  the  Information,  the  only  one  to  which 
he  should  have  occasion  to  revert,  as  the  defendant  was  acquitted  on 
all  the  others.  This  count  charged  him  with  "  printing  and  publishing 
a  libel,  of  and  concerning  the  United  Church  of  England  and  Ireland, 
and  of  and  concerning  the  Clergy  of  that  Church,  and  the  Clergy 
residing  in  and  near  the  City  of  Durham  and  the  suburbs  thereof;"  not 
repeating  the  words  "  of  and  concerning,"  before  the  words  "  the 
Clergy  residing  in  and  near  the  City  of  Durham." 

MR.  SCARLETT  asserted,  that  the  words  "of  and  concerning"  were 
in  his  copy  of  Information. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY  read  the  passage  from  the  record,  which  proved 
that  Mr.  Brougham  was  correct. 

MK.  SCARLETT. — It  was  so  in  my  copy,  I  was  equally  confident  with 
you. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Yes;  but  there  was  this  difference — you  were 
confident  and  wrong;  I  was  confident  and  right.  The  difference  was 
merely  between  a  well-founded  observation,  and  one  that  had  no 
foundation  at  all.  I  only  mention  this  to  prevent  any  further  inter- 
ruptions, of  which  I  have  had  two  already.  The  learned  Counsel 
then  proceeded  to  take  two  objections  to  the  record;— first,  that  the 
count  charged  an  offence  different  from  that  which  the  jury  had  found; 
and,  second,  that  the  offence  of  which  the  jury  had  found  the  defen- 
dant guilty,  supposing  it  to  be  the  same  with  that  stated,  was  in  itself 
too  vague  and  uncertain  to  be  made  the  foundation  of  any  judgment. 
And  first  he  would  contend  that  the  Information  charged  one  offence, 
and  the  jury  had  found  another.  The  count  set  forth  the  libel  as  "  of 
and  concerning  the  United  Church  of  England  and  Ireland,  and  of 
and  concerning  the  Clergy  of  that  church,  and  the  Clergy  residing  in 
the  City  of  Durham  and  the  suburbs  thereof;"  and  the  jury  had  found 
that  there  was  no  libel  on  the  United  Church  or  the  Clergy  thereof, 
but  on  the  Clergy  of  Durham.  Now  he  would  contend  that,  even  if 
the  words  "of  and  concerning"  had  been  repeated,  and  even  if  the 
Clergy  of  Durham  were  a  body  distinct  from  the  body  of  the  United 
Church — thus  putting  the  case  far  stronger  than  it  was  for  the  prosecu- 
tion— that  the  description  was  one  entire  description,  and  could  not 
be  severed.  Not  only  was  there  no  separate  count  for  a  libel  on  the 
Clergy  of  Durham  (the  introduction  of  which  would  have  been  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world)  but  there  was  not  even  in  this  count  any 
undivided  averment  of  a  libel  on  them.  Suppose  a  libel  were  charged 
"of  and  concerning  A  and  B;"  and  suppose  A  and  B  were  distinct 
persons,  entirely  unconnected  with  each  other,  and  the  jury  found 
that  the  libel  was  concerning  "A"  only,  they  would  find  an  offence 
different  from  that  of  which  they  were  charged  to  inquire.  There 
was  a  case  not  nearly  so  strong  as  this,  that  of  "  Lewis  and  Walter," 
which  had  been  argued,  but  which  the  court  had  not  yet  decided, 
where  a  similar  objection  was  taken,  and  where  the  leaning  of  some, 
if  not  all  the  judges,  seemed  strongly  in  favor  of  the  objection.  There 
the  defendant  was  charged  with  a  libel  "of  and  concerning  the  plain- 
tiff, and  of  and  concerning  him  as  an  attorney;"  at  the  trial  there 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM.  199 

was  no  proof  of  his  professional  character,  and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
accordingly  nonsuited  the  plaintiff,  because,  though  the  publication 
would  be  a  libel  on  him  in  his  personal  character,  he  held  the  plaintiff 
bound  by  his  averment,  and  that  it  was  one  description  of  one  wrong. 
The  case  cited  in  argument  for  the  plaintiff  of  Dickens  v.  Cogswell," 
was  clearly  inapplicable;  for  there  the  averment  "  of  and  concerning 
the  plaintiff  as  an  appraiser  and  carpenter"  was  clearly  partible: 
and  so  the  court  seemed  to  regard  it.  But  the  present  case  was  far 
stronger  than  "Lewis  v.  Walter;"  because  here,  instead  of  referring 
to  two  distinct  characters  of  the  same  person,  or  two  distinct  indi- 
viduals like  "  A  and  B,"  the  Clergy  of  Durham  (if  they  meant  any 
person  at  all)  were  included  in  the  previous  description,  "  the  Clergy 
of  the  United  Church."  It  was  as  if  the  charge  had  been  "  of  and 
concerning  a  certain  community,  and  of  and  concerning  a  certain 
person  as  a  member  of  that  community ;"  in  which  case  the 
libel,  if  any  thing  would  be  a  libel  on  the  community,  as  the  mem- 
ber qua  member,  could  not  be  severed  from  it.  But  here  the  de- 
fendant was  actually  acquitted  of  libelling  the  clergy  in  general; 
and  yet  found  guilty  of  libelling  a  body  who  only  had  existence  as  a 
part  of  this  clergy;  and  this  without  any  distinct  allegation  or  any 
divisable  averment.  Here  he  might  advert  to  the  uncertainty  of 
the  description,  which  he  should  make  a  substantive  objection,  as 
strengthening  that  which  he  was  now  urging;  for  even  this  part  of 
the  church  at  best  to  be  so  taken — was  so  vaguely  described,  as  when 
severed  from  the  rest,  to  mean  nothing.  If  the  description  of  the 
Clergy  of  Durham  was  explained  as  referring  to  some  part  of  the 
"  United  Church,"  then  the  acquittal  applied  to  the  larger  included 
the  less;  if  it  was  taken  independently,  then  it  referred  to  no  recog- 
nised body,  and  had  no  meaning  at  all.  This  brought  him  to  the 
second  objection — that  the  offence  charged  was  altogether  uncertain. 
First,  there  was  nothing  to  define  the  exact  meaning  of  the  word 
"Clergy" — nothing  whatever  to  limit  it  to  the  ministers  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church. 

Mn.  JUSTICE  BEST. — Arc  Dissenters  ever  called  clergy? 

MB.  BBOUGHAM  replied  that  they  were  so  called  in  many  acts  of 
Parliament;  among  others,  in  the  4Sth  of  George  III,  which  in  its 
title  purported  to  be  "  An  Act  concerning  the  Clergy  of  Scotland." 
But  if  the  dissenting  preachers  were  not  legally  denominated  Clergy, 
and  he  contended  that  they  were,  the  Catholic  priests  had,  unques- 
tionably, a  right  to  the  title;  they  were  so  treated  in  the  acts  of  Henry 
VIII;  and  they  had  only  to  abjure  to  become  at  once  in  full  orders, 
and  to  receive  the  highest  dignities  of  the  church.  At  this  very  time 
there  was  a  bishop  who  had  never  taken  orders  in  the  Protestant 
Church,  but  had  merely  passed  from  (he  Romish  Church  into  ours. 
The  term  "Clergy,"  therefore,  was  altogether  vague  without  further 
explanation;  for  it  was  impossible  to  import  that  part  of  the  descrip- 
tion of  which  the  defendant  had  been  acquitted,  into  the  other  part  of 
which  he  had  been  found  guilty;  on  the  contrary,  the  opposite  find- 
ing seemed  to  negative  all  connection  between  them.  Next,  what 


200  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

was  meant  by  the  term  "  near?"  Was  it  one,  or  two,  or  ten,  or 
twenty  miles?  Each  man  would  reply  according  to  his  own  idea  of 
nearness,  and  perhaps  no  two  persons  would  agree  as  to  the  limits 
within  which  the  libelled  Clergy  resided.  The  term  "suburbs,"  was 
again  ambiguous;  so  that  here  was  a  further  latitude  of  proximity 
almost  running  into  distance.  Here,  then,  the  word  "Clergy"  was 
ambiguous;  the  class  of  Clergy  was  ambiguous;  and  if  the  court 
could  find  no  meaning  in  what  the  jury  had  found,  they  would  not 
look  for  it  in  what  they  had  negatived.  And  now,  leaving  these 
points,  he  would  contend  that  even  supposing  the  clergy  of  the  Esta- 
blished Church  in  the  city  of  Durham  to  be  intended,  these  did  not 
form  a  body  whom  the  court  meant  to  protect  when  they  granted  the 
rule.  At  the  time  when  the  rule  was  argued,  the  publication  was 
called  "a  libel  on  the  Church  of  England;"  Mr.  Scarlett  demanded 
protection  for  that  church;  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  three  times  inter- 
rupted the  argument  when  proceeding,  on  the  ground  that  the  clergy 
of  Durham  were  the  applicants,  by  observing,  "this  is  a  libel  on  the 
Church  of  England;"  and  when  he  (Mr.  Brougham)  contended  that 
it  applied  only  to  the  clergy  of  Durham,  he  was  met  by  the  same 
answer.  Now,  he  did  not  believe  that  the  court  ever  would  have 
granted  the  rule  had  it  been  applied  for  in  the  terms  of  the  verdict, 
"  for  a  libel  on  the  clergy  residing  in  and  near  the  city  of  Durham  and 
the  suburbs  thereof,"  for  whenever  the  court  had  thus  interfered,  it 
was  either  on  behalf  of  some  individual,  or  some  definite  body  of 
men  recognised  by  the  law.  Every  case  cited  by  Mr.  Scarlett  on  that 
occasion  was  consistent  with  this  principle.  The  King  v.  the  Justices 
of  Staffordshire  was  entirely  of  this  nature;  for  where  could  be  found 
a  more  definite  body  of  men  than  those  in  the  commission  of  the  peace 
for  a  particular  county?  In  the  case  where  application  was  made 
against  certain  justices  of  Middlesex  sitting  in  Litchfield-street,  the 
motion  was  refused  until  affidavits  were  produced  showing  what  par- 
ticular magistrate  sat  there,  and  then  the  rule  was  granted.  In  "  the 
King  v.  Jerome,"  which  was  a  libel  on  the  directors  of  the  East  India 
Company,  the  Information  was  granted,  because  the  directors  were  a 
distinct  body,  chartered  by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  not  like  the  coun- 
sel at  a  particular  bar,  or  a  particular  circuit.  The  case  of  "  the  King 
v.  Orme  and  Nutt,"  reported  in  1  Lord  Raymond,  486,  was  also  more 
fully  reported  as  to  this  particular  point  in  3d  Salkeld,  224. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — Third  Salkeld  is  a  very  questionable  autho- 
rity; it  is  not  like  the  first  and  second  volumes  of  those  reports. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  said  he  was  aware  of  this,  and  he  would  not  have 
quoted  it  had  it  differed  from  the  report  in  Lord  Raymond;  but  it 
was  consistent  with  it,  and  only  carried  the  statement  a  little  further. 
In  Lord  Raymond  it  appeared  that  the  libel  was  on  "certain  ladies  of 
London,"  which  was  removed  by  certiorari,  because  the  Recorder 
stated  that  he  thought  himself  affected  by  it,  and  in  Salkeld  it  was  laid 
down  that  "  where  a  writing  inveighs  against  mankind  in  general,  or 
against  a  particular  order  of  men — as  for  instance  men  of  the  gown — 
it  is  no  libel;  but  it  must  descend  to  particulars  and  individuals  to 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  201 

make  it  a  libel."  In  Lord  Raymond  it  appeared  that  more  specific 
averments  to  point  out  the  individuals  designed  were  necessary,  and 
probably  these  were  supplied. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — Yes:  because  you  cannot  say  a  writing  is 
false  and  scandalous  unless  you  know  to  whom  it  applies. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  replied  that  this  was  exactly  his  argument.  He 
then  came  to  the  "King  v.  Osborne,"  which  had  been  cited  by  Mr. 
Swanston,  a  reporter  to  whose  industry  and  research  the  profession 
were  greatly  indebted,  and  who  had  searched  the  MSS.  in  Lincoln's 
Inn  Library  for  his  materials,  in  the  notes  to  the  case  for  Jhe  Bedford 
charity,  which  was  argued  in  Chancery  in  ISIS,  and  where  the  legal 
relation  of  the  Jews  came  chiefly  in  question.  This  was  a  libel 
charging  that  certain  Jews  who  had  lately  arrived  from  Portugal  and 
lived  near  Broad-street,  had  murdered  a  woman  and  her  child,  incon- 
sequence of  which  numbers  of  persons  were  assaulted,  and  terrible 
riots  were  excited.  It  was  one  of  those  charges  on  bodies  of  men  of 
systematic  murder  which  were  frequently  made  in  dark  times,  to 
inflame  the  passions  of  their  bigoted  neighbors,  and  which  called  im- 
periously for  the  interference  of  courts  of  justice.  In  that  case  the 
judge  seemed  to  consider  the  Information  as  improper  for  a  libel;  but 
regarded  it  as  good  for  a  great  misdemeanor,  which  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  repress.  He  had  now  finished  his  argument  in 
arrest  of  judgment,  and  hoped  that  he  had  shown  enough  to  induce 
the  court  to  grant  a  rule  to  show  cause. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  intimated  that  it  would  be  more  conve- 
nient to  hear  the  whole  case  now. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  said  he  would  proceed  very  shortly  to  state  his 
grounds  for  a  new  trial;  and  he  thought,  that  even  if  the  court  should 
not  see  in  the  variance  between  the  Information  and  the  verdict,  suffi- 
cient reason  for  arresting  the  judgment,  they  would  suffer  the  argu- 
ment strongly  to  incline  them  to  a  new  trial.  If  they  saw  that  they 
had  granted  the  Information  for  one  offence,  and  the  defendant  had 
been  found  guilty  of  another — if  he  had  actually  been  acquitted  of 
that  which  was  urged  before  them,  and  convicted  on  a  ground  hardly, 
if  at  all,  in  the  contemplation  of  either  side — they  would  feel  disposed 
to  submit  the  case  to  another  jury.  The  defendant  was  placed  in  a 
most  unfortunate  situation  by  the  course  of  proceedings;  for  had  the 
rule  been  moved  for  on  the  ground  upon  which  he  was  found  guilty 
— had  it  been  specifically  applied  for  solely  on  behalf  of  the  Durham 
Clergy,  the  court  would  never  have  waived  the  salutary  practice  of 
compelling  each  prosecutor  to  show,  by  his  oath,  that  he  came  into 
court  with  clean  hands.  Then  the  defendant  would  have  had  the 
opportunity  of  showing  the  offences  of  which  each  individual  had 
been  guilty,  and  of  proving  by  affidavit  the  truth  of  every  tittle  of  his 
charges.  At  the  trial,  the  counsel  for  Mr.  Williams  were  entirely 
misled  by  the  notice  of  the  record,  and  by  the  speech  of  the  prosecu- 
tor's counsel.  The  case  (as  the  learned  judge  might  testify)  proceeded 
entirely  on  the  question  whether  the  publication  was  a  libel  on  the 
Church  of  England?  and  to  this  point  all  his  (Mr.  Brougham's)  rea- 


202  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OP  DURHAM. 

soning  was  directed.  Had  he  supposed  that  his  client  was  called  on 
to  answer  for  a  libel  on  the  Durham  Clergy,  he  would  not  have  ex- 
pended all  his  strength  in  showing  that  it  was  not  a  libel  on  the  Estab- 
lished Church.  He  should  not  have  made  quotation  after  quotation 
from  the  works  of  pious  men  to  show  how  that  church  had  been  cha- 
racterised; but  he  should  have  bent  all  his  strength  to  show  that  the 
paragraph  contained  no  libel  on  the  clergy  in  and  near  Durham.  On 
that  point  he  had  not  yet  been  heard;  of  that  on  which  he  had  been 
heard  the  defendant  was  acquitted;  of  that  on  which  he  had  not  been 
heard,  he  was  found  guilty.  Had  he  been  duly  apprised  that  this  was 
the  pith  of  the  Information,  and  applied  himself  to  that  point,  the  jury 
might  have  arrived  at  a  different  conclusion.  His  next  ground  for  a 
new  trial  was,  that  the  verdict  was  against  evidence,  because  the  court 
charged  the  defendant  "  with  printing  and  publishing,"  and  the  wit- 
nesses for  the  prosecution  expressly  proved  that  Mr.  Williams  was 
not  the  printer. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  asked  if  the  newspaper  did  not  purport 
to  be  printed  by  Mr.  Williams? 

MR.  SCARLETT  said  he  had  not  the  particular  paper  proved;  but  he 
had  another  paper  which  purported  to  be  printed  and  published  by 
and  for  the  defendant. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  observed,  that  at  all  events,  the  objection 
might  be  obviated  by  applying  to  the  learned  judge,  for  leave  to 
amend  the  verdict  by  entering  it  on  another  count  for  publishing  only. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  said,  he  did  not  rely  on  this  point,  though  he 
thought  it  right  to  mention  it.  His  next  ground  was  the  misdirection 
of  the  learned  judge.  And  first,  Mr.  Baron  Wood  in  his  charge  told 
the  jury,  "The  Court  of  King's  Bench  have  been  of  opinion  that  this 
is  a  libef,  and  a  fit  subject  for  prosecution."  Now  the  first  part  of 
this  direction  was  incorrect;  The  court  had  not  given  opinion  that  it 
was  a  libel,  but  had  merely  given  opinion  that  it  was  a  fit  subject  for 
a  jury  to  consider  whether  it  was  or  was  not  a  libel.  But  if  the  jury 
supposed  that  the  case  was  merely  sent  to  them  to  execute  the  opinion 
of  the  court — 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — He  did  not  tell  them  that,  I  suppose? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — No;  but  they  might  infer  it. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — Did  he  not  tell  them  what  his  own  opinion 
was? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Yes;  and  that  is  another  ground  for  a  new  trial. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Then  almost  every  judge  who  has 
tried  a  case  of  libel  since  the  Act  passed  has  been  in  error;  for  it  has 
been  the  uniform  practice  for  the  judge  to  state  his  opinion,  leaving 
the  jury  to  exercise  their  own  judgment. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Undoubtedly;  but  he  ought  not  to  state  it  as  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  who  have  only  said  that  it  is  a  fit  subject  for 
inquiry. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BEST. — Is  it  more  than  saying  "the  Grand  Jury  have 
found  a  bill?" 

MR.  BROUGHAM  submitted  that  it  was  very  different;  it  was  almost 


LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM.  203 

overwhelming  the  minds  of  the  jury,  to  toll  them  in  effect  that  if  they 
found  the  publication  not  a  libel,  they  differed  from  the  highest  crimi- 
nal court  in  the  kingdom.  His  lordship  also  said,  "I  am  required  by 
law  to  give  you  my  opinion."  Here  again  he  was  incorrect;  he  was 
not  required,  but  only  authorised  to  give  his  opinion,  as  in  other  cases; 
and  Lord  Ellenborongh  once,  in  a  similar  case,  having  inadvertently 
used  the  word  "  required,"  corrected  himself,  and  substituted  "  not 
required,  but  it  is  expected  of  me." 

Mu.  JUSTICE  BAYLEY. — Do  you  really  think  you  can  prevail  on 
the  court  to  grant  you  a  new  trial,  because  a  judge  has  used  the 
word  "  required"  instead  of  "authorised?"  lie  does  not  say,  I  pre- 
sume, that  he  is  dissatisfied  with  having  said  so? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — No;  the  report  is  silent  on  that  subject;  he  says 
nothing  either  way.  The  learned  judge  also  broadly  stated — "  Every 
publication  tending  to  bring  an  establishment  of  this  country  into 
hatred  or  contempt  is  a  libel."  This  was  much  too  wide;  it  might  be 
in  the  highest  degree  praiseworthy  to  bring  an  establishment  into  hatred 
and  contempt — to  show  that  its  abuses  must  be  corrected,  or  even  that 
it  must  be  done  away;  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  such  attempt 
would  depend  on  the  manner  in  which  it  was  pursued.  There  were 
many  excellent  men  who  had  exerted  all  their  powers  to  abolish  some 
of  our  establishments;  and  who  had  passed  lives  of  honorable  toil  for 
this  purpose  without  reproach.  That  which  at  one  time  was  useful, 
might  become  noxious  at  another:  and  was  it  not  then  to  be  brought 
into  hatred  and  contempt  in  order  to  its  removal?  The  Smallpox 
Hospital,  for  example,  was  of  the  highest  utility  when  it  was  founded; 
but  after  the  vaccine  inoculation  was  discovered,  it  became  pernicious; 
and  Lord  Ellenborough  intimated  that  it  might  be  prosecuted  as  a 
pest-house,  unless  its  baneful  effects  were  prevented;  yet  here  was  an 
establishment,  chartered  by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  at  one  period 
among  the  noblest  of  our  charities.  There  were  other  establishments 
which  it  might  be  the  duty  of  all  good  men  to  expose.  For  instance, 
the  office  of  third  Secretary  of  State.  Was  it  a  crime  to  show  that 
this  establishment  was  useless — to  cover  it  with  ridicule — to  show 
that  it  was  despicable  and  abominable  in  the  existing  state  of  the 
country? 

The  LOUD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  this  may 
be  done  by  publication.  There  is  a  place  where  such  arguments  may 
be  used  with  freedom.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  say  that  an  argu- 
mentative discussion  of  the  establishment  designed  to  show  its  inutilily 
would  be  a  libel. 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — In  that  I  entirely  agree;  the  whole  distinction 
lies  in  the  manner,  and  this  distinction  the  learned  judge  never  sub- 
mitted to  the  jury. 

MR.  JUSTICE  BEST. — Yes;  because  he  says  any  publication  tending 
to  bring  an  establishment  into  "  contempt,"  that  cannot  be  by  fair 
discussion. 

Mu.  BROUGHAM. — 0  yes,  my  lord.  To  bring  that  which  is  per- 
nicious into  contempt  is  the  object  of  all  discussion,  and  even  ridicule 


204  LIBEL  ON  THE  CLERGY  OF  DURHAM. 

is  often  a  fair  weapon.  I  am  sure  we  should  not  be  now  sitting 
under  a  reformed  church — that  "  United  Church"  of  which  the  Infor- 
mation speaks  would  never  have  existed — but  for  the  use  of  this 
weapon  against  popery.  These  (continued  Mr.  Brougham)  were 
his  grounds  for  asking  a  new  trial,  in  case  the  judgment  should  not 
be  arrested;  but  he  again  submitted,  on  the  two  points  which  he  first 
brought  to  the  consideration  of  the  court,  that  the  record  was  so 
inconsistent  with  the  finding,  and  so  imperfect  in  itself,  that  no  judg- 
ment could  be  founded  upon  it. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — You  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the 
learned  Judge  did  not  leave  the  questions  at  last  to  the  jury? 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — Certainly  not,  my  lord. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  consulted  with  the  other  judges  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  then  said,  "  You  may  take  a  Rule  to  show  cause 
why  the  judgment  should  not  be  arrested;  but  we  all  think  that  you 
have  laid  no  ground  before  us  for  a  new  trial.  The  points  in  arrest 
of  judgment  are  those  on  which  you  yourself  chiefly  rested." 

MR.  BROUGHAM. — I  relied  on  them  chiefly,  without  doubt. 

MR.  SCARLETT. — My  learned  friend  would  rather  have  the  verdict 
he  has  at  present,  than  any  that  a  new  trial  would  give  him. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE. — Will  you  consent  to  a  new  trial,  then, 
Mr.  Scarlett? 

MR.  SCARLETT  said,  that  as  the  defendant  was  in  town,  it  would 
be  desirable  to  know  whether  the  case  could  come  on  this  term. 

The  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  replied,  that  it  was  quite  impossible  that 
it  could  come  on  during  the  present  term. 

MR.  BROUGHAM  took  his  Rule  to  show  cause  why  the  judgment 
should  not  be  arrested. 


DISSERTATION 


LAW   OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 


THE  unsatisfactory  state  of  our  Libel  Law  in  almost  every  par- 
ticular, is  brought  very  strongly  into  view  by  the  proceedings  in  the 
Durham  case;  and  it  may  not  be  unprofitable  to  the  great  cause  of 
Law  Reform,  and  above  all,  to  the  important  interests  of  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  if  we  take  a  short  view  of  the  objects  towards  which 
that  law  ought  to  be  directed — the  degree  and  the  direction  in  which 
it  falls  short  of  them — and  the  remedies  by  which  it  might  be  better 
enabled  to  attain  them. 

1.  The  true  and  legitimate  objects  of  the  Law  of  Libel  are,  to 
secure  the  public  peace  against  inflammatory  and  seditious  publica- 
tions, and  to  protect  private  character  from  slander;  without  so  far 
hampering  the  discussion  of  men's  measures  and  of  their  public  cha- 
racters as  to  injure  the  great  interests  of  liberty  and  good  government, 
or  so  far  removing  the  salutary  control  of  public  opinion  from  noto- 
rious private   vices,  as   to  bestow   impunity   upon    ostentatious   im- 
morality.    These  objects  never  can  be  accomplished  as  regards  public 
libels  unless  there  are  certain  protections  thrown  round  those  who 
discuss  public  questions  and  public  characters,  and  certain  difficulties 
thrown   in  the  way  of  State  prosecutions.     Nor  can  it  be  accom- 
plished as  regards  private  slander,  unless  the  defence  of  the   injured 
character  is  made  so  easy,  safe,  and  effectual,  that  the  legal  proceed- 
ing shall  not  be  either  loaded   with  ruinous  expense,  nor  shall  imply 
a  consciousness  of  guilt,  nor  shall  aggravate  rather  than  remove  the 
mischief  done. 

2.  In  all  these  particulars,  however,  the  law  of  this  country  is  sin- 
gularly defective.     The  charge   brought  by  the    writer  against  the 
government,  or  against  the  public  character  of  any  functionary  of 
the  state,  may  be  ever  so  true,  and  ever  so  fit  or  even  necessary  to  be 
stated  plainly,  strongly,  and  even  vehemently,  and  yet  the  statement 
may  be   as  severely  punished  as  if  it  were  from  beginning    to  end 
false.     A   minister   may  have  taken  a  bribe  to   betray  his  trust;  he 
may,  to  gratify  his  private  revenge,  have  exposed  a  worthy  colleague 
to  destruction;  he  may,  to  get  rid  of  a  rival  in  the  cabinet,  or  in  the  se- 
nate, or  in  the  boudoir,  have  prostituted  the  patronage  of  his  office  and 

VOL.  i. — 18 


206  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 

given  an  embassy  or  a  foreign  command  to  the  least  worthy  candidate; 
he  may  have  bartered  crown  patronage  for  parliamentary  support  with- 
out decency  and  without  shame.  The  statement  of  this,  with  or 
without  comment,  is  as  severely  punishable  by  our  law,  as  if  the 
whole  had  been  the  fabrication  of  a  wicked  and  spiteful  imagination. 
Upon  the  trial,  no  evidence  can  be  given  of  the  truth;  in  addressing 
the  jury,  the  judge  must  declare  that  true  or  false  the  publication  is 
alike  criminal;  even  after  the  conviction,  nothing  respecting  the  truth 
can  be  urged  in  mitigation  of  punishment,  as  if  the  additional  cir- 
cumstance of  having  falsely  charged  those  offences  made  the  crime 
of  publishing  the  charge  no  blacker.  Again,  the  whole  costs  of  the 
defence  fall  upon  the  party  although  he  is  acquitted,  and  ought  never 
to  have  been  tried.  The  government  has  the  power  of  putting  any 
writer  or  printer  on  his  trial  without  a  tittle  of  evidence  against  him, 
even  without  his  ever  having  published  any  thing  at  all;  and  he  may 
be  prosecuted  over  and  over  again  until  the  expense  of  his  defence 
have  worked  his  entire  ruin.  Mr.  Perry  and  Mr.  Lambert  were 
punished  for  saying  that  George  Ill's  successor,  coming  after  his 
reign,  would  have  a  fine  opportunity  of  gaining  popularity  by  the 
contrast  which  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  display  wuh  the  policy  of 
the  last  half  century.  To  call  this  libellous  was  absurd  enough;  but 
if  neither  Mr.  Perry  had  been  the  proprietor,  nor  Mr.  Lambert  the 
publisher  of  the  Morning  Chronicle,  or  indeed  of  any  paper  at  all, 
they  would  have  equally  been  exposed  to  prosecution,  and  equally 
had  to  pay  100/.  or  ISO/,  in  defending  themselves.  Further,  a  prose- 
cution may  be  instituted  against  a  publication  which  no  twelve 
tradesmen,  or  farmers,  or  yeomen,  in  any  district  can  be  found  to 
pronounce  libellous;  and  the  crown  may  have  a  jury  of  a  higher 
rank  in  society,  whose  feelings  are  more  tender  on  the  subject,  and 
whose  leanings  are  all  to  the  side  of  power,  and  all  against  the  free 
discussion  of  the  press. 

As  regards  private  libels,  the  case  is  fully  worse.  The  party  slan- 
dered may  bring  an  action,  but  if  the  words  are  true,  he  can  recover 
no  damages,  and  yet  their  truth  may  be  no  defence.  As,  for  example, 
if  a  woman  early  in  life  had  made  a  slip,  of  which  repenting  she  had 
for  forty  years  after  led  a  blameless  life,  and  become  the  respected 
mother  of  a  family — the  truth  here  is  rather  an  aggravation  than  an 
extenuation  of  the  offence  of  disclosing  this  early  accident  for  the  sake 
of  revenge,  possibly  because  her  virtue  had  now  held  out  against  the 
attempts  of  some  seducer;  yet  this  circumstance  of  the  truth  is  a  com- 
plete bar  to  the  action.  Then,  in  prosecuting,  there  is  the  difficulty 
of  an  opposite  kind;  for  here  the  truth  is  wholly  immaterial,  and 
therefore  whoever  prosecutes,  at  least  by  indictment,  appears  to  admit 
the  truth  of  the  charge  in  the  libel.  If  the  prosecution  is  by  criminal 
information,  the  prosecutor's  oath  must  deny  the  charge — but  the  de- 
fendant can  give  no  evidence  of  the  truth  at  the  trial,  however  easily 
he  could  prove  it,  and  in  showing  cause  against  the  rule  he  can  obtain 
none  but  voluntary  affidavits:  so  that  this  proceeding  is  a  very  imper- 
fect vindication  of  character;  as  all  the  charges  may  be  true  and  capa- 


DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER.  207 

ble  of  proof,  and  yet  the  evidence  is  excluded.  There  remains,  in- 
deed, the  action  for  damages.  But  whoever  lias  been  engaged  in  any 
such  proceedings,  either  as  a  party  bringing  the  suit,  or  as  advising 
and  managing  it,  is  well  aware  how  unsatisfactory  a  remedy  it  affords. 
There  is  nothing  upon  which  greater  mistakes  are  committed;  for  men 
are  wont  to  say  that  it  effectually  vindicates  the  plaintiff's  reputation 
by  defying  the  calumniator  to  prove  his  charge.  But  it  in  truth  only 
shows  that  the  charge  cannot  be  proved,  while  it  may  yet  be  quite 
true,  though  the  evidence  of  it  rests  with  the  guilty  party,  or  between 
the  guilty  parties  if  there  be  more  than  one.  Suppose,  for  instance, 
an  imputation,  one  of  the  most  frequent  of  all,  against  a  female  of 
having  violated  her  chastity,  or  against  a  man  of  having  seduced  a 
female;  the  charge  may  be  quite  true,  and  yet  no  one  but  the  parties 
may  be  able  to  prove  it;  nay,  there  may  be  abundance  of  proof,  but 
they  only  may  know  flow  to  get  at  it;  or  again,  the  witnesses  may 
be  so  entirely  under  their  control,  that  the  defendant  having  no  means 
of  previously  examining  them,  never  could  bring  them  into  court  in 
the  dark  as  to  their  testimony,  and  consequently  never  could  be  advised 
in  the  dark  to  plead  a  justification.  The  like  may  be  said  of  almost 
all  acts  of  official  delinquency,  which  can  only  be  known  in  their 
details  to  the  actors  and  their  accomplices  or  dependants.  How  could 
any  defendant,  after  denouncing  these  upon  strong  moral  evidence,  or 
at  least  on  very  grave  suspicion,  venture  to  plead  any  thing  like  a  jus- 
tification, when  he  must  be  wholly  unable  to  marshal  his  evidence,  or 
even  to  ascertain  the  particulars  of  the  transaction?  Then  suppose 
individual  parties  charged  in  a  libel  with  the  private  delinquency,  or 
men  in  office  with  the  malversation,  their  bringing  an  action  really 
proves  nothing  as  to  their  innocence — it  only  proves  that  the  offence 
may  have  been  committed,  or  it  may  not;  but  that  the  evidence  of  it 
is  inaccessible,  lying  within  the  breast  of  the  guilty  parties,  or  their 
accomplices,  or  their  dependants.  Now  it  is  of  the  nature  of  all  de- 
linquency, public  or  private,  to  shun  the  light;  consequently,  there  are 
very  few  things  of  which  any  one  can  be  accused,  that  do  not  come 
within  the  description  of  the  cases  from  which  the  examples  now 
given  to  illustrate  the  argument  have  been  chosen.  Hence  it  is  that 
the  plea  of  justification  is  so  seldom  pleaded;  but  hence  it  also  is,  as 
professional  men  know,  men  who  do  not  merely  look  to  the  theory  of 
our  jurisprudence,  but  are  well  conversant  in  the  practice  of  the  law, 
that  the  remedy  for  injuries  to  reputation,  by  way  of  action,  is  so  un- 
satisfactory, as  to  be  rarely  recommended  to  those  who  have  suffered 
the  injury.  Even  in  the  intercourse  of  common  life,  there  are  many 
things,  many  breaches  of  decorum  and  even  of  morality,  \vhi<-li  no 
one  who  lives  in  society  has  the  least  doubt  of,  atid  which  neverthe- 
less every  one  feels  to  be  incapable  of  proof.  Every  now  and  then 
some  one  charged,  and  known  to  be  most  justly  charged,  with  those 
offences,  has  the  courage  to  bring  an  action,  which  all  the  world 
knows  can  have  but  one  result.  The  defendant  cannot  justify;  the 
verdict  is  a  matter  of  course,  the  inference  drawn  from  it  universally 
by  those  who  know  nothing  of  the  parties  or  the  matter,  and  whoso 


208  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 

good  opinion  is  not  worth  having,  is,  that  the  charge  is  groundless, 
and  has  been  courageously  met;  the  inference  equally  universally 
drawn  by  all  who  know  the  parties,  all  whose  opinion  forms  their 
reputation,  is,  that  they  are  guilty,  and  have  not  shown  their  inno- 
cence, hut  displayed  a  safe  and  easy  effrontery  by  the  proceedings. 

To  these  considerations,  which  tend  so  fully  to  discredit  the  remedy 
by  action,  is  to  be  added  this  other — that  the  defendant  n>ay  plead  a 
justification,  which  does  not  cover  the  whole  matter  in  the  libel  or  in 
the  declaration,  or  he  may  plead  one  which  he  can  only  partially 
prove.  Then  the  injured,  that  is  the  slandered  party,  is  worse  off 
than  ever;  for  the  part  not  justified  or  not  proved  may  be  the  worst 
of  the  whole,  and  it  may  be  utterly  false,  and  yet,  be  the  event  of  the 
trial  what  it  may,  and  the  verdict  ever  so  secure,  the  party  is  sure  to 
be  believed  guilty  of  the  whole  matter. 

Nay,  even  if  no  mischance  befalls  him  in  the  suit,  and  he  recovers 
damages,  every  one  knows  how  very  rarely  a  jury  estimates  the 
injury  to  reputation  and  to  feelings  otherwise  than  by  the  most  cold 
and  imperfect  rules — with  what  a  scanty  measure  the  damages  are 
stingily  meted  out.  In  different  places  the  standard  varies;  in  the 
provinces,  where,  however,  the  slander  has  always  a  greater  effect, 
the  damages  awarded,  even  in  very  grave  cases,  are  ridiculously 
small;  even  in  London  they  are  seldom  considerable,  unless  some 
unexpected  accident  occurs  to  inflame  them.  Now,  however  fre- 
quent the  topic  may  be,  that  the  action  is  not  brought  for  gain,  and  that 
the  damages  are  an  object  of  contempt  with  the  plaintiff,  yet  every 
one  knows  that  they  are  the  very  reverse  of  being  undervalued,  and 
most  justly;  for  whatever  the  plaintiff's  counsel  may  say,  he  never 
fails  to  urge  the  amount  of  damages  as  not  merely  the  measure  of  his 
client's  injury,  but  the  value  of  his  reputation;  and  if  a  few  pounds 
or  shillings  only  be  given,  the  defendant  leaves  the  court  with  the 
cry,  in  which  all  the  public  joins,  that  his  adversary's  character  is 
worth  no  more;  nay,  for  years  the  slandered  party  will  hear  the  value 
at  which  a  jury  has  assessed  his  character,  quoted  maliciously  against 
him,  as  often  as  he  or  his  connections  happen  to  be  involved  in  any 
personal  altercation. 

So  numerous  and  so  serious  being  the  difficulties  of  an  action,  that 
the  remedy  by  information  is  very  generally  preferred;  for  it  is  prompt, 
being  accessible  immediately,  inasmuch  as  the  affidavit  by  which  the 
slandered  party  denies  the  truth  of  the  imputation  cast  on  him,  is  the 
very  first  step  of  the  proceeding;  and  that  affidavit,  to  which  he  may 
add  the  oaths  of  others,  in  case  the  matter  lies  within  their  knowledge 
as  well  as  his  own,  affords  a  certain  degree  of  proof  that  the  accusa- 
tions are  unfounded.  When  this,  however,  is  said,  all  is  said  that 
can  be  urged  in  favor  of  this  proceeding;  for  the  witnesses  swear 
without  any  cross-examination;  they  swear  unseen  by  the  court;  and 
they  may  select  only  those  things  which  they  can  safely  deny,  leaving 
much  untouched  and  more  unexplained.  The  defence  of  an  action 
is,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  great  majority  of  instances,  a  mere  name; 
nevertheless,  in  some  cases  the  proof  may  be  forthcoming,  if  the  de- 


DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER.  209 

fendant  can  be  aided  by  the  process  of  the  court  to  compel  witnesses; 
and  in  others,  witnesses  who  refuse  to  volunteer  their  testimony  by 
swearing  an  affidavit,  which  every  one  knows  they  cannot  be  compelled 
to  make,  would  have  no  objection  to  communicate  privately  with  the 
party,  so  that  he  might  safely  examine  them,  when  he  seemed  to 
force  them  into  the  witness-box  by  a  subpoena.  It  follows  that  no 
vindication  of  character  can  be  competent  which  does  not  unite  the 
merits  of  the  two  proceedings,  by  criminal  information  and  by  action 
— enabling  the  party,  and  his  accomplices  or  dependants  to  swear; 
defying  the  defendant  to  the  proof;  and  above  all,  exposing  the  plain- 
tiff's witnesses,  if  he  have  any,  to  cross-examination. 

An  additional  reason  exists  for  preferring  the  criminal  proceeding, 
or  at  least  for  making  punishment  a  part  of  the  result.  If  damages 
only  are  the  object,  the  slanderer  may  conceal  himself,  and  pay  some 
tool,  some  man  of  straw,  whom  he  sets  up  to  publish  his  calumnies, 
and  engages  to  save  harmless  from  all  costs  and  charges.  It  is 
always  Tar  more  difficult  to  find  a  person  who  will  go  to  prison  for 
his  employer.  Now,  one  great  object  of  the  Libel  Law  should  be  to 
bring  forward  the  real  offender;  this  is  indeed  distinctly  included  in 
and  implied  by  the  statement  made  in  the  outset  of  this  discourse,  as 
to  the  proper  aim  and  end  of  that  law. 

The  present  frame  of  our  jurisprudence  in  this  particular  is  singu- 
larly defective.  A  slanderer  may  invent  a  false  tale  respecting  some 
transaction  to  some  part  of  which  he  was  a  party  or  a  witness,  and 
may  get  a  publisher  to  disseminate  it  widely.  The  action  being 
brought  against  the  latter,  the  publisher,  he  who  knows  nothing  at 
all  of  the  matter,  is  nowise  injured  by  being  an  incompetent  witness; 
but  he  produces  the  real  party,  the  writer  of  the  lie,  to  swear  for  him; 
and  it  is  hardly  possible  to  defeat  this  conspiracy — the  month  of  the 
other  party,  the  plaintiff,  who  has  been  slandered,  being  of  course 
closed.  The  two  parlies  thus  contend  upon  most  unfair  terms;  and 
the  right  of  proving  the  truth  being  unrestricted,  the  propagator  of 
the  falsehood  has  the  same  privilege  of  pleading  a  justification  with 
the  inventor  of  it;  the  real  party  to  the  suit  appears,  not  as  defendant, 
but  as  witness;  and  of  the  two  formal  parties,  neither  of  whom  can  be 
heard,  one  only  is  real,  and  he  has  the  greatest  interest  in  being  heard, 
whilst  the  other  is  wholly  indifferent  whether  he  be  heard  or  not, 
having  nothing  to  communicate. 

There  remains  one  great  defect  in  our  Libel  Law,  which,  though 
not  confined  to  this  branch  of  criminal  jurisprudence,  is  nevertheless 
of  more  serious  injury  here  than  elsewhere — that  strange  anomaly 
by  which  the  jurisprudence  of  England  is  distinguished,  and  very 
discreditably,  from  that  of  every  other  country — the  leaving  it  to 
private  individuals  to  institute  prosecutions  for  the  punishment  of 
crimes.  Whether  any  offence,  however  grave,  shall  be  severely 
punished  or  altogether  escape  with  impunity,  depends  upon  the  feel- 
ings, or  the  caprice,  or  the  indolence,  or  the  activity,  or  the  disinte- 
restedness, or  the  sordid  feelings,  of  unknown  and  irresponsible  indi- 
viduals. The  contrast  is  astonishing  between  the  severity  of  the 

18* 


210  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OP  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 

penalties  denounced  against  offences,  and  the  utter  relaxation  of  the 
law  for  enforcing  these  penal  sanctions.  After  providing  by  a  series 
of  the  most  rigorous  enactments  the  most  sanguinary  punishments, 
the  sword  of  justice  drops  from  the  lawyer's  hand,  and  not  a  single 
precaution  is  taken  to  prevent  the  criminal's  escape  and  secure  the 
enforcement  of  any  one  of  those  provisions.  Within  a  few  months 
of  each  other,  two  capital  crimes  were  committed — a  murder  in  the 
face  of  day,  (which  might  possibly  have  been  found  to  be  only  an 
aggravated  manslaughter,)  by  one  patrician  upon  another — and  an 
extensive  forgery  by  a  wealthy  tradesman.  In  both  cases  parties 
were  bound  over  to  prosecute,  as  it  is  most  inaccurately  called,  in 
reality  to  give  evidence  as  witnesses:  in  both  they  forfeited  their 
recognisances;  and  in  both  the  culprits  escaped. 

The  want  of  a  public  prosecutor  is  peculiarly  felt  in  prosecutions 
for  libel.  The  publication  most  offensive  to  decorum,  most  injurious 
to  the  peace  of  society,  will  never  be  visited  with  punishment,  as  long 
as  it  is  left  with  private  parties  to  institute  criminal  proceedings. 
Women  of  delicate  feelings,  men  of  weak  nerves,  persons  who  because 
of  their  invincible  repugnance  to  adopt  proceedings  of  a  public  kind 
for  the  punishment  of  those  that  have  violated  the  privacy  of  domes- 
tic life,  are  the  more  fit  objects  for  the  law's  protection,  and  the  less 
likely  to  have  committed  the  things  laid  to  their  charge,  are  surely  of 
all  others  the  most  unfit  to  be  entrusted  with  the  functions  of  public 
accuser,  especially  in  cases  where  their  own  admitted  weaknesses  are 
in  question,  or  they  are  charged  with  immoralities  of  which  they  are 
quite  incapable.  The  impunity  of  the  slanderous  press  is  effectually 
secured  by  this  cardinal  defect  in  our  system  of  criminal  jurisprudence 
— although  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the  exercise  of  a  public  prosecu- 
tor's functions,  in  cases  of  libel  on  private  character,  would  be  attend- 
ed in  many  cases  with  extreme  difficulty,  and  that  it  would  always 
require  a  very  nice  and  delicate  hand  to  discharge  his  duties. 

3.  A  careful  consideration  of  the  true  objects  of  a  good  Libel  law, 
and  of  the  defects  which  prevail  in  our  o>\  n,  brings  us  easily  to  the 
remaining  and  most  important  head  of  discourse — the  remedy  required. 
And  first  of  all  we  m\y  very  briefly  dispose  of  some  projects  often 
propounded  by  persons  who  have  had  litile  practical  acquaintance 
with  the  subject,  and  are  not  even  much  conversant  with  the  discus- 
sion of  it. 

The  necessity  of  defining  what  a  libel  is,  has  often  been  urged;  but 
the  impossibility  of  framing  any  such  definition  is  at  once  perceived 
when  the  attempt  is  made;  and  it  exists  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
thing.  No  definition  of  cheating,  of  cruelty,  of  conspiracy,  can  ever 
be  given  in  any  particularity  of  detail;  and  to  contrive  one  which 
should  meet  all  cases  of  libel  would  be  absolutely  impossible.  The 
ill  success  which  has  attended  the  only  limitation  fixed,  the  only  cri- 
terion established  of  libel  or  no  libel — has  not  at  all  tended  to  encou- 
rage any  reflecting  or  experienced  person  in  the  pursuit  of  definitions. 
Slander  is  only  actionable  if  it  imputes  an  indictable  offence.  What 
is  the  consequence  of  a  line  thus  drawn,  and  drawn  to  all  appearance, 


DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER.  211 

upon  a  sufficiently  plain  and  precise  principle — viz.  on  the  only  prin- 
ciple that  has  ever  been  propounded  in  discussing  the  question  of  defi- 
nitions? The  consequence  has  been  a  complete  failure;  the  line  ex- 
cludes what  it  should  include,  and  vice  versd;  the  definition  has  every 
fault  that  a  definition  can  have;  words  are  actionable  which  ought 
not  to  be  so,  as,  "  He  committed  an  assault" — while  no  action  lies 
for  words  which  impute  the  most  serious  offences,  as,  "  He  committed 
incest  and  adultery" — or  which  tend  to  dishonor — as,  "  He  is  a  liar, 
a  coward,  and  a  scoundrel." 

Another  proposal  is  to  make  the  truth  in  every  case  a  defence.  But 
independent  of  the  objection  already  stated  to  this  rule  in  the  case  of 
private  libels,  even  public  libels  may  be  so  conceived  as  to  be  quite 
true  in  all  their  statements  of  fact,  and  yet  be  most  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  safety  of  the  community.  A  perfectly  well-grounded 
charge  may  be  brought  against  the  government  at  a  moment  of  public 
excitement,  and  accompanied  with  furious  commentary  tending  to 
produce  revolt.  The  passions  of  the  multitude  may  be  roused  at  a 
moment  of  public  danger,  from  famine  or  invasion,  by  statements 
wholly  consistent  with  the  truth — the  making  of  which  can  do  nothing 
but  harm — the  suppression  of  whirh  is  the  duty  of  every  good  citizen. 
The  troops  may  be  appealed  to  by  details  quite  true,  yet  brought  for- 
ward at  such  a  moment,  and  urged  with  such  invective,  as  may  excite 
a  dangerous  mutiny.  The  slaves  in  a  colony  may  be  excited  to  insur- 
rection by  a  statement  much  under  the  truth,  of  their  grievances,  and 
of  the  crimes  by  which  they  were  carried  into  slavery  and  have  been 
kept  in  it — of  their  natural  and  imprescriptible  right  to  freedom — ac- 
companied, for  instance,  with  the  recital  of  Dr.  Johnson's  celebrated 
toast,  given  at  Oxford,  at  the  table  of  the  head  of  a  house  there — ua 
speedy  insurrection  of  the  negroes  in  Jamaica,  and  success  to  it."  So 
on  the  other  hand,  many  falsehoods  may  be  published,  and  even  pub- 
lished with  a  malicious  intention,  and  yet  their  tendency  being  inno- 
cuous, this  will  not  constitute  a  libel.  The  mere  truth  or  falsehood, 
then,  of  any  matter  published,  is  not  a  criterion  of  the  innocence  or 
guilt  of  the  publication. 

There  are  oilier  reformers  of  the  Libel  law  who  have  considered 
the  abolition  of  the  ex  ojfficio  power  to  prosecute,  as  a  remedy  for  all 
defects.  That  it  would  operate  a  very  imperfect  relief,  however,  and 
would  leave  much  of  the  mischief  untouched  even  as  regards  public 
libels,  must  be  admitted.  But  we  may  go  a  great  deal  further,  and 
question  its  being  any  advantage  at  all.  That  it  should  be  placed 
under  wholesome  restriction,  is  very  certain.  But  the  evils  arising 
from  the  want  of  a  public  prosecutor  who  shall  institute  proceedings, 
to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  pre^s  and  check  its  licentiousness,  have 
been  already  shown  under  the  head  of  this  discourse. 

An  attentive  and  dispassionate  review  of  the  subject,  will  show  the 
true  remedies  for  the  existing  defects,  to  be  deduced  from  the  state- 
ments already  made  respecting  the  objects  in  view  and  respecting 
those  defects. 

First,  It  seems  necessary  to  place  the  power  of  filing  ex  ojfflcio  in- 


212  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OP  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 

formations  under  the  control  of  a  grand  jury.  The  law  of  Scotland 
is  in  some  respects  far  better  than  our  own,  as  regards  the  prosecution, 
of  offences.  The  public  prosecutor,  representing  the  Crown,  is  a 
known  and  responsible  officer,  to  whose  hands  is  entrusted  the  impor- 
tant duty  of  commencing  and  conducting  all  criminal  proceedings. 
But  in  case  he  should  pass  over  any  offence  committed,  the  party  in- 
jured, or  in  case  of  murder  or  abduction  the  relations  of  the  party,  are 
allowed  to  prosecute  with  the  public  prosecutor's  concurrence,  (con- 
course,) which  is  understood  to  be  granted  as  of  course.  Instead  of 
this  power  so  confided  to  a  single  person  being  more  liable  to  abuse 
in  the  case  of  political  offences,  it  is  perhaps  less  likely  to  be  abused, 
because  a  grand  jury  has  no  individual  responsibility,  and  may  receive 
any  bill  preferred  by  an  obscure  person,  as  happened  in  the  cele- 
brated case  of  the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph,  where  a  country  attorney  insti- 
tuted proceedings,  and  the  grand  jury  at  once  found  the  bill.  It  is  not 
very  likely  that  the  Lord  Advocate  should  ever  put  a  person  on  his 
trial  for  a  public  libel  or  other  political  offence,  unless  the  feeling 
among  those  classes  from  whom  petty  jurymen  are  taken,  happened 
to  be  favorably  disposed  towards  the  prosecution.  Nevertheless,  the 
additional  control  of  a  grand  jury  would  have  the  effect  of  preventing 
many  vexatious  proceedings,  which  may,  as  the  law  now  stands,  be 
instituted  against  any  obnoxious  person,  both  by  the  exojjicio  powers 
of  the  Attorney-general,  and  by  the  privileges  of  the  Lord  Advocate, 
merely  to  give  annoyance,  and  cause  expense  without  any  regard  to 
the  probability  of  conviction.  In  the  still  more  important  department 
of  libels  against  private  persons,  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  see 
how  important  the  office  of  a  prosecutor  is  for  keeping  the  press  pure. 
It  would,  however,  ba  expedient  to  give  the  person  libelled  some 
share  in  the  conduct  of  the  proceedings,  as  an  intervening  party, 
although  it  might  not  be  fit  to  give  him  a  veto  upon  the  instituting  of 
them. 

Secondly,  In  all  cases  whatever  of  prosecution,  whether  for  public 
or  private  libel,  whether  by  Criminal  Information  or  Indictment,  and 
in  all  actions  brought,  the  defendant  should  have  a  right,  upon  notice, 
to  give  the  truth  in  evidence,  subject  to  the  next  proposition;  but  then 
the  truth  should  only  go  to  the  question  of  intention  and  tendency,  as 
one  element  for  resolving  the  question  whether  or  not  the  defendant  is 
guilty  of  the  matter  laid  to  his  charge,  and  if  guilty,  what  punishment 
he  ought  to  receive,  or  what  damages  he  ought  to  pay,  and  should  in 
no  case  be  of  itself  a  conclusive  defence  by  way  of  justification.  The 
notice  to  be  givon  by  him  of  his  intention  to  tender  such  evidence 
under  the  general  issue,  ought  to  be  special,  with  leave  to  the  prose- 
cutor or  plaintiff  to  require  a  fuller  particular  under  the  authority  of 
a  judge  at  Chambers;  and  the  evidence  tendered  at  the  trial  must  of 
course  be  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  notice. 

Thirdly,  It  being  of  the  utmost  importance  that  anonymous  slander 
should  be  discouraged,  that  the  real  author  should  by  all  means  be 
reached,  arid  that  the  conspiracy  between  the  slanderer  and  the  pub- 
lisher already  adverted  to  should  be  defeated,  the  right  to  give  evidence 


DISSERTATION  ON  THE   LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER.  213 

of  the  truth  of  the  matters  published  should  bo  confined  strictly,  both 
in  civil  and  criminal  cases,  to 'the  real  author;  and  in  order  further  to 
prevent  collusion  and  fraud,  the  mere  statement  or  admission  of  a 
party  that  he  is  the  author  should  be  of  no  avail,  but  before  the 
evidence  is  received,  he  ought  to  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court 
that  he  is  the  real  author.  The  consequences  of  this  arrangement 
would  be,  that  whoever  lent  himself  to  publish  the  libels  of  others, 
must  be  content  to  sud'er  punishment  without  the  chance  of  escape  or 
even  mitigation  from  the  matters  being  undeniably  true;  while  the 
real  author  would  have  every  inducement  to  come  forward,  and 
would  have  all  the  benefit  of  the  truth  to  which  he  is  entitled.  Nor 
can  it  be  said  with  any  correctness,  that  this  restriction  upon  the  mere 
publisher  is  unfavorable  to  the  party  complaining  of  injury  to  his 
character;  for  it  is  no  kind  of  imputation  upon  any  one  who  offers  to 
meet  any  charge  of  his  traducer,  that  he  prosecutes  the  hired  publisher 
without  defying  him  to  prdduce  his  charges,  since  he  gives  him  at 
the  same  time  full  power  to  escape  by  putting  forward  the  true  author 
of  the  slander. 

Fourthly,  It  seems  necessary,  in  order  to  make  a  prosecution  satis- 
factory in  the  case  of  private  libel,  that  the  prosecutor  should  have  a 
right  to  the  fine  which  the  libeller  shall  be  sentenced  to  pay.  This 
will  not  only  provide  for  the  expense  of  the  proceeding,  but  give  the 
same  compensation  which  is  now  obtained  by  an  action,  and  which 
we  have  seen  cannot  always  be  safely  left  with  a  jury. 

Fifthly,  In  order  to  make  the  proceeding  by  Information  as  perfect 
as  it  can  be,  there  seems  to  be  a  necessity  for  exposing  the  witnesses 
who  make  affidavit  to  examination  in  court.  Now,  nothing  can  be 
more  easy  than  to  require  that  in  every  case  of  a  Criminal  Informa- 
tion being  granted,  the  defendant  should  have  the  right  to  call  for  the 
prosecutor's  witnesses — that  is,  for  the  production  of  all  the  persons 
who  joined  wiih  the  prosecutor  in  making  the  affidavits  upon  which 
the  rule  was  obtained,  the  defendant  being  at  the  same  time  com- 
pelled, whether  he  calls  for  the  prosecutor's  witnesses  or  not,  to  pro- 
duce the  persons  who  made  affidavit  against  the  rule.  It  is  evident 
that  if  this  proceeding  were  attended  with  this  production  of  the 
witnesses  on  both  sides,  it  would  become  extremely  satisfactory;  for, 
while  on  the  one  hand,  it  exposes  the  conduct  of  the  party  libelled  to  a 
severe  scrutiny,  it  protects  him  on  the  other  hand  from  all  false  swear- 
ing as  far  as  cross-examination  can  a  fiord  such  security. 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  the  parties  themselves  should  not 
possess  the  right  of  presenting  themselves  as  witnesses,  to  undergo 
cross-examination.  Nor  does  there  seem  to  be  any  good  reason 
against  this  permission,  except  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  general  rules 
of  our  law  of  evidence,  and  that  there  is  no  good  reason  for  confining 
such  an  examination  of  parties  to  the  case  of  libel.  It  is  in  no  re- 
spect contrary  to  the.  principles  on  which  the  law  of  evidenqe  should 
be  grounded ;  and  if  the  examination  were  extended  to  other  cases, 
our  jurisprudence  would  only  be  so  much  lh<:  more  improved. 

Lastly^  The  power  of  having  public  libels  tried  by  a  special  jury, 


214  DISSERTATION  ON  THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL  AND  SLANDER. 

ought  by  all  means  to  be  taken  away.  There  is  no  reason  why  private 
cases  should  not  still  be  triable  by  special  jury,  at  the  option  of  either 
party.  But  there  also  is  no  good  reason  why  libel,  or  indeed  any 
other  misdemeanor  prosecuted  by  the  public,  should  not  be  referred 
to  the  same  tribunal  which  disposes  of  the  lives  and  liberties  of  the 
subject  in  the  case  of  all  the  graver  offences  known  to  the  law. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES, 


AND 


THE    ORDERS    IN    COUNCIL 


INTRODUCTION. 

ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. MR.  STEPHEN'S  CHARACTER. MR.  PERCE- 

VAL'S  DEATH. 

THE  continental  system  of  Napoleon,  the  idea  and  even  the  outline  of  which  he 
took  from  the  policy  of  the  Republic,  and  especially  the  Executive  Directory,  formed 
during  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  that  is,  after  the  termination  of  the  peace  of  Amiens, 
the  favorite  object  of  all  his  attempts.  The  extension  of  his  territorial  possessions, 
and  his  direct  power  by  the  annexation  of  some  provinces  to  France;  the  union  of 
the  kingdom  of  Italy  with  his  imperial  crown;  and  the  foundation  of  dependent 
monarchies  under  members  of  his  family  in  Naples  and  in  Spain;  were  no  doubt 
valued  by  him  as  in  themselves  tending  to  his  own  aggrandisement  and  that  of  his 
adopted  country;  yet  as  long  as  Great  Britain  remained  unsubdued  and  with  re- 
sources little  exhausted  even  by  the  expenses  of  protracted  wars,  he  knew  that 
his  security  was  exceedingly  imperfect,  and  that  a  rallying  point  always  must  re- 
main for  whatever  continental  powers  should  make  an  effort  to  regain  independence. 
The  projects  of  invasion,  if  they  were  ever  seriously  entertained,  he  soon  laid 
aside.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  chief  benefit  he  expected  from  them,  as  far  as 
they  regarded  England,  was  the  shock  which  the  attempt,  however  unsuccessful, 
must  give  to  the  stability  of  a  singularly  artificial  political  and  commercial  sys- 
tem. Nor  could  he  ever  reckon  upon  more  than  a  temporary  success  in  Ireland,  to 
which  the  views  of  the  Directory  had  been  directed  in  vain  while  affairs  rendered 
such  a  plan  far  less  likely  to  fail.  The  unbroken  and  unprecedented  triumph  of  the 
British  navy  rendered  all  attempts  at  colonial  warfare  desperate,  while  the  success 
of  our  cruizers  in  sweeping  the  seas  made  the  combined  maritime  resources  of 
France,  Holland,  and  Spain  alike  ineffectual  to  embarrass  our  commerce  or  to  pro- 
tect their  own.  We  had  neither  territory,  nor  dependencies,  nor  ships,  nor  trade, 
directly  exposed  to  his  power;  and  his  whole  supremacy,  whether  of  direct  power 
or  indirect  influence  in  Europe,  seemed  to  arm  him  witli  no  force  which  could  bo 
pointed  immediately  against,  the 

Toto  pcnitus  divisos  orbc  nritannos. 

Vet  to  injure  us — to  reduce  our  resources — to  cripple  our  trade — to  woakrn  our 
authority  in  the  world — seemed  necessary  for  his  reputation,  and  even  for  his  own 
security.  Accordingly  this  was  the  point  to  which  all  his  views  were  directed;  and 
he  never  subjugated  an  enemy,  or  overpowered  a  rival,  or  seized  upon  a  place,  with- 
out endeavoring  in  the  very  first  instance  to  inako  the  event  conducive  towards  tlm 
great  design  of  injuring  British  trade. 


216  INTRODUCTION. 

There  was  evidently  but  one  way  in  which  this  could  be  effected — and  that  was 
to  unite  the  continent  in  a  general  league  against  all  commercial  intercourse  with 
our  islands.  If  this  could  be  rendered  complete,  our  trade  must  be  confined  to  our 
own  dominions  in  Europe,  the  colonies,  and  India,  and  to  those  of  our  former  sub- 
jects and  kinsmen  of  America.  A  vast  bulk  of  commerce  would  thus  remain 
wholly  beyond  his  reach;  but  a  severe  blow  would  also  be  struck  by  the  entire 
loss  of  the  European  market. 

In  order,  however,  to  render  this  scheme  at  all  effectual,  the  European  league 
must  be  complete.  A  single  country  having  sea-ports,  and  communicating  with 
other  countries,  raised  the  European  blockade,  because  once  oilr  goods  were  intro- 
duced there,  an  entrepot  was  obtained  through  which  they  might  be  sent  all  over 
the  continent.  Accordingly,  wherever  the  French  arms  penetrated,  although  the 
sovereignty  of  the  country  might  not  be  seized  upon  by  France,  she  yet  required 
the  rigorous  exclusion  of  all  British  ships  and  trade,  as  a  condition  of  leaving  the 
territory  in  possession  of  its  former  owners,  even  when  these  might  be  at  peace  or 
possibly  in  alliance  with  England,  and  whatever  might  have  been  the  original  title 
by  which  their  dominions  were  acquired.  This  was  carried  so  far,  that  in  1806, 
•when  Hanover  was  occupied  by  Prussia,  Napoleon  required  the  exclusion  of  our 
commerce  with  that  Electorate,  as  an  execution,  or  at  least  a  consequence,  of  the 
treaty  by  which  Prussia  had  previously  bound  herself  to  exclude  it  from  her  other 
territories.  Nevertheless,  such  is  the  elasticity  of  trade,  so  extremely  prone  are 
men  to  run  almost  any  pecuniary  risks  for  the  sake  of  having  the  chance  of  pecu- 
niary gain,  and  so  difficult  is  it  to  watch  an  extended  line  of  sea-coast,  that  British 
produce  found  its  way  into  all  parts  of  the  continent,  although  at  prices  somewhat 
raised  by  the  obstructions  thrown  in  its  way.  Napoleon  was  therefore  determined 
to  try  the  effect  of  more  severe  measures  of  exclusion;  and  when  the  premature  and 
ill-concerted  resistance  of  Prussia,  in  the  autumn  of  180G  (principally  occasioned 
by  her  refusing  implicit  submission  to  the  commercial  measures  of  France)  had 
speedily  terminated  in  the  complete  overthrow  of  her  military  power  and  had  placed 
her  entirely  at  the  conqueror's  mercy,  the  first  use  he  made  of  his  victory  was  to 
issue  his  famous  Berlin  decree,  by  which  he  professed  to  interdict  all  commerce, 
and  even  all  intercourse,  direct  or  indirect,  wiih  the  British  dominions.  This  inter- 
dict, so  important  in  its  consequences,  bore  date  the  20th  November,  1806,  at  Ber- 
lin, which  he  had  then  occupied  with  his  troops,  having  driven  the  King  from  his 
capital,  after  the  entire  overthrow  of  his  army  at  the  battle  of  Auerstadt.  It  de- 
clared the  British  islands  in  a  state  of  blockade — all  British  subjects,  wheresoever 
found,  prisoners  of  war — all  British  goods  lawful  prize.  It  interdicted  all  corre- 
spondence with  our  dominions;  prohibited  all  commerce  in  our  produce;  and  ex- 
cluded from  all  the  ports  of  France,  and  of  the  countries  under  French  control,  every  ' 
vessel,  of  what  nation  soever,  that  had  touched  at  a  British  port.  The  alleged 
ground  of  this  measure  was  the  distinction  made  by  England,  but  not  by  her  alone, 
or  by  any  maritime  state  now  for  the  first  time,  between  enemy's  property  taken  on 
shore  or  at  sea — (the  former  net  bring  prize  to  the  captors,  unless  it  belonged  to 
the  hostile  state;  the  latter  being  liable  to  capture,  though  belonging  to  private  indi- 
viduals) the  similar  distinction  as  to  prisoners  of  war,  who  on  shore  are  only  made 
of  persons  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands — and  the  extension  of  the  rig'.it  of  block- 
ade, which  it  was  alleged  we  should  restrict  to  places  actually  invested  by  an 
adequate  force.  The  Berlin  Decree  was  declared  to  be  in  force  until  England 
should  agree  to  make  the  same  law  of  capture  applicable  by  sea  and  by  land;  and 
to  abandon  the  right  of  declaring  coasts  or  ports  not  actually  invested,  in  a  state  of 
blockade. 

It  has  been  already  observed  that  Napoleon  borrowed  from  the  Directory  the  out- 
line of  these  commercial  measures.  The  main  provisions  of  the  Berlin  Decree  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Decrees  of  July  1706,  and  January  1798;  the  former  of  which 
professed  to  treat  all  neutrals  in  the  same  manner  in  which  they  should  submit  to 
be  treated  by  England;  the  latter  of  which  made  all  English  goods  or  colonial  pro- 
duce liable  to  seizure  wherever  found,  and  all  vessels  to  capture  having  any  part  of 
their  cargo  so  composed — shut  the  French  ports  to  every  vessel  that  had  touched  at 
any  British  port — and  even  went  to  the  barbarous  extremity,  not  imitated  by  Napo- 
leon, of  denouncing  death  to  all  neutral  seamen  found  onboard  of  English  ships. 


INTRODUCTION.  217 

Although  some  parts  of  tlio  Berlin  Decree  were  mere  angry  menace?,  which 
France  li;ul  no  power  whatever  to  execute,  as  the  blockade  of  our  whole  coast,  yet 
there  were  parts  which  she  could  carry  into  execution,  at  least  to  such  an  extent  as 
must  occasion  great  temporary  embarrassment  to  the  nations  of  the  continent,  and 
some  interruption  to  our  commerce.  The  seizure  of  all  British  produce,  and  the 
exclusion  of  all  vessels  that  had  touched  at  a  British  port,  were  the  most  formidable 
parts  of  the  measure;  and  against  these  provisions  the  trading  classes  were  urgent 
in  their  remonstrances.  Napoleon  sternly  answered  that  he  would  not  yield  a 
hair's-breadth — that  the  utmost  commercial  distress  must  be  undergone,  if  neces- 
sary to  make  England  feel  the  weight  of  his  hostility — and  that  the  continent  must 
be  prepared  for  returning  to  the  b  irter  of  the  fourth  century  rather  than  yield  to  our 
pretensions,  and  suffer  our  commerce  to  escape  his  vengeance. 

All  men  of  sense  and  foresight  saw  plainly  that  this  system  never  could  be  com- 
pletely successful,  and  that  by  far  the  wisest  course  for  England  to  pursue  would 
be  that  of  leaving  France  and  the  neutral  states,  especially  America,  to  fight  it  out 
amongst  themselves,  secure  that  the  result  must  be  favorable  to  our  trade,  as  long 
as  our  goods  were  in  universal  demand,  and  could  no  where  else  be  obtained.  The 
thing  most  to  be  dreaded  was  any  retaliating  measures  on  our  part,  since  by  these 
we  must  both  increase  the  obstructions  raised  to  our  commerce  by  the  attempts  of 
France,  in  which,  without  the  help  of  our  prohibitions,  enforced  by  our  navy,  she 
never  could  succeed;  and  also  bring  on  a  contention,  possibly  a  rupture,  with  neu- 
tral powers,  on  whose  aid  as  carriers  we  entirely  depended,  as  long  as  the  conti- 
nent could  not  be  approached  by  our  own  vessels.  But  such  were  not  the  views 
of  men  in  power,  of  either  party.  The  Whigs  were  in  office  when  the  Berlin  De- 
cree of  November  180(>  arrived  in  this  country;  and  so  little  time  was  given  for 
deliberation,  before  a  course  fraught  with  misc-hiefof  the  greatest  magnitude  was 
resolved  upon,  that  on  the  7th  of  January  following,  the  first  of  those  fatal  mea- 
sures was  announced,  since  so  well  known  under  the  name  of  the  Orders  in  Coun- 
cil. This  first  and  Whig  Order  declared,  that  the  Berlin  Decree  authorised  Eng- 
land to  blockade  all  the  French  dominions,  to  forbid  any  neutral  power  from  enter- 
ing our  ports  which  had  touched  at  any  port  of  France  or  her  dependencies,  and 
justified  us  in  capturing  all  her  produce;  but  that  we  were  unwilling  to  inflict  such 
injuries  on  neutral  nations.  There  never  perhaps  was  a  more  absurd,  not  to  say 
false  statement  in  any  instrument  of  state.  The  right  thus  pompously  asserted  is 
that  of  self-destruction,  and  the  reason  given  for  not  exercising  it,  is  the  fear  of 
injuring  a  neighbor.  Jt  is  as  if  a  man  were  to  say  to  bis  adversary,  "  You  have 
thrown  a  rocket  at  my  house  and  my  neighbor's,  which  from  your  great  distance 
fell  short  of  both  buildings — therefore  I  have  a  full  right  to  burn  my  own  dwelling, 
but  I  will  not,  for  fear  I  should  set  fire  to  the  next  house."  The  Order  then  states, 
that  self-defence  though  not  requiring  complete  retaliation,  yet  calls  for  something 
of  the  kind — in  other  words — that  though  the  duty  of  self-defence  does  not  require 
the  act  of  entire  self-destruction,  it  yet  calls  for  a  partial  self-destruction — and  then 
it  declares  that  for  the  purpose  of  retaliating  upon  the  enemy  the  "evils  of  his  own 
injustice,"  no  vessel  shall  trade  from  one  enemy's  port  to  another,  or  from  one  port 
to  another  of  a  French  ally's  coast  shut  against  English  vessels;  so  that  the  only 
chance  our  goods  had  of  being  spread  over  the  continent  being  by  getting  them 
smuggled  into  some  port  less  watched  by  France  than  the  rest,  and  then  their 
being  freely  conveyed  from  thence  in  all  directions,  the  wisdom  of  the  Whig  cabi- 
net, then  flushed  with  Napoleon's  successes  into  a  state  of  most  belligerent  excite- 
ment against  him,  induced  them  to  institute  a  blockade  against  our  own  commerce, 
by  forbidding  any  one  to  carry  British  manufactures  from  place  to  place  of  the  con- 
tinent. The  only  chance  we  had  of  sending  our  goods  any  where,  was  getting  them 
in  some  where,  and  then  having  them  freely  distributed  every  where.  "No,  said 
the  ministers  of  lH<>7,  let  them  bo  stopped  where  they  are  landed, and  let  no  Ameri- 
can think  of  carrying  them  elsewhere.  I,c  t  tln-m  lie  and  ml  in  the  warehouses  of 
Pola,  and  Trieste,  and  Anemia,  and  C'adi/..  Mut  if  any  American  or  Sicilian  pre- 
sume to  carry  them  on  to  their  final  destination,  at  Marseilles,  or  Bordeaux,  or 
Nantz,  let  him  be  seized  and  condemned  for  violating  the  blockade  instituted  by 
the  very  effectual  London  decree  of  England  in  aid  of  the  empty  Berlin  Decree  uf 
VOL.  I.  —  I'J 


218  INTRODUCTION. 

France,  both  Decrees  alike  levelled  at  the  existence  of  the  British  commerce, 
though  levelled  with  very  different  aim."  It  is  farther  to  be  remarked,  that  there 
existed  no  right  whatever  in  England  to  issue  any  such  decree  against  neutral 
states,  merely  because  France  had  violated  neutral  rights.  If  time  had  been  given 
for  seeing  whether  or  not  America  and  other  neutrals  would  submit  to  the  Berlin 
Decree,  something  might  have  been  said  in  behalf  of  our  order.  But  it  was  issued 
7th  January,  1807,  the  Berlin  Decree  having  been  dated  20th  November  1806 — 
consequently  it  was  physically  impossible  that  we  should  then  know  what  course 
America  intended  to  pursue  with  respect  to  the  French  invasion  of  her  rights.  To 
every  fundamental  objection  afterwards  urged  against  the  other  Orders  in  Council 
issued  at  the  close  of  the  same  year  by  the  Tory  Ministers,  is  the  Whig  Order  of 
January  1807  completely  exposed.  It  is  equally  a  violation  of  neutral  rights;  tends 
equally  to  create  a  misunderstanding  with  America;  operates  equally  in  the  wrong 
direction,  namely,  to  the  injury  of  our  own  commerce;  and  has  equally  the  pre- 
posterous effect  of  assisting  Napoleon  in  carrying  into  execution  against  us  those 
measures  which,  without  our  own  help,  must  in  his  hands  be  nearly,  if  not  alto- 
gether, inoperative. 

Accordingly,  although  it  suited  the  views  of  party  to  forget  that  order,  and  only, 
to  attack  those  of  Mr.  Perceval,  which  were  framed  on  the  very  same  principles, 
yet  the  Americans  never  made  the  least  distinction  between  the  two;  and  Mr. 
Brougham,  while  contending  against  the  system  on  behalf  of  the  English  merchants 
and  manufacturers  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1808,  objected  in  the 
very  same  ter.ns  to  both,  and  always  treated  the  preamble  of  the  Whig  Order,  which 
stated  a  measure  of  vigor  against  ourselves  enforcing  the  evils  of  Napoleon's  hos- 
tility towards  our  commerce,  to  be  retorting  those  evils  on  himself,  as  the  leading 
absurdity  of  the  whole  system.  It  must  be  at  the  same  time  added,  that  when  sub- 
sequent measures  displayed  more  fully  the  absurd  impolicy  of  their  own  act,  the 
Whig  party  did  eminently  useful  service  by  their  strenuous  opposition  to  the  ex- 
tended system  of  impolicy  and  injustice.  To  these  ulterior  measures  it  is  now  ne- 
cessary that  we  should  advert,  but  first  something  may  be  said  of  their  author. 

Mr.  Stephen  was  a  person  of  great  natural  talents,  which,  if  accidental  circum- 
stances had  permitted  him  fully  to  cultivate,  and  early  to  bring  into  play  upon  the 
best  scene  of  political  exertion,  the  House  of  Commons  would  have  placed  him 
high  in  the  first  rank  of  English  orators.  For  he  had  in  an  eminent  degree  that 
strenuous  firmness  of  purpose,  and  glowing  ardor  of  soul,  which  lies  at  the  root  of 
all  eloquence;  he  was  gifted  with  great  industry,  a  retentive  memory,  and  inge- 
nuity which  was  rather  apt  to  err  by  excess  than  by  defect.  His  imagination  was, 
besides,  lively,  and  powerful;  little  certainly  under  the  chastening  discipline  of 
severe  taste,  but  often  enabling  him  to  embody  his  own  feelings  and  recollections 
with  great  distinctness  of  outline  and  strength  of  coloring.  He  enjoyed,  more- 
over, great  natural  strength  of  constitution,  and  had  as  much  courage  as  falls  to  the 
lot  of  most  men.  But  having  passed  the  most  active  part  of  his  life  in  one  of  the 
West  Indian  colonies,  where  he  followed  the  profession  of  a  barrister,  and  having 
after  his  return  addicted  himself  to  the  practice  of  a  court  which  affords  no  scope 
at  all  for  oratorical  display,*  it  happened  to  him,  as  it  has  to  many  other  men  of 
natural  genius  for  rhetorical  pursuits,  that  he  neither  gained  the  correct  taste  which 
the  h;ibit  of  frequenting  refined  society,  and  above  all,  addressing  a  refined  audi- 
tory, can  alone  bestow,  nor  acquired  the  power  of  condensation  which  is  sure  to  be 
lost  altogether  by  those  who  address  hearers  compelled  to  listen,  like  judges  and 
juries,  instead  of  having  to  retain  them  by  closeness  of  reasoning,  or  felicity  of 
illustration.  It  thus  came  to  pass,  that  when  he  entered  Parliament,  although  he 
could  by  no  means  be  said  to  have  failed,  but  on  the  contrary  at  first,  and  when 
kept  under  some  restraint,  he  must  be  confessed  to  have  had  considerable  success, 
yet  he  was,  generally  speaking,  a  third-rate  debater,  because  of  his  want  of  the 
tact,  the  nice  sense  of  what  captivates  such  an  audience,  how  far  to  press  a  sub- 
ject, how  much  fancy  to  display — all  so  necessary  for  an  acceptable  speaker  and 
powerful  debater,  one  who  is  listened  to  by  the  hearers  as  a  pleasure,  not  as  a 

*  The  Prize  Appeal  Court  in  the  Privy  Council. 


INTRODUCTION.  219 

duty — for  the  hearer's  own  gratification,  anil  not  for  the  importance  of  the  subject 
handled — one  in  short  \vlio  must  address  and  win  the  tribute  of  attention  from  a 
volunteer  audience  like  the  House  of  Commons,  and  not  merely  receive  the  fixed 
dole  of  a  hearing  from  the  compulsory  attention  of  the  Bench.  There  was  another 
circumstance  connected  with  Mr.  Stephen's  nature,  which  exceedingly  lessened  hia 
influence,  and  indeed  incalculably  lowered  his  merit  as  a  speaker.  He  was  of  a 
vehement,  and  even  violent  temper;  a  temper  too,  not  like  that  of  merely  irascible 
men  prone  to  sudden  fits  of  anger  or  of  excitement,  but  connected  also  with  a  pecu- 
liarly sanguine  disposition;  and  as  he  thus  saw  objects  of  the  size  and  in  the  colors 
presented  by  this  medium,  so  he  never  could  imagine  that  they  wore  a  dilTerent 
aspect  to  other  eyes,  and  exerted  comparatively  little  interest  in  other  bosoms. 
Hence  he  was  apt  to  proceed  with  more  and  more  animation,  with  increasing  fer- 
vor, while  his  hearers  had  become  calm  and  cold.  Nor  could  any  thing  tend  more 
to  alienate  an  audience  like  the  Commons,  or  indeed  to  lessen  the  real  value  of  hia 
speeches.  It  must  have  struck  all  who  heard  him  when,  early  in  1808,  he  entered 
Parliament  under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Perceval,  that  whatever  defects  he  had,  arose 
entirely  from  accidental  circumstances,  and  not  at  all  from  intrinsic  imperfections;  nor 
could  any  one  doubt  that  his  late  entrance  upon  parliamentary  life,  and  his  vehe- 
mence of  temperament,  alone  kept  him  from  the  front  rank  of  debaters;  if  not  of 
eloquence  itself. 

With  Mr.  Perceval,  his  friendship  had  been  long  and  intimate.  To  this  the  simi- 
larity of  their  religious  character  mainly  contributed,  for  Mr.  Stephen  was  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  the  Evangelical  Parly  to  which  the  minister  manifestly  leaned 
without  belonging  to  it;  and  he  was  one  whose  pious  sentiments  and  devotional 
habits  occupied  a  very  marked  place  in  his  whole  scheme  of  life.  No  man  has, 
however,  a  right  to  question,  be  it  ever  so  slightly,  his  perfect  sincerity.  To  this 
his  blameless  life  bore  the  most  irrefragable  testimony.  A  warm  and  steady  friend 
— a  man  of  the  strictest  integrity  and  nicest  sense  of  both  honor  and  justice — in  all 
the  relations  of  private  society  wholly  without  a  stain— though  envy  might  well 
find  whereon  to  perch,  malice  itself  in  the  exasperated  discords  of  religious  and 
civil  controversy  never  could  descry  a  spot  on  which  to  fasten.  Let  us  add  the 
bright  praise,  and  which  sets  at  nought  all  lesser  defects  of  mere  taste,  had  he  lived 
to  read  these  latter  lines,  he  would  infinitely  rather  have  had  this  sketch  stained 
with  all  the  darker  shades  of  its  critical  matter,  than  being  exalted,  without  these 
latter  lines,  to  the  level  of  Demosthenes  or  of  Chatham,  praised  as  the  first  of  ora- 
tors, or  followed  as  the  most  brilliant  of  statesmen. 

His  opinions  upon  political  questions  were  clear  and  decided,  taken  up  with  the 
boldness— felt  with  the  ardor — asserted  with  the-  determination — which  marked  hia 
zealous  and  uncompromising  spirit.  Of  all  subjects,  that  of  the  Slave  Trade  and 
Slavery  most  engrossed  his  mind.  His  experience  in  the  West  Indies,  his  reli- 
gious feelings,  and  his  near  connection  with  Mr.  \\  ilberforce,  whose  sister  he  mar- 
ried, all  contributed  to  give  this  great  question  a  peculiarly  sacred  aspect  in  hia 
eyes;  nor  could  he  cither  avoid  mixing  it  up  with  almost  all  other  discussions,  or 
prevent  his  views  of  its  various  relations  from  influencing  his  sentiments  on  other 
matters  of  political  discussion.  His  first  publication  was  the  "  Crisis  «f  the  Stis^ar 
Culonies,"  a  striking  and  animated  picture  of  the  mischiefs  of  Slavery,  and  a  strong 
recommendation  of  the  cause  of  St.  Domingo  lo  the  f.ivor  of  this  country.  Thus 
the  conduct  of  Napoleon  towards  St.  Domingo  plainly  sowed  in  his  mind  the  seeds 
of  that  hatred  which  he  bore  to  the  Kmperor  and  all  bis  plans;  and  to  this  source 
may  ac.ccrdingly  be  traced,  not  IIH  rely  his  "  Lift  <f  TuufUtint"  written  partly  to 
gain  f.ivor  for  the  negroes,  and  partly  to  stimulate  the  public  indignation  against 
France  during  the  alarms  of  invasion  which  accompanied  the  renewal  of  hostilities 
in  1«UI!;  but  also  the  "  Opportunity,"  in  which  In;  very  prematurely  urged  the 
policy  of  funning  an  alliance  with  the  new  IJl.ick  Republic,  and  soon  afterwards 
liis  able  and  eloquent  pamphlet  on  the  "  Iluttgirx  <f  tltc  Country"  This  appeared 
early  in  1--:0?:  and  contains,  among  oilier  thiii'js  of  undoubted  excellence,  a  signal 
proof  of  his  enthusiasm  outstripping  bis  better  judgment — for  he  deliberately  traces 
the  mi-fortunes  of  Kuropc  in  the  late  wars  against  France  lo  the  spt--ci.il  interpoM- 
tioji  of  Providence,  btcausu  of  Kngland  repeatedly  rejecting  the  imasure  ul  SLivu 


220  INTRODUCTION. 

Trade  Abolition; — forgetful  that  although  those  calamities  indirectly  and  conse- 
quentially injured  England,  they  fell  far  more  heavily,  and  in  the  very  first  instance, 
upon  the  continental  states  which  had  neither  a  Colony,  nor  a  Slave,  nor  a  Slave 
trading  vessel  in  their  possession,  which,  therefore  could  not  have  committed  the 
offence  that  called  down  the  penalty,  and  which  were  subjugated  by  one  of  the 
greatest  Slave  holders  and  Slave  traders  in  the  world,  France,  the  only  gainer  by 
all  these  visitations  of  Divine  vengeance.  It  was  further  remarked,  that  even  as  to 
England  his  theory  failed  very  soon  after  the  work  was  published.  For  hardly  had 
the  Abolition  been  carried,  than  its  authors  were  driven  from  power;  and  the  Fifth 
Coalition  was  dissolved  by  the  defeat  of  Russia  at  the  great  battle  of  Friedland. 

Baffled,  therefore,  in  his  'speculations  respecting  the  cause  of  Napoleon's  suc- 
cesses, he  betook  himself  to  devising  means  of  counteracting  his  influence  as  used 
against  this  country.  In  consequence  of  his  jealous  hostility  towards  Napoleon, 
and  also  from  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  frauds  practised  by  neutrals  in 
the  court  of  Prize  Appeal,  where  he  had  the  leading  practice  until  he  became  a 
Master  in  Chancery,  he  had  early  turned  his  attention  to  the  French  commercial 
measures,  and  upon  his  friend  Mr.  Perceval  coming  to  the  head  of  affairs,  he  ob- 
tained his  assent  to  a  far  more  complete  system  of  retaliation  than  the  Whig  Order 
in  Council  of  January  1807.  He  it  was  who  first  framed  and  afterwards  zealously 
supported  the  famous  Orders  of  November  in  that  year,  which  brought  the  mercan- 
tile conflict  with  France,  and  unhappily  with  America  also,  to  a  crisis.  These  Or- 
ders were  ushered  in  by  a  Tract  upon  the  general  subject  of  the  conduct  pursued  by 
neutrals,  entitled  "  War  in  disguise  or  the  Frauds  of  the  Neutral  Flags,-"  of  all  his 
works  the  most  celebrated,  the  most  justly  admired,  and  a  work  certainly  of  extra- 
ordinary merit.  The  facts  on  which  it  dwelt  were  undeniably  true,  and  as  they 
appeared  to  show  a  systematic  evasion  of  belligerent  rights  by  the  shifts  and  con- 
trivances of  neutral  traders,  connived  at,  and  indeed  encouraged  by  their  govern- 
ments, it  was  no  hard  matter  to  influence  the  people  of  this  country  against  such. 
conduct,  and  make  them  believe  that  this  was  really  hostility  towards  us  and  our 
interests  under  the  mask  of  neutrality.  The  fallacy  thus  greedily  swallowed  by 
the  nation's  prejudices  was  very  sincerely  believed  by  the  zealous  and  impetuous 
author,  and  the  Ministers  whom  he  counselled;  and  it  is  the  prevailing  fallacy 
which  runs  through  the  whole  policy  of  the  Orders  in  Council,  from  that  of  the 
Whigs  in  January  to  that  of  the  Tories  in  November  1807.  This  fallacy  consists 
in  supposing  that  the  trade  driven  by  the  neutrals  with  our  enemies,  because  it 
benefits  the  latter,  is  therefore  hurtful  to  ourselves,  although  it  perhaps  benefits  us 
tenfold;  on  which  is  engrafted  another  mistake,  if  indeed  it  be  not  rather  the  root 
of  the  whole  error,  that  of  grudging  the  impossibility  of  our  ever  deriving  advantage 
from  the  exchange  of  our  goods  without  something  of  the  benefit  redounding  to  our 
enemies,  customers,  and  consumers. 

When  in  the  train  of  this  brilliant  and  captivating  publication  the  Orders  of  No- 
vember appeared,  all  men  were  struck  with  the  magnitude  of  the  design  on  which 
they  were  framed,  and  all  reflecting  men  regarded  them  as  calculated  to  execute  the 
grand  purpose  of  the  first  Decree.  Their  principle  was  indeed  abundantly  simple. 
Napoleon  had  f>aid  that  no  vessel  should  touch  a  British  port  and  then  enter  a 
French  one,  or  one  under  French  control.  The  Orders  in  Council  said  that  no  vessel 
whatever  should  enter  any  such  port  unless  she  had  first  touched  at  some  port  of 
Great  Britain.  Many  other  regulations  opposed  to  neutrals  were  made  in  prosecution 
of  this  principle,  and  an  ad  valorem  duty  was  levied  upon  their  cargoes.  Immediately 
after  came  forth  Napoleon's  Milan  Decree,  bearing  date  the  17th  December,  1807, 
enforcing  more  rigorously  that  of  Berlin,  and  declaring  all  vessels  lawful  prize, 
which  had  submitted  to  the  right  of  search  claimed  by  England. 

The  first  result  of  our  general  blockade  of  all  Europe  was  the  adoption  in  this 
country  of  a  system  most  liable  to  every  kind  of  abuse— that  of  licenses  issued  to 
let  certain  vessels  pass  notwithstanding  the  Orders;  and  this  was  accompanied  by 
a  yet  more  abominable  system  of  fabricated  papers,  which  naturalised  among  the 
merchants  and  navigators  of  this  country  the  worst  practices  of  forgery  and  fraud. 
The  next  result  was  the  American  Embargo  and  Non-Importation  acts,  operating  a 
suspension  of  all  commerce  with  the  United  States.  The  distress  experienced  by 


INTRODUCTION.  221 

the  trade  and  manufactures  of  this  country  was  extreme.  A  series  of  hostile  pro- 
ceedings with  America  was  begun — and  after  much  suffering  endured,  extreme  ill- 
will  engendered,  many  insults  offered  and  resisted,  this  state  of  things  ended  in  an 
open  rupture,  which  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  war  in  Europe,  led  to  the  capture  by 
the  Americans  of  some  British  frigates,  and  was  terminated  by  a  most  inglorious 
expedition  to  Washington,  and  a  most  unfortunate  one  to  New  Orleans — leading 
to  the  injury  of  our  national  character  in  the  one,  and  the  tarnishing  cf  our  military 
fame  in  the  other. 

\Vlien  the  Orders  in  Council  and  the  American  Embargo  first  threatened  British 
commerce  with  destruction,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  London,  Hull, 
Manchester  and  Liverpool,  comprising  all  the  industry  of  Yorkshire  and  Lanca- 
shire, and  all  the  general  trade  which  centres  in  the  capital,  petitioned  Parliament 
against  the  obnoxious  policy  of  the  Orders,  craved  to  be  heard  by  their  counsel, 
and  tendered  evidence  of  the  injuries  sustained  from  the  operation  of  those  orders. 
Mr.  Brougham  was  their  counsel,  and  was  heard  at  the  bar  of  both  houses,  where  ho 
likewise  adduced  the  evidence  during  several  weeks  in  support  of  the  petitions.  The 
ministry,  however,  triumphed  overall  the  attempts  then  made  to  defeat  the  system; 
and  it  was  not  until  four  years  after,  in  1812,  that,  the  general  distress  having  gone 
on  increasing,  there  was  found  any  chance  of  obtaining  a  more  favorable  hearing. 
Both  Mr.  Brougham  and  Mr.  Stephen  were  now  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons; and  in  March  1812,  the  subject  was  brought  forward  by  the  former.  This 
motion  was  then  negatived;  but  soon  after  Easter,  he  presented  petitions  from  the 
same  parties  who  had  formerly  been  his  clients:  and  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Stan- 
ley,* on  the  28th  of  April,  the  House  agreed  without  a  division  to  hear  evidence 
in  support  of  the  petitions.  The  case  was  conducted  every  night  for  seven  weeks 
by  Mr.  Brougham  and  Mr.  Baring,  f  than  whom  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to 
find  a  more  powerful  coadjutor.  His  extensive  possessions  in  America — his  con- 
nections both  of  family  and  commerce  with  that  country — his  former  residence 
there — his  vast  mercantile  knowledge  derived  from  varied  and  long  experience — 
bis  great  general  information,  and  the  depth  as  well  as  precision  of  his  understand- 
ing— would  have  rendered  him  a  most  formidable  adversary  of  the  system,  even 
stript  of  all  the  weight  which  any  cause  that  he  espoused  must  derive  from  the 
name,  and  authority,  and  resources,  of  the  first  merchant  in  the  world.  The  in- 
quiry on  the  side  of  the  petitions  was  wholly  conducted  by  these  two  members,  and 
each  niirht  presented  new  objections  and  new  defeats  to  the  Orders  in  Council,  and 
new  advantages  to  the  opposition — by  incidental  debatings  on  petitions  presented — 
by  di>cussions  arising  on  evidence  tendered— by  other  matters  broached  occasion- 
ally in  connection  with  the  main  subject.  The  government  at  first,  conceiving  that 
there  was  a  clamor  raised  out  of  doors  against  their  policy,  and  hoping  that  this 
would  of  itsdf  subside,  endeavored  to  gain  time  and  put  off  the  hearing  of  the  evi- 
dence. But  Messrs.  Brougham  and  Baring  kept  steadily  to  their  purpose,  and 
insisted  on  calling  in  their  witnesses  at  the  earliest  possible  hour.  They  at  length 
prevailed  so  far  as  to  have  it  understood  that  the  hearing  should  proceed  daily  at 
half-past  four  o'clock,  and  continue  at  the  least  till  ten,  by  which  means  they  gene- 
rally kept  it  on  foot  till  a  much  later  hour,  all  but  those  who  took  a  peculiar  interest 
in  the  subject  having  earlier  left  the  house. 

On  the  11  th  of  May,  a  most  lamentable  catastrophe  deprived  the  world  of  the  Mi- 
nister who  was  the  chief  stay  of  Mr.  Stephen's  system.  Mr.  Perceval  was  walking 
arm  in  arm  with  that  gentleman  from  Downing  Street  to  the  House,  when  lie  was 
met  by  a  messenger  whom  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  despatched  to  hasten 
him,  the  opposition  having  refused  to  suspend  the  examination  longer,  as  the  hour 
appointed  to  begin  had  some  time  passed.  Mr.  Perceval,  with  his  wonted  activity, 
darted  forward  to  obey  the  summons,  and  was  shot  as  he  entered  the  lobby  of  the. 
House.  It  was  remarked  that  had  Mr.  Stephen,  who  walked  on  his  left,  been  still 
with  him,  he  would  have  been  most  exposed  to  the  blow  of  the  assassin.  At  that 
moment  ttie  inquiry  had  been  recommenced,  and  Mr.  Brougham  was  examining  :i 
witness,  when  he  thought  he  heard  a  noiso  as  if  a  pistol  had  gone  off  in  some  ont-'d 

•  Now  Lurl  of  Derby.  t  Now  Lord  Asliburton. 


222  INTRODUCTION. 

pocket — such  at  least  was  the  idea  which  instantaneously  passed  through  his  mind, 
but  did  not  interrupt  his  interrogation.  Presently  there  were  seen  several  persons 
in  the  gallery  running  towards  the  doors;  and  before  a  minute  more  had  passed, 
General  Gascoigne  rushed  up  the  House,  and  announced  that  the  minister  had  been 
shot,  and  had  fallen  on  the  spot  dead.  The  House  instantly  adjourned.  Exami- 
nations were  taken  of  the  wretch  who  had  struck  the  blow,  and  he  was  speedily 
committed  for  trial  by  Mr.  M.  A.  Taylor,  who  acted  as  a  magistrate  for  Middlesex, 
where  the  murder  was  committed.  On  that  day  week,  Bellingham,  having  been 
tried  and  convicted,  was  executed,  to  the  eternal  disgrace  of  the  court  which  tried 
him,  and  refused  an  application  for  delay,  grounded  on  a  representation  that  were 
time  given,  evidence  of  his  insanity  could  be  obtained  from  Liverpool,  where  he 
had  resided  and  was  known.  It  cannot  with  any  truth  be  said  that  the  popular 
ferment,  which  so  astonishing  and  shocking  an  event  occasioned,  had  at  all  sub- 
sided on  the  trial,  the  fourth  day  after  the  act  was  committed,  and  the  day  on  which 
the  judge  and  jury  were  called  upon — calm  in  mind — inaccessible  to  all  feelings — 
above  all  outward  impressions — to  administer  strict  and  impartial  justice. 

The  opponents  of  the  Orders  in  Council  refused  peremptorily  to  suspend  their 
proceedings,  in  consequence  of  this  lamentable  event.  Indeed  the  suspension  of  all 
other  business  which  it  occasioned,  was  exceedingly  favorable  to  the  object  of  those 
who  were  anxious  for  an  opportunity  to  produce  their  proofs  and  obtain  a  decision. 
A  vast  mass  of  evidence  was  thus  brought  forward,  showing  incontestably  the  dis- 
tressed state  of  trade  and  manufactures  all  over  the  country,  and  connecting  this 
by  clear  indications  with  the  operation  of  the  impolitic  system  which  had  been  re- 
sorted to  for  "  protecting  our  commerce,  and  retorting  on  the  enemy  the  evils  of  his 
own  injustice."  At  length,  on  the  16th  of  June,  Mr.  Brougham  brought  forward 
his  motion  for  an  address  to  the  Crown  to  recall  the  obnoxious  orders;  and  the 
following  was  the  speech  which  he  delivered  upon  that  occasion.  The  course  of 
the  government  was  inexplicable.  The  absence  of  Mr.  Stephen  from  his  place, 
where  he  had  attended  every  hour  of  the  preceding  inquiry,  and  taken  a  most  active 
part  in  supporting  the  ministerial  measure,  plainly  showed  that  a  determination  had 
been  come  to  which  he  could  not  approve.  Yet  if  it  was  resolved  to  strike — if  the 
system  was  abandoned — there  seems  no  intelligible  reason  why  the  leader  of  its  • 
adversaries  should  be  heard  to  describe  the  mischiefs  that  had  flowed  from  it,  and  to 
place  its  authors  before  the  people  as  the  cause  of  all  they  were  enduring  under  it. 
This,  however,  was  the  plan  resolved  upon;  and  after  Mr.  Brougham  had  been 
heard  in  support  of  his  motion,  and  Mr.  Rose  in  defence  of  the  system,  and  when 
Mr.  Baring  had  followed,  Lord  Castlereagh,  on  the  part  of  the  government,  an- 
nounced that  the  motion  needed  not  be  pressed  to  a  division,  because  the  Crown  had 
been  advised  immediately  to  rescind  the  orders.  The  effects  produced  by  the  nume- 
rous petitions — by  the  discussions  to  which  these  gave  rise — by  the  meetings  in 
different  places — by  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses — were  so  apparent  within  the 
last  fortnight,  that  there  remained  no  doubt  of  the  motion  being  carried,  and  hence 
the  determination  to  which  the  ministers  deemed  it  prudent  that  they  should  come. 

Mr.  Stephen's  absence  on  such  an  occasion  was  certainly  not  easily  to  be  ac- 
counted for,  unless  upon  the  supposition  that  he  could  not  have  born  in  his  place 
without  expressing  his  dissatisfaction  in  terms  so  strong,  possibly  so  contemp- 
tuous as  might  not  suit  the  precarious  position  in  which  the  government  now 
were  placed,  deprived  of  Mr.  Perceval,  and  opposed  by  Mr.  Canning,  as  well  as 
the  Whig  party.  To  this  government  Mr.  Stephen  adhered,  regarding  it  as  the 
remnant  of  his  friend  Mr.  ['ore-oval's  administration,  and  as  regulated,  generally 
speaking,  by  principles  the  same  as  his  own.  He  never  was  accused,  at  any  time, 
of  unworthily  sacrificing  those  principles  for  any  consideration;  and  three  years 
afterwards  he  gave  a  memorable  proof  of  his  public  virtue,  by  at  once  abandoning 
the  ministry,  and  resigning  his  seat  in  Parliament,  because  they  pursued  a 
course  which  lie  disapproved,  upon  the  great  subject  of  Colonial  Slavery.  He 
retired  into  private  life,  abandoned  all  the  political  questions  in  which  he  took 
so  warm  an  interest,  gave  up  the  public  business  in  which  he  still  had  strength 
sufficient  to  bear  a  very  active  part,  and  relinquished  without  a  struggle  or  a  sigh 
all  the  advantages  of  promotion  both  for  himself  and  his  family,  although  agree- 


INTRODUCTION.  223 

ing  with  the  government  in  every  other  part  of  their  policy,  because  on  that 
which  he  believed  conscientiously  to  be  the  most  important  of  all  their  practical 
views,  they  differed  from  his  own.  It  would  indeed  be  well  if  we  had  now  and 
then  instances  of  so  rare  a  virtue;  and  they  who  looked  down  upon  this  eminent 
and  excellent  person  as  not  having  answered  the  expectations  formed  of  his  parlia- 
mentary career,  or  sneered  at  his  enthusiastic  zeal  for  opinions  in  his  mind  of  para- 
mount importance,  would  have  done  well  to  respect  at  a  distance  merit  which 
they  could  not  hope  to  imitate — perhaps  could  not  well  comprehend — merit,  beside 
which  the  lustre  of  the  statesman's  triumphs  and  the  orator's  fame  grows  pale. 


SPEECH 


UPON  THE  PRESENT 


STATE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES, 


AND 


THE  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 


DELIVERED   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF   COMMONS, 


JUNE  16,  1812. 


SIR — I  rise  to  bring  before  the  House  a  proposition  regarding  the 
subject  which  has  recently  occupied  so  large  a  share  of  our  attention 
— the  present  state  of  Trade  and  Manufactures,  and  (he  sufferings  of 
the  people  of  England.  And  I  am  confident  I  shall  not  be  accused 
of  exaggeration  when  I  say,  that  it  is  by  far  the  most  interesting  and 
momentous  topic  which  can  at  this  crisis  engage  the  attention  of  Par- 
liament. After  six  weeks  spent  in  the  inquiry — after  a  mass  of 
evidence  unparalleled  in  extent  has  been  collected — the  time  is  at 
length  arrived,  when  we  are  called  upon  for  the  result  of  our  investi- 
gation, for  our  determination  in  behalf  of  the  country,  and  our  advice 
to  the  Crown  upon  the  mighty  interests  which  we  have  been  examin- 
ing. But  while  I  dwell  upon  the  importance  of  this  subject,  I  am 
by  no  means  disposed  to  follow  the  practice  usual  upon  such  occasions 
and  to  magnify  its  extent  or  its  difficulty.  The  question  is  indeed 
one  of  unexampled  interest,  but  of  extremely  little  intricacy.  Its 
points  are  few  in  number — they  lie  within  a  narrow  range — they  are 
placed  near  the  surface — and  involved  in  no  obscurity  or  doubt.  Its 
materials  are  only  massive  in  outward  appearance,  and  when  viewed 
at  a  distance.  There  seems  to  be  a  huge  body  of  details.  This  load 
of  papers — theso  eight  or  nine  hundred  folios  of  evidence — together 
with  the  bulk  of  papers  and  petitions  lying  on  your  table,  would 
naturally  enough  frighten  a  careless  observer  with  the  notion  that  the 
subject  is  vast  and  complicated.  Yet  I  will  venture  to  assert,  that  I 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  225 

shall  not  proceed  many  minutes,  before  I  have  convinced  not  only 
those  who  assisted  in  the  labors  of  the  committee — not  those  merely 
who  have  read  the  result  of  the  Inquiry  on  our  minutes — but  those 
who  now  for  the  first  time  give  their  attention  to  the  question,  and 
come  here  wholly  ignorant  of  its  merits,  that  there  lias  seldom  been 
a  subject  of  u  public  nature  brought  before  this  House,  through  which 
the  path  was  shorter  and  surer,  or  led  to  a  decision  more  obvious  and 
plain. 

There  is,  however,  sir,  one  task  which  meets  me  in  the  outset,  and 
one  of  so  painful  a  nature,  that  I  would  fain  recede  from  it.  It  is  my 
severe  duty  this  night  to  make  you  acquainted  with  distresses  of  the 
people,  and  principally  of  the  lower  orders,  that  is  to  say,  the  most 
numerous  and  industrious  classes  of  our  countrymen.  To  handle 
the  question  without  entering  into  these  afflicting  details,  or  to  travel 
amongst  them  without  the  deepest  uneasiness,  would  require  an  in- 
genuity or  an  insensibility  which  are  equally  foreign  to  my  nature. 
For  to  whom  could  the  scenes  which  we  positively  witnessed  in  the 
committee  be  so  distressing  as  to  those  whose  anxiety  for  the  welfare 
of  the  lower  orders  impelled  them  to  devote  their  days  and  nights  to 
the  labors  of  the  inquiry?  And  it  is  now  my  hard  task  to  give  those 
who  were  not  there  to  see  and  hear,  some  idea  of  what  passed  be- 
fore our  very  eyes — the  strange  and  afflicting  sight  of  respectable 
ancient  men,  the  pillars  of  the  trade  and  credit  of  the  country,  coming 
forth  to  lament,  not  that  they  saw  wasting  away  beneath  the  fatal 
policy  of  our  government  the  hard-earned  fruits  of  their  honest  and 
industrious  lives — not  that  they  were  approaching  to  old  age  stripped 
of  the  support  which  they  been  providing  for  that  season — but  be- 
cause they  no  longer  had  the  means  of  saving  from  absolute  want 
the  thousands  of  unhappy  persons  dependent  upon  them  for  subsist- 
ence— because  they  had  no  longer  wages  to  give  the  thousands,  who 
were  eager  to  work  for  any  pittance  to  sustain  life — because,  having 
already  exhausted  their  whole  means,  all  the  accumulations  of  their 
lives,  in  the  charitable  offices  of  employing  those  poor  people,  they 
were  now  brought  to  the  brink  of  that  dreadful  alternative,  either  of 
leaving  them  to  perish,  or  of  shutting  their  ears  to  the  wants  of  con- 
nections that  had  still  stronger  claims.  These  are  things  which  I 
c.uinot  pass  over;  but  I  willingly  delay  entering  upon  them  for  some 
little  time;  and  at  present  I  should  prefer  calling  your  attention  to  more 
general  circumstances,  which  less  directly,  though  with  equal  force, 
prove  the  unexampled  calamities  of  the  times. 

And  here,  sir,  I  do  not  allude  merely  to  the  numerous  petitions 
preferred  to  Parliament,  setting  forth  the  distresses  of  the  country, 
and  praying  for  a  repeal  of  the  orders  in  council.  I  will  not  dwell 
upon  these,  nor  ground  my  inferences  upon  them.  And  yet  I  well 
might  avail  myself  of  such  an  argument  on  the  present  occasion. 
For  if  the  system  was  adopted  for  the  express  purpose  of  relieving 
our  trade  and  manufactures,  what  belter  proof  of  its  inefiicacy,  than 
the  loud  and  general  complaints  of  our  merchants  and  workmen 
against  it?  If  the  very  ground  and  justification  of  those  measures 


ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

has  always  been  the  necessity  of  affording  relief  to  the  commerce  and 
industry  of  the  country,  what  can  be  more  in  point,  while  they  are 
urging  the  merits  of  the  plan,  than  the  fact,  that  Yorkshire,  Lan- 
cashire, and  Warwickshire,  all  the  great  districts  of  our  manufactures, 
joined  formerly  in  expressing  their  fears  of  the  relief  you  were  offer- 
ing them;  and  now,  after  four  years'  trial  of  their  virtues,  loudly  pray 
to  be  saved  from  such  a  remedy,  imploring  you  for  pity  sake  to  aban- 
don them  to  the  hostility  of  their  enemies,  and  spare  them  the  merciless 
kindness  of  the  protection  under  which  they  are  groaning?  Yet  I 
will  forego  whatever  support  the  cause  may  derive  from  the  fact  of 
these  petitions,  in  order  to  dwell  upon  the  more  indirect  and  unex- 
pected, and  therefore  wholly  unsuspicious  testimony,  which  it  derives 
from  other  quarters.  I  would  beseech  the  House  to  cast  its  eye 
abroad  upon  the  various  projects  for  obtaining  relief,  to  which  of  late 
the  people  have  in  different  parts  of  the  country  had  recourse — the 
attempts  and  devices  to  which  in  the  restlessness  of  their  sufferings, 
they  have  been  resorting,  with  the  vain  hope  of  shifting  or  shaking 
off  from  them  the  load  of  calamity  under  which  they  labor.  Some  of 
those  schemes,  I  know,  are  most  inadequate  to  the  object — some  are 
nugatory  and  absurd — some  are  positively  hurtful  to  them,  and  deserv- 
ing of  reprobation.  But  they  all  proceed  from  the  feverish  uneasiness, 
the  impatience  of  rest,  which  forms  an  undoubted  symptom  of  the 
prevailing  malady.  Take,  for  example,  the  disorders  which  in  dif- 
ferent districts  have  given  rise  to  short-sighted  attacks  upon  machinery 
and  other  private  property.  Of  these  it  is  impossible  to  speak  without 
blame;  but  when  we  reflect  on  the  misery  which  brought  on  this  state 
of  violence,  it  is  hard  to  avoid  mingling  pity  with  our  censure.  Ano- 
ther remedy,  as  short-sighted  though  unhappily  perfectly  legal,  I  have 
myself  had  occasion  to  see  attempted  in  the  course  of  my  professional 
employment — I  mean  the  applications  which  numerous  bodies  of 
manufacturers  have  made  to  courts  of  justice,  for  enforcing  one  of 
the  most  impolitic  laws  on  the  statute-book,  the  act  of  Elizabeth, 
requiring  magistrates  to  fix  the  rate  of  wages — a  law  which  has  been 
absurdly  permitted  to  subsist,  on  the  pretence  that  it  was  not  likely  to 
be  acted  upon,  and  which,  as  might  have  been  expected,  stands  ready  to 
promote  mischief  at  the  moment  when  it  is  most  dangerous,  without  the 
possibility  of  ever  doing  good.  A  third  expedient  has  been  thought  of, 
in  application  to  this  house  for  the  abolition  of  sinecure  places,  or  the 
appropriation  of  their  profits  to  the  expenses  of  the  war.  Of  this 
remedy  I  by  no  means  think  so  lightly  as  some  do;  it  would  indeed 
only  afford  a  trifling  relief,  but  it  would  go  far  to  prevent  the  recur- 
rence of  (lie  evil,  by  diminishing  the  interest  of  many  persons  in  the 
continuance  of  hostilities,  and  would  disarm,  I  believe,  some  of  the  most 
warlike  characters  of  the  time. 

But  I  would  particularly  entreat  you  to  consider  the  numberless 
petitions  from  almost  every  part  of  the  country  which  now  crowd 
your  table,  against  continuing  the  East  India  Company's  monopoly. 
That  some  of  those  applications  are  founded  in  the  most  just  and 
politic  views  of  the  subject,  I  am  far  from  denying;  that  the  great 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  227 

and  once  opulent  city  of  Liverpool,  for  instance,  the  second  in  the 
empire,  would  de-rive  material  relief  from  that  participation  in  the 
East  India  trade,  to  which  it  has  undoubted  right,  cannot  be  doubted; 
and  Glasgow,  Bristol,  and  one  or  two  other  places,  are  in  the  same 
predicament.  But  is  this  the  case  with  all  the  other  towns,  I  might 
almost  say  villages,  which  have  preferred  the  same  prayer  to  us  in 
equally  urgent  terms?  Is  it  the  case  with  any  considerable  proportion 
of  them?  What  think  yon,  sir,  of  places  demanding  a  share  of  this 
trade,  which  have  neither  commerce  nor  manufactures?  I  will  give 
yon  a  specimen  of  others  which  have  something  to  export,  but  not 
exactly  of  the  quality  best  suited  to  those  Eastern  markets.  One 
district  has  petitioned  for  a  free  exportation  to  the  East  Indies,  which 
to  my  knowledge  raises  no  earthly  produce  but  black  horned  cattle. 
The  potteries  have  demanded  permission  to  send  freely  their  porcelain 
to  China;  and  the  ancient  and  respectable  city  of  Newcastle,  which 
grows  nothing  but  pit  coal,  has  earnestly  entreated  that  it  may  be 
allowed  to  ship  that  useful  article  to  supply  the  stoves  and  hot-houses 
of  Calcutta.  All  these  projects  prove  nothing  less  than  the  incom- 
petence of  their  authors  to  find  out  a  remedy  for  their  sufferings;  but 
they  do  most  distinctly  demonstrate  how  extensive  and  deep-seated 
the  evil  must  be,  and  how  acute  the  sufferings  which  seek  relief  from 
such  strange  devices.  They  remind  one  of  the  accounts  which  have 
been  handed  down  to  us  of  the  great  pestilence  which  once  visited 
this  city.  Nothing  in  the  story  of  that  awful  time  is  more  affecting, 
than  the  picture  which  it  presents  of  the  vain  efforts  made  to  seek 
relief;  miserable  men  might  be  seen  rushing  forth  into  streets,  and 
wildly  grasping  the  first  passenger  they  met,  to  implore  his  help,  as 
if  by  communicating  the  poison  to  others,  they  could  restore  health 
to  their  own  veins,  or  life  to  its  victims  whom  they  had  left  stretched 
before  it.  In  that  dismal  period  there  was  no  end  of  projects  and 
nostrums  for  preventing  or  curing  the  disease,  and  numberless  empi- 
rics every  day  started  up  with  some  new  delusion,  rapidly  made  for- 
tunes of  the  hopes  and  terrors  of  the  multitude,  and  then  as  speedily 
disappeared,  or  were  themselves  borne  down  by  the  general  destroyer. 
Meanwhile  the  malady  raged  until  its  force  was  spent;  the  attempts 
to  curtail  were  doubtless  all  baffled;  but  the  eagerness  with  which 
men  hailed  each  successive  contrivance,  proved  too  plainly  how  vast 
was  their  terror,  and  how  universal  the  suffering  that  prevailed. 

So  might  I  now  argue,  from  the  complaints  and  projects  which 
assail  us  on  every  hand,  how  deeply  seated  and  widely  spread  is  the 
distress  under  which  the  people  are  suffering;  but  unhappily  we 
have  to  encounter  its  details  in  many  other  shapes.  Although  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  travel  through  the  mass  of  evidence  on  your 
table,  the  particulars  of  which  I  may  safely  leave  to  my  honorable 
friend,*  who  has  so  laudibly  devoted  his  time  and  abilities  to  this 
investigation.  Let  me  only,  sir,  remind  the  House  of  the  general 
outline  of  the  inquiry.  We  have  examined  above  a  hundred  wit- 

•  Mr.  Baring,  now  Lord  Ashburton. 


2.28  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

nesses,  from  more  than  thirty  of  the  great  manufacturing  and  mer- 
cantile districts.  These  men  were  chosen  almost  at  random,  from 
thousands  whom  we  could  have  brought  before  you  with  less  trouble 
than  it  required  to  make  the  selection;  the  difficulty  was  to  keep  back 
evidence,  not  to  find  it;  for  our  desire  to  state  the  case  was  tempered 
by  a  natural  anxiety  to  encroach  as  little  as  possible  on  the  time  of 
the  House,  and  to  expedite  by  all  means  the  conclusion  of  an  inquiry, 
upon  the  result  of  which  so  many  interests  hung  in  anxious  suspense. 
In  all  this  mass  of  evidence  there  was  not.  a  single  witness  who 
denied,  or  doubted — I  beg  your  pardon,  there  was  one — one  solitary 
and  remarkable  exception,  and  none  other  even  among  those  called 
in  support  of  the  system,  who  even  hesitated  in  admitting  the  dread- 
ful amount  of  the  present  distresses.  Take,  for  example,  one  of  our 
great  staples,  the  hardware,  and  look  to  Warwickshire,  where  it  used 
to  flourish.  Birmingham  and  its  neighborhood,  a  district  of  thirteen 
miles  round  that  centre,  was  formerly  but  one  village,  I  might  say 
one  continued  workshop,  peopled  with  about  four  hundred  thousand 
of  the  most  industrious  and  skilful  of  mankind.  In  what  state  do 
you  now  find  that  once  busy  hive  of  men?  Silent,  still,  and  desolate 
during  half  the  week;  during  the  rest  of  it  miserably  toiling  at  re- 
duced wages,  for  a  pittance  scarcely  sufficient  to  maintain  animal  life 
in  the  lowest  state  of  comfort,  and  at  all  times  swarming  with  un- 
happy persons,  willing,  anxious  to  work  for  their  lives,  but  unable 
to  find  employment.  He  must  have  a  stout  heart  within  him  who 
can  view  such  a  scene  and  not  shudder.  But  even  this  is  not  all, 
matters  are  getting  worse  and  worse;  the  manufacturers  are  wailing 
for  your  decision,  and  if  that  be  against  them  they  will  instantly  yield 
to  their  fate,  and  turn  adrift  the  people  whom  they  still,  though  in- 
adequately, support  with  employment.  Upon  your  vote  of  this  night 
the  destiny  of  thousands  in  that  district  alone  depends;  and  I  ask  you 
before  you  give  it  to  tell  me  what  must  become  of  those  thousands, 
or  of  the  country  in  which  they  shall,  be  turned  loose?  I  am  aware 
that  the  language  I  use  may  be  misinterpreted — it  may  be  perverted 
into  a  threat;  but  I  speak  of  incontrovertible  iacts  from  the  evidence 
before  you,  when  I  affirm,  that  if  you  this  night  say  "  NO"  to  the 
petitions  against  the  Orders  in  Council,  you  let  loose  upon  the  country 
thousands  and  thousands — I  will  not  say  of  riotous,  or  disorderly,  or 
seditious,  or  even  discontented  people — but  only  of  hungry  men  who 
must  either  find  food  or  perish.  Look  now  to  Yorkshire — to  the 
clothing  country.  The  late  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  in  the  only 
conversation  I  had  the  honor  of  holding  with  him  upon  this  question, 
was  very  confident  that  the  case  of  the  petitioners  would  fail  in  these 
districts;  you  have  proved  it,  said  he,  as  far  as  respects  hardware, 
but,  you  will  do  nothing  in  the  woollen  trade.  Sir,  we  have  gone 
through  the  case,  and  how  stand  the  facts?  It  is  still  stronger  with 
respect  to  the  clothing  than  the  hard  ware!  It  is  more  various  in  its 
features  and  more  striking  in  the  result,  because  the  trade  is  more 
extensive,  and  employs  both  larger  capitals  and  a  more  numerous 
people.  One  gentleman  tells  you  that  he  has  twenty,  another  twenty- 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  229 

five  thousand  pounds  locked  up  in  unsaleable,  unprofitable  stock, 
which  load  his  warehouses.  A  third  has  about  thirty,  arid  a  fourth 
no  less  than  ninety  thousand  pounds  thus  disposed  of.  In  the  ware- 
houses of  one  merchant  there  are  eighty  thousand  pounds  wortli  of 
cottons,  and  in  those  of  another  at  Liverpool  from  two  to  three  thou- 
sand packages,  chiefly  woollens  and  cottons,  valued  on  the  lowest 
computation  at  two  hundred  thousand  pounds,  every  article  of  which 
was  destined  for  the  American  market,  and  can  find  no  other  vent. 
In  the  West  Riding,  thousands  have  been  thrown  out  of  all  employ- 
ment— but  this  is  nothing  compared  with  the  fearful  apprehensions 
which  are  there  entertained,  if  you  this  night  refuse  them  relief.  I 
pass  lightly  over  this  ground — but  the  fact  is  known  that  in  that  po- 
pulous county,  the  applications  to  the  parish  officers  have  so  alarm- 
ingly increased,  that  they  have  given  repeated  warnings  to  the  master 
manufacturers,  and  I  believe  to  the  higher  authorities,  of  their  utter 
inability  to  relieve  the  increasing  distress  or  to  answer  for  its  conse- 
quences. Among  other  circumstances  which  marked  this  part  of  the 
case,  there  was  one  peculiarly  affecting  to  every  one  who  heard  it. — 
It  had  been  proved  that  at  Kidderminster,  where  the  great  carpet 
manufacture  is  almost  entirely  destroyed,  the  wants  of  the  poor  be- 
came so  pressing  that  they  were  forced  to  part  with  their  little  stock 
of  furniture,  which  used  to  make  their  cottages  in  some  degree  com- 
fortable, and  even  the  clothes  of!  their  backs,  to  raise  food,  until  the 
pawnbrokers,  having  already  loaded  themselves  with  such  deposits, 
refused  to  issue  any  more  tickets.  But  at  Sheffield,  the  same  feature 
recurred  in  an  heightened  and  still  more  striking  form.  The  work- 
men in  the  cutlery  trade,  unable  to  obtain  any  longer  their  usual 
market,  from  the  master  dealers  and  merchants  or  brokers  refusing  to 
purchase  any  more,  were  compelled  to  pawn  their  articles  at  a  very 
low  valuation,  for  money,  and  even  for  food  and  clothes — so  that  this 
extraordinary  state  of  things  arose — the  pawnbrokers  came  into  the 
London  market  with  the  goods,  and  there  met  the  regular  dealers, 
whom  they  were  able  greatly  to  undersell;  in  such  wise  as  to  supply 
in  a  considerable  degree  the  London  and  other  markets,  to  the  ex- 
treme augmentation  of  the  distresses  already  so  severely  pressing 
upon  this  branch  of  trade. 

I  might  detain  you,  sir,  in  an  endless  repetition  of  this  same  tale  of 
misery,  through  its  different  shapes,  were  I  to  describe  its  varieties  in 
the  other  districts  to  which  the  evidence  applies— but  I  shall  only 
refer  to  the  Cotton  trade;  and  that,  not  for  the  sake  of  stating  that 
here  too  the  same  picture  was  presented  of  capital  locked  up — men 
of  great  nominal  wealth  living  without  income— trading,  or  seeming 
to  trade,  without  profits — numberless  workmen  dismissed — those  who 
remain  employed  earning  only  half  or  quarter  wages — parish  rates 
increasing — charitable  supplies  failing,  from  the  reduced  means  of  the 
upper  classes,  and  the  hourly  augmented  claims  upon  their  bounty— 
and  the  never-ceasing  feature  of  this  case  in  all  its  parts,  the  impend- 
ing necessity  of  instantaneously  disbanding  those  who  are  only  now 
retained  in  the  hopes  of  your  favourable  decision;  but  I  would  draw 
VOL.  i. — 20 


230  ORDERS  IX  COUNCIL. 

your  attention  to  the  Cotton  districts,  merely  to  present  one  incidental 
circumstance  which  chanced  to  transpire  respecting  the  distresses  of  the 
poor  in  those  parts.  The  food  which  now  sustains  them  is  reduced 
to  the  lowest  kind,  and  of  that  there  is  not  nearly  a  sufficient  supply; 
bread,  or  even  potatoes,  are  now  out  of  the  question;  the  luxuries  of 
animal  food,  or  even  milk,  they  have  long  ceased  to  think  of.  Their 
looks,  as  well  as  their  apparel,  proclaim  the  sad  change  in  their  situa- 
tion. One  witness  tells  you,  it  is  only  necessary  to  look  at  their  hag- 
gard faces,  to  be  satisfied  what  they  are  suffering; — another  says  that 
persons  who  have  recently  returned,  after  an  absence  of  some  months 
from  those  parts,  declare  themselves  shocked,  and  unable  to  recognise 
the  people  whom  they  had  left.  A  gentleman  largely  concerned  in 
the  Cotton  trade,  to  whose  respectability  ample  testimony  was  borne 
by  an  honorable  Baronet* — I  cannot  regularly  name  him — but  in  a 
question  relating  to  the  Cotton  trade,  it  is  natural  to  think  of  the  house 
of  Peel — that  gentleman  whose  property  in  part  consists  of  cottages 
and  little  pieces  of  ground  let  out  to  work-people,  told  us  that  lately 
he  went  to  look  after  his  rents — and  when  he  entered  those  dwellings, 
and  found  them  so  miserably  altered — so  stript  of  their  wonted  fur- 
niture and  other  little  comforts — and  when  he  saw  their  inhabitants 
sitting  down  to  a  scanty  dinner  of  oatmeal  and  water,  their  only  meal 
in  the  four-and-twenty  hours,  he  could  not  stand  the  sight,  and"  came 
away  unable  to  ask  his  rent.  These  feelings  so  honorable  to  him — 
so  painful  to  us  who  partook  of  them — were  not  confined  to  that 
respectable  witness.  We  had  other  sights  to  endure  in  that  long  and 
dismal  inquiry.  Masters  came  forward  to  tell  us  how  unhappy  it 
made  them  to  have  no  more  work  to  give  their  poor  men,  because  all 
their  money,  and  in  some  cases  their  credit  too,  was  already  gone  in 
trying  to  support  them.  Some  had  involved  themselves  in  embarrass- 
ments for  such  pious  purposes.  One  again,  would  describe  his  misery 
at  turning  off  people  whom  he  and  his  father  had  employed  for  many 
years.  Another  would  say  how  he  dreaded  the  coming  round  of 
Saturday  when  he  had  to  pay  his  hands  their  reduced  wages,  incapa- 
ble of  supporting  them;  how  he  kept  out  of  their  way  on  that  day, 
and  made  his  foreman  pay  them.  While  a  third  would  say  that  he 
was  afraid  to  see  his  people,  because  he  had  no  longer  the  means  of 
giving  them  work,  and  he  knew  that  they  would  flock  round  him  and 
implore  to  be  employed  at  the  lowest  wages;  for  something  wholly 
insufficient  to  feed  them.  Indeed,  said  one,  our  situation  is  greatly  to 
be  pitied:  it  is  most  distressing,  and  God  only  knows  what  will  become 
of  us,  for  it  is  most  unhappy!  These  things,  and  a  vast  deal  more — 
a  vast  deal  which  I  will  not  attempt  to  go  through,  because  I  abso- 
lutely have  not  the  heart  to  bear  it,  and  I  cannot  do  it — these  things, 
and  much  more  of  the  same  melancholy  description,  may  be  seen  in  the 
minutes  by  such  as  did  not  attend  the  committee;  or  as  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  represent  them,  they  may  be  understood  by  those  who 
have  not  heard  the  evidence.  But  there  were  things  seen  in  the  com- 

*  Sir  R.  Peel. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  231 

mittee  which  cannot  be  entered  on  its  records;  which  were  not  spoken 
in  words,  and  could  not  be  written  down;  which  I  should  in  vain, 
attempt  to  paint — which  to  form  any  idea  of,  you  must  have  been 
present,  and  seen  and  heard.  For  I  cannot  describe  to  you  the  man- 
ner in  which  that  affecting  evidence  was  given.  I  cannot  tell  you 
with  what  tones  and  looks  of  distress  it  was  accompanied.  \Vhen 
the  witnesses  told  the  story  of  the  sufferings  of  their  work-people  and 
their  own  sufferings  on  their  account,  there  was  something  in  it  which 
all  the  powers  of  acting  could  not  even  imitate;  it  was  something 
which  to  feel  as  I  now  feel  it,  you  must  have  seen  it  as  I  saw.  The 
men  to  whom  I  am  now  alluding  belonged  to  the  venerable  Society 
of  Friends — that  amiable  body  of  persons — the  friends  indeed  of  all 
that  is  most  precious  to  man — the  distinguished  advocates  of  humanity, 
justice,  and  peace,  and  the  patterns,  as  well  as  promoters  of  all  the 
kindest  charities  of  our  nature.  In  their  manner  of  testifying  to  this 
cause,  there  was  something  so  simple  and  so  touching,  that  it  disarmed 
for  a  season  the  habitual  indignation  of  the  learned  father  of  the 
system,*  and  seemed  to  thaw  the  cold  calculations  of  its  foster  parent,t 
and  his  followers  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Shipping  Interest. J 

Sir,  there  is  one  circumstance  in  these  melancholy  details,  which  I 
have  refrained  from  touching  upon,  because  it  seemed  always  to 
excite  a  peculiar  degree  of  soreness;  I  mean  the  scarcity.  We  have 
often  been  taunted  with  this  topic.  We  have  been  triumphantly 
asked,  "  What!  is  the  scarcity  too,  owing  to  the  Orders  in  Council?" 
Certainly  we  never  thought  of  ascribing  the  wet  summer,  and  the 
bad  crop,  to  the  present  commercial  system;  but  as  for  scarcity,  I 
imagine  there  may  be  two  kinds  of  it  equally  inconvenient  to  the 
people — a  scarcity  of  food,  and  a  scarcity  of  money  to  buy  food  with. 
All  the  witnesses  whom  we  examined,  were,  without  exception,  asked 
this  question,  "  Do  you  recollect  the  scarcity  of  1SOO  or  1S01?"  Yes, 
was  the  answer,  "  we  do  remember  it;  the  dearth  was  then  great, 
greater  than  at  present,  for  there  were  two  failing  crops."  But  when 
we  asked,  whether  the  distress  was  as  great,  they  Hung  up  their 
hands  and  exclaimed — "  0  nothing  like  it,  for  then  the  people  had 
plenty  of  work  and  full  wages,  whereas  now  the  want  of  money 
meets  the  want  of  food."  But  further,  sir,  have  you  not  taken  away 
the  only  remedy  for  this  scarcity — the  only  relief  to  which  we  can 
look  under  a  had  harvest — by  closing  the  corn  market  of  America? 
Did  we  not  always  say, in  arguing  upon  these  measures  prospectively; 
"Whore  are  you  if  a  bad  season  comes,  and  there  is  a  risk  of  a 
famine?"  Well — unhappily  this  calamity  has  come,  or  approaches; 
the  season  is  bad,  and  a  famine  stares  us  in  the  face,  and  now  we  say 
as  we  did  he  In  re — "Where  are  you  with  your  Orders  in  Council,  and 
your  American  quarrel?"  Why,  sir,  to  deny  that  those  measures 
affect  the  scarcity,  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  to  deny  that  our  Jesuit's 
bark  bill  exasperated  the  misery  of  the  French  hospitals,  for  that  the 
wretches  there  died  of  the  ague  and  not  of  the  bill. — True,  they  died 

*  Mr.  Stephen.  j  Mr.  Rose.  J  Mr.  Marryatt,  &c. 


232  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

of  the  ague:  but  your  murderous  policy  withheld  from  them  that 
kindly  herb  which  the  providence  that  mysteriously  inflicted  the 
disease,  mercifully  bestowed  for  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity. 

Before  I  quit  this  subject,  let  me  entreat  of  the  House  to  reflect 
how  it  bears  upon  the  operations  now  carrying  on  in  the  Peninsula. 
Our  armies  there  are  fed  from  America;  supplies  to  the  amount  of 
eight  or  nine  millions  a-year,  are  derived  by  them  from  thence;  the 
embargo  t'other  day  raised  the  price  of  flour  in  the  Lisbon  market 
above  fifty  per  cent.;  and  when  the  news  of  this  advance  reached 
London,  you  heard  from  one  witness  that  it  occasioned  in  one  morning, 
within  his  own  knowledge,  an  export  from  this  port  of  six  thousand 
barrels  of  flour  to  supply  the  Portuguese  market.  Our  operations  in 
Spain  and  Portugal  then  depend  upon  the  intercourse  with  America, 
and  yet  we  madly  persist  in  cutting  that  intercourse  off!  And  is  it 
indeed  come  to  this?  Are  we  never  to  lose  sight  of  the  Spanish  war, 
except  when  America  is  concerned?  To  that  contest  what  sacrifices 
have  we  not  cheerfully  made?  To  its  paramount  importance  what 
perpetual  tribute  have  we  not  been  paying?  Has  it  not  for  years 
been  the  grand  object  of  our  hopes  as  of  our  efforts;  the  centre  upon 
which  all  our  politics,  external  and  domestic,  have  hinged;  the  point 
which  regulated  everything,  from  the  negotiation  of  a  public  treaty 
to  the  arrangement  of  a  cabinet?  Upon  this  contest  what  millions 
of  money,  what  profusion  of  British  blood  have  we  not  lavished 
without  ever  stopping  to  count  the  cost,  so  self-evident  have  we  ever 
deemed  its  advantages  or  rather  its  necessity  to  be?  Yet  now  are  we 
prepared  to  abandon  it — to  sacrifice  all  our  hopes  of  its  future  profit 
— to  throw  away  every  advance  that  we  have  already  made  upon  it, 
because  it  can  no  longer  be  prosecuted  without  involving  us  in  the 
cost  and  dangers  of — a  reconciliation  with  America!  For  this  war, 
for  this  same  bootless  war,  we  hesitate  not  to  neglect  every  interest, 
every  domestic  tie — to  cripple,  oppress,  starve,  and  grind  down  our 
own  people;  but  all  attention  to  it,  all  thought  of  it,  suddenly  leaves 
us  the  moment  we  ascertain  that,  in  order  to  carry  it  on,  we  must 
abandon  an  unjust  and  ruinous  quarrel  with  our  kinsmen  in  America, 
and  speedily  relieve  the  unparralleled  distresses  of  our  own  country- 
men! Now,  and  now  only,  and  for  this  reason  and  none  other,  we 
must  give  up  for  ever  the  cherished  object  of  all  our  hopes,  and  no 
longer  even  dream  of  opposing  any  resistance  to  France  upon  the 
continent  of  Europe — because  by  continuing  to  do  so  we  should 
effectually  defeat  her  machinations  in  America! 

I  have  now,  sir,  slightly  and  generally  touched  upon  the  heads  of 
that  case  of  deep  distress  which  the  evidence  presents  to  our  view; 
and  I  here  stop  to  demand  by  what  proofs  this  evidence  has  been  met 
on  the  other  side  of  the  House?  Not  a  question  did  the  honorable 
gentlemen,  who  defend  the  system,  venture  to  put  by  way  of  shaking 
the  testimony,  the  clear  and  united  testimony  to  which  I  have  been 
alluding;  not  a  witness  did  they  call  on  their  part  with  the  view  of 
rebutting  it,  save  only  one,  and  to  this  one  person's  evidence  it  is 
necessary  that  I  should  call  your  attention,  because  from  a  particular 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  233 

circumstance  it  does  so  happen  that  it  will  not  be  found  upon  the 
minutes,  and  can  therefore  only  be  known  to  those  who  heaid  it,  by 
whom,  I  well  know,  it  never  can  be  forgotten.  This  man,  whom  I 
will  not  name,  having  denied  that  any  great  distress  prevailed  among 
the  lower  orders  in  the  manufacturing  districts,  it  was  fit  that  I  should 
examine  him  a  little  more  closely,  seeing  that  he  took  upon  himself  to 
contradict  the  statement  unanimously  given  by  the  most  respectable 
merchants  and  manufacturers  in  the  country  but  a  few  days  before. 
I  therefore  asked  whether  he  meant  to  say,  that  the  artisans  had 
the  same  wages  as  usual — And  then  was  disclosed  a  scene  the  most 
revolting,  the  most  disgusting,  that  it  is  possible  to  conceive,  insomuch, 
indeed,  that  I  was  immediately  afterwards  implored  by  the  gentlemen 
opposite  to  allow  the  evidence  to  be  expunged,  that  it  might  not 
remain  on  our  journals  to  defile  them.  This  man  in  substance  told 
us,  that  the  people  had  enough  of  wages — that  they  had  no  right  to 
more — that  when  their  wages  were  at  the  former  rate  they  had  three 
times  as  much  as  they  ought  to  have! — What?  did  he  really  dare  to 
say  that  the  food  which  lie  had  heard  with  sorrow  described  by  the 
Lancashire  witnesses  was  enough  for  the  support  of  Englishmen,  or 
that  this  miserable  fare  was  all  that  the  lower  people  of  this  country 
have  a  right  to — the  lower  people  to  whom  we  owe  all  our  national 
greatness?  Did  he  venture  to  tell  the  representatives  of  that  people 
— us  who  are  sent  here  by  them — who  meet  here  only  to  consult  for 
their  interests — who  only  exist  by  and  for  them — that  a  short  allow- 
ance of  oatmeal  and  water  (for  such  is  the  fact)  was  the  fit  fare  for 
them?*  Sir,  this  man  sprung,  I  make  no  doubt,  himself  from  the 
same  class  of  the  community,  and  at  any  rate  now  became  by  their 
labour,  I  am  ashamed  to  say,  one  of  the  most  affluent  merchants  in  the 
city  of  London — this  loyal  man,  for  he  began  his  evidence  with  an 
attack  upon  Jacobinism,  and  imputed  the  present  distresses  to  the 
seditious  machinations  of  partymen  in  this  town,  I  rather  think  he 
meant  to  insinuate  in  this  house — an  attack  which  was  also  ordered 
to  be  expunged  from  the  minutes — this  very  person  standing  in  this 
Commons  House  of  Parliament — was  shameless  enough  to  insinuate 
that  Englishmen  must  be  fed  low  to  keep  them  quiet;  for  he  distinctly 
stated,  that  if  you  gave  them  more,  you  pampered  them,  or  as  he 
termed  it,  accustomed  them  to  ''luxuries  irrelevant  to  their  condition," 
and  unhinged  (as  he  phrased  it  in  the  jargon  of  his  loyalty)  "  unhinged 
the  frame  of  society."  Sir,  I  yielded  to  the  united  entreaties  of  the 
gentlemen  opposite,  and  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  the  credit  of  our 
records,  I  consented  to  this  disgraceful  evidence  being  expunged.  I 
now  repent  me  of  what  I  did;  for  I  ought  rather  to  have  suffered  the 
contamination  to  remain  that  it  might  record  by  what  sort  of  witnesses 
this  system  is  upheld,  and  according  to  what  standard  of  popular 
rights  and  national  happiness  the  defence  of  the  syetem  is  framed. 
So  much,  however,  for  the  first  and  last  attempt  which  was  made  to 
impeach  the  facts  brought  forward  by  my  witnesses. 

*  See  evidence  of  Mr.  Wood,  Mr.  Bentlcy,  &c. 
20* 


234  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

Driven  from  this  ground,  then,  the  right  honorable  gentleman 
retreats  to  his  well  known  hold,  and  takes  refuge  in  the  Custom-house 
books — In  the  accounts  of  the  Inspector  General.  I  could  have 
wished  that  he  had  brought  that  worthy  and  respectable  officer  him- 
self to  the  bar,  because  then  we  might  have  learned  more  accurately 
how  those  returns  are  made  up;  at  present  we  have  only  a  meagre 
note  of  a  few  lines  describing  the  errors  of  this  proceeding.  But, 
with  respect  to  these  returns  I  must  in  the  first  place  observe,  that  we 
cannot  in  this  stage  of  the  inquiry  rely  on  such  evidence;  the  period 
is  gone  by  when  they  might  have  been  admissible.  I  shall  explain 
myself  in  a  moment  upon  this  point.  Accounts  of  exports  and  imports 
are  resorted  to,  and  most  properly,  in  order  to  estimate  the  trade  of  the 
country  when  we  have  no  better  data;  because  those  accounts  give 
something  like  an  approximation  or  rough  guess  at  the  state  of  the 
trade,  and  are  in  ordinary  cases  the  only  means  we  have  of  getting  at 
a  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  country  in  point  of  commercial  pros- 
perity. But  when  we  know  from  other  sources  of  the  most  unques- 
tioned authority  everything  relating  to  this  very  point — when  we 
have  by  actual  inquiry  learned  in  what  state  the  commerce  of  the 
country  is — when  we  have  gone  to  the  fountain  head  and  seen  the 
situation  of  things  with  our  own  eyes — it  is  idle  and  preposterous  to  run 
after  lists  of  exports  and  imports  which  are  only  the  less  perfect  evi- 
dence— the  indirect  sign  or  symptom,  and  utterly  out  of  time  after  we 
have  examined  the  thing  itself.  We  have  seen  that  people  are  starving 
all  over  the  manufacturing  districts,  and  the  master  manufacturers 
ruined;  after  this  to  produce  an  array  of  Custom-house  figures,  for 
the  purpose  of  showing  whether  manufactures  are  flourishing  or  not, 
is  stark  nonsense — such  an  array  is  superfluous,  if  it  coincides  with  the 
better  proofs,  if  it  contradicts  them,  what  man  alive  will  listen  to  them 
for  one  moment?  But  I  confess,  sir,  that  with  me,  at  any  stage  of  the 
inquiry,  the  credit  of  those  Custom-house  tables  would  be  but  small, 
after  the  account  of  them  which  appears  in  evidence.  The  Inspector 
himself  has  stated  in  his  memorandum,  that  the  method  of  making  up 
the  account  of  exports  cannot  be  safely  relied  upon,  in  those  instances 
where  no  payment  is  made;  and  by  one  of  the  returns  it  appears,  that  of 
twenty-seven  millions,  the  average  yearly  value  of  exports,  only  ten 
millions  are  subject  to  duty  on  exportation,  and  that  above  eight  mil- 
lions neither  pay  duty,  nor  receive  bounty  or  drawback;  upon  this  sum 
at  least,  then,  all  the  inaccuracy  admitted  in  this  minute  must  attach. 
But  the  evidence  sufficiently  explains  on  which  side  of  the  scale  the 
error  is  likely  to  lie:  There  is,  it  would  seem,  a  fellow-feeling  between 
the  gentlemen  at  the  Custom-house  and  their  honoured  masters  at  the 
Board  of  Trade;  so  that  when  the  latter  wish  to  make  blazing  state- 
ments of  national  prosperity,  the  former  are  ready  to  find  the  fuel. 
The  managing  clerk  of  one  of  the  greatest  mercantile  houses  in  the 
city,  tells  you  that  he  has  known  packages  entered  at  £5,000  which 
were  not  worth  £50;  that  those  sums  are  entered  at  random,  and  can- 
not be  at  all  relied  upon.  Other  witnesses,  particularly  from  Liver- 
pool, confirm  the  same  fact;  and  I  know,  as  does  my  right  honorable 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  235 

friend,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who  was  present,  that  the 
head  of  the  same  respectable  house,  a  few  days  ago  mentioned  at  an 
official  conference  with  him,  an  instance  of  his  own  clerks  being 
desired  at  the  Custom-house  to  make  a  double  entry  of  an  article  for 
export.  After  such  facts  as  these,  I  say  it  is  in  vain  to  talk  of  Custom- 
house returns,  even  if  they  were  contradicted  in  no  respect  by  other 
evidence.  After  showing  one  such  flaw  in  them,  I  am  absolved 
from  all  further  trouble;  I  am  not  bound  to  follow  their  details  and 
prove  them  false  step  by  step;  I  have  shown  enough  to  destroy  their 
credit  as  documents,  and  with  this  irreparable  damage  on  their  face, 
I  might  here  leave  them.  But  strange  to  tell,  after  all  the  boasting  of 
the  gentlemen  opposite — in  spite  of  every  contrivance  to  conceal  the 
real  fact — and  notwithstanding  the  essentially  vicious  mode  of  pre- 
paring those  docments,  it  does  so  happen,  that  the  falling  off  in  our 
trade  is  too  great  even  for  the  machinery  of  the  Custom-house  to  sustain, 
or  cover  it  over;  and  with  every  effort  to  prevent  its  appearance,  here 
it  breaks  out  upon  the  face  of  the  Custom-house  papers  themselves! 
At  first,  the  methods  I  have  spoken  of  were,  no  doubt,  successful. 
When  the  defalcation  was  confined  within  certain  limiis,  those 
methods  might  conceal  it,  and  enable  the  ministers  to  delude  this 
house  and  the  country,  with  details  of  our  flourishing  commerce.  But 
that  point  has  been  passed,  and  no  resources  of  official  skill  can  any 
more  suppress  the  melancholy  truth,  that  the  trade  of  the  country  has 
gone  to  decay.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  latest  of  these  annual  returns; 
and  by  its  details  we  find  that,  comparing  the  whole  amount  of  trade, 
both  exports  and  imports  (which  is  the  only  fair  way  of  reckoning), 
in  1809,  with  its  amount  in  1S11,  there  is  a  falling  off  in  the  latter 
year  to  the  amount  of  no  less  than  thirty-six  millions— compared 
with  1810,  the  falling  off  is  thirty-eight  millions.  If  we  confine  our 
view  only  to  the  export  of  British  manufactures,  we  find  that  the 
falling  off  in  1811,  as  compared  with  either  of  the  former  years,  (for 
they  are  nearly  equal,)  amounts  to  sixteen  millions.  And  if  we  take 
in  the  export  of  foreign  and  colonial  produce  also,  the  falling  off  in 
1811,  compared  with  1S09,  is  twenty-four,  and  compared  with 
1810,no  less  than  twenty-seven  millions!  Then,  sir,  we  need  not 
object  that  the  evidence  afforded  by  those  papers — they  make  most 
strongly  in  favor  of  our  argument  —  they  are  evidence  for  us,  if  any 
evidence  from  such  a  quarter  were  wanted — and  whatever  credit 
you  may  give  to  the  testimony  by  which  I  have  been  impeaching  their 
authenticity — how  little  soever  you  may  be  inclined  to  agree  with 
rnc  in  doubting  their  accuracy,  and  in  imputing  exaggeration  to  them 
—  I  care  not  even  if  you  should  wholly  deny  that  any  such  flaws  are 
to  be  found  in  their  construction,  and  that  any  such  abatement  as  I 
have  described  is  to  be  made  from  their  total  results;  I  say,  corrected 
or  uncorrected.  they  prove  my  case — and  I  now  rely  on  them,  and 
hold  them  up  in  refutation  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  because  they  dis- 
tinctly demonstrate  an  immense,  an  unparalleled  diminution  in  our 
commerce,  during  the  last  eighteen  months,  and  wholly  coincide  with 
both  our  evidence  and  our  argument. 


236  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

Of  the  positions  advanced  by  the  defenders  of  this  system,  one  of 
the  most  noted  is,  that  what  we  may  have  lost  by  its  operation  in 
one  quarter,  we  have  gained  elsewhere — and  that  if  the  United 
States  are  no  longer  open  to  us,  we  have  extended  our  trade  in  the 
other  parts  of  America,  and  in  some  new  European  channels.  To 
this  argument,  however,  the  returns  which  I  have  just  been  dwelling 
upon  furnish  a  most  triumphant,  if  it  were  not  rather  a  melancholy 
answer.  For  you  will  observe,  sir,  that  Ihe  mighty  falling  off,  which 
those  accounts  exhibit,  is  upon  the  whole  trade  of  the  country — that 
it  includes  South  America,  Heligoland,  the  Baltic,  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean, as  well  as  the  United  States,  and  the  dominions  of  France. 
If,  therefore,  upon  the  whole,  trade  there  has  been  this  great  defalca- 
tion, it  is  idle  to  talk  of  compensation  and  substitutes.  The  balance 
is  struck — the  deficiency  is  proved,  after  all  the  substitutes  have  been 
taken  into  the  account,  and  credit  has  been  given  for  them  all.  Every 
such  allowance  being  fully  made,  there  is  still  a  total  loss  of  trade  in 
one  year  to  the  enormous  amount  of  eight  and  thirty  millions  sterling. 
In  like  manner  do  these  returns  dispose  of  another  "famous  argument 
— that  the  deficit  of  last  year  is  only  apparent;  that  it  arises  from 
making  a  comparison  with  1810,  the  greatest  year  ever  known;  but 
that,  compared  with  former  years,  there  was  no  fulling  off  at  all. 
What  now  becomes  of  this  assertion?  The  falling  off  in  the  last 
year,  as  compared  with  1810,  being  thirty-seven  millions;  it  is  thirty- 
five,  as  compared  with  1S09:  and  the  deficit  of  exports  of  British 
manufactures  is  very  nearly  the  same  in  both  those  comparisons.  So 
much  for  the  assertions  of  honorable  gentlemen,  and  the  real  results 
of  the  Custom-house  documents. 

But  let  us  attend  a  little  more  closely  to  the  much  boasted  substi- 
tutes for  our  American  trade,  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  colonies  in  the  south,  and  in  our  own  settlements  in 
the  north.  Almost  all  the  witnesses  who  were  examined  knew  some- 
thing of  these  branches  of  commerce;  and  it  was  the  constant  practice 
on  this  side  of  the  House  to  ask  them,  how  far  they  had  found  relief 
from  them?  We  generally  began  with  inquiring,  whether  they  had 
tried  the  South  American  markets?  and  there  was  always  the  same 
sort  of  answer:  it  was  in  most  cases  given  with  an  air  and  manner 
sufficiently  significant,  independent  of  the  words;  there  was  generally 
a  something  which  I  should  distinguish  by  a  foreign  expression,  if  I 
might  be  permitted  to  use  it,  where  we  have  none  at  home  that  will 
convey  the  meaning — a  sort  of  naivete — an  arch  and  humorous  sim- 
plicity, which  some  now  present  must  recollect.  "Try  the  South 
American  market? — Aye,  that  we  have!"  Or,  "Know  the  Brazil 
trade?  —  We  know  it  full  well!"  Some  who  had  not  personal  expe- 
rience of  it.,  on  being  asked,  "  Whether  they  knew  of  any  others  who 
had  tried  the  South  American  trade?"  said,  "  They  never  wished  to 
know  any  such  people,  or  to  have  anything  to  do  with  them." 
Most  of  them  told  us,  that  their  diappointments  were  owing  to  Sir 
Home  Popham's  circular:  and  when  we  desired  explanation,  and 
demanded  what  profits  they  had  turned  on  those  adventures,  whether 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  237 

twenty  or  only  ten  per  cent. — they  said  they  had  always  lost  fifty  or 
sixty,  or  more  in  the  hundred;  and  never  sold  for  prime  cost;  fre- 
quently abandoning  the  goods  to  their  fate,  to  save  further  charges  in 
inquiring  after  them.  Thus  much  appeared  when  /examined  them; 
being  myself  no  trader,  I  could  only  question  them  generally  and 
differently:  accordingly,  in  my  hands,  they  came  off  easily  and  safely 
enough  —  not  so  when  the  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  took 
up  the  tale,  which  he  never  failed  to  do  as  soon  as  I  laid  it  down. 
Then  was  seen  all  the  closeness  of  a  practical  scrutineer;  he  took 
them  to  task  as  a  real  merchant,  dealer  and  chapman;  he  spoke  to 
them  in  their  own  language,  and  rated  them  in  a  manner  so  alarming 
to  them — but  to  my  honorable  friend*  and  myself  so  amusing,  that 
even  now  it  is  some  merriment  to  recollect  the  dialogue: — "  What!" 
he  would  say,  "did  you  suffer  a  loss  from  the  great  South  American 
market?"  "  Yes,"  was  the  answer,  "  a  loss  of  fifty  or  sixty  per  cent." 
"  Indeed,"  said  the  oracle  of  trade,  sharply  enough,  -'  why,  what  sort 
of  cargoes  did  you  send?" — "Woollens,"  they  would  answer,  "or 
flannels,  or  calicoes,"  as  ihe  case  might  be: — '•  Woollens,"  he  would 
reply,  "  why,  how  could  you  think  of  such  a  thing? — Woollens! — no 
wonder  that  you  lost." — So  that  all  comes  of  their  bad  trading,  and 
not  of  the  bad  market. — "While  you  are  left  to  yourselves,"  says 
the  right  honourable  gentleman,  "no  wonder  that  you  make  a  losing 
speculation  of  it:  What  can  your  ordinary  traders  know  of  such  fine 
markets  as  our  South  Sea  bubble? — Come  to  us — repair  to  our  Board 
of  Trade — let  us  assort  your  cargoes — take  a  hint  from  my  noble 
colleague  in  tradet  and  me,  who  carry  on  the  commerce  of  the  coun- 
try— Come  to  the  license  shop,  and  we  will  teach  you  the  sure  way 
— not  perhaps  of  making  a  profit,  for  in  these  times  that  is  not  to  be 
expected — but  of  reducing  your  losses,  so  that  you  shall  only  lose 
thirty  or  perhaps  not  more  than  twenty  per  cent,  on  each  adventure!" 
— But  grant  that  these  merchants  have  really  mistaken  the  right 
honourable  gentleman's  grand  market,  and  have  not  exactly  hit  upon 
the  articles  that  suit  it;  is  it  nothing  against  this  new  market  that 
none  of  the  real  traders — nobody  but  Lord  Bathurst,  and  his  Board 
in  Downing-street,  can  find  out  what  things  answer  for  it?  Is  cer- 
tainty and  steadiness  no  longer  a  desirable  quality  in  trade?  Are  we 
to  value  commerce  for  its  changeableness?  Is  variety  now  the  great 
beauty  of  traffic?  Is  that  line  of  employment  for  capital  to  be  pre- 
ferred which  gives  the  most  precarious  returns,  where  the  hazards 
are  the  greatest,  and  the  obstacles  the  most  difficult?  as  if  the  mer- 
chant was  in  search  of  amusement,  or  of  that  kind  of  unnatural 
delight  which  gamesters  arc  said  to  take,  in  the  risks  and  dangers  of 
their  unworthy  occupation?  Really,  sir,  I  speak  as  one  ignorant  of 
the  subject,  practically;  I  am  not  like  the  gentlemen  of  the  Board, 
an  adept  in  the  mysteries  of  commerce;  but  from  everything  I  had 
heard,  I  did  imagine  that  there  was  some  merit  in  the  old-fashioned 
qualities  which  were  conceived  foolishly  I  imagine,  and  ignorantly, 

*  Mr.  Baring.  }  Lord  Bathurst. 


238  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

to  distinguish  a  good  market,  and  that  it  was  nothing  the  worse  for 
being  accessible — plain  enough  to  enable  traders  to  find  out.  what 
suited  it — large  enough  not  to  be  soon  glutted — regular  enough  to  be 
confided  in  more  years  than  one — and  gainful  enough  to  yield  some 
little  profit,  and  not  a  large  loss  upon  each  adventure. 

Then  comes  the  other  great  substitute,  the  market  of  British  North 
America,  and  here  the  same  proofs  of  a  complete  glut  are  to  be  found 
in  every  part  of  the  evidence.  At  first,  indeed,  when  the  people  of 
the  United  Stales  did  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  government,  and 
unwillingly  supported,  or  endeavoured  to  evade  the  prohibitory  laws, 
it  was  found  easy  to  smuggle  in  our  goods  through  Canada,  to  a  con- 
siderable amount.  But  tin's  outlet  too  we  have  now  taken  especial 
care  to  close  up,  by  persisting  in  the  same  measures  which  rendered 
such  a  roundabout  trade  necessary,  until  we  exasperated  the  people 
of  the  United  States  as  well  as  their  government,  and  enabled  the 
latter  to  take  whatever  steps  might  be  requisite  for  completing  the 
exclusion  of  our  trade — those  measures  have  been  adopted — the 
contraband  in  Canada  is  at  an  end,  and  there  is  no  longer  that  vent 
in  British  North  America,  which  the  Board  fondly  imagined  it  had 
so  slily  provided  for  our  commerce;  a  vent  which,  at  the  best,  must 
have  been  a  most  wretched  compensation  for  the  loss  of  the  American 
traffic,  in  its  direct  and  full  course. 

But,  sir,  we  are  talking  of  substitutes;  and  I  must  here  ask  how 
much  of  the  South  American  or  European  trade  is  really  a  substitute 
for  that  of  the  United  States? — because,  unless  it  is  strictly  speaking 
so  substituted  in  its  place,  that  it  would  be  destroyed  were  the  North 
American  trade  restored,  no  possible  argument  can  be  drawn  from  its 
amount,  against  the  measures  which  I  now  recommend  for  regaining 
the  market  of  the  United  States.  It  is  pretended  that  the  export  to 
North  America  used  to  be  much  greater  than  the  consumption  of  that 
country,  and  that  a  large  part  of  it  was  ultimately  destined  for  the 
consumption  of  South  America  and  the  West  Indies;  from  whence 
the  inference  is  drawn,  that  as  we  now  supply  those  markets  directly, 
the  opening  of  the  North  American  market  would  not  be  so  large  an 
increase  as  is  supposed.  The  fact  is  quite  otherwise.  It  is  proved  in 
evidence  by  a  respectable  witness*  who  has  resided  for  years  in 
America,  and  by  the  official  returns  before  Congress,  that  not  above 
a  thirteenth  in  value  of  the  amount  of  the  goods  sent  from  this  country 
to  the  United  States,  is  in  the  whole  re-exported  to  South  America 
and  the  West  Indies;  and  of  this  not  above  a  half  can  be  British 
manufacture.  There  will  only  be  then  a  diminution  of  half  a  million 
in  the  export  to  North  America  from  this  cause,  and  that  must  have 
been  much  more  than  supplied  by  the  increase  of  the  North  American 
market  since  the  trade  was  stopt.  So  too  the  markets  of  Brazil,  and 
of  Spain  and  Portugal,  which  are  spoken  of  as  substitutes  for  our 
North  American  commerce,  will  most  unquestionably  continue  as  at 
present  after  that  commerce  shall  have  been  restored.  All  the  deduc- 

*  Mr.  P.  C.  White. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  239 

tions  (hat  we  have  any  right  to  make  are  too  contemptible  to  be 
mentioned.  No  proof  is  offered  or  even  attempted  to  be  given,  that 
these  protended  substitutes,  are  in  fact  substitutes;  that  they  would 
not  conliuue  to  exist  in  their  present  extent  afier  the  revival  of  the 
branches  in  the  place  of  which  they  are  absurdly  said  to  be  substi- 
tuted. Therefore  I  need  not  argue  as  to  the  extent  or  the  excellence 
of  these  new  markets.  Be  they  ever  so  valuable — be  they  as  fine  as 
the  Vice-President  and  his  Board  can  dream  of,  my  argument  is  not 
touched  by  them,  until  it  be  shown,  that  we  must  lose  them  by  restor- 
ing our  intercourse  with  the  United  States. 

Since  the  pressure  then  which  the  loss  of  our  foreign  trade  has 
occasioned,  have  we  discovered  in  the  course  of  the  inquiry  any  relief? 
The  gentlemen  opposite  eagerly  fly  to  the  home  market;  and  here 
their  disappointment  is,  I  grieve  to  say,  speedy  and  signal.  On  this 
branch  of  the  question  the  evidence  is  most  striking  and  harmonious. 
In  all  the  trades  which  we  examined,  it  appeared  that  the  home 
market  was  depressed  in  an  unexampled  degree.  And  this  effect  has 
been  produced  in  two  ways.  Goods  destined  for  the  foreign  market, 
no  longer  finding  that  vent,  have  been  naturally  thrown  more  or  less 
into  the  home  market,  so  as  to  glut,  or  at  least  greatly  overstock  it. 
And  again,  those  places  which  depended  for  part  of  their  support 
upon  the  foreign  market,  have  been  so  crippled  by  the  loss  of  it,  that 
their  consumption  of  articles  of  comfort  and  luxury  has  been  mate- 
rially contracted.  This  is  remarkably  illustrated  in  the  evidence  re- 
specting the  cutlery  trade;  which,  from  the  nature  of  its  articles,  is 
peculiarly  calculated  to  explain  both  the  circumstances  I  have  alluded 
to.  Not  only  do  the  dealers  in  that  line  find  the  home  market  unusu- 
ally loaded  with  their  goods,  but  they  tell  you  that  they  find  a  much 
smaller  demand  than  formerly  for  those  goods,  in  all  places  which 
used  to  be  engaged  in  the  American  trade.  Evidence  of  the  same 
kind  is  to  be  found  touching  another  article  of  luxury,  or  at  least 
comfort,  the  Kidderminster  manufactory;  and  the  respectable  and 
intelligent  witnesses  from  Spitalfields  explained  fully  how  the  diminu- 
tion of  their  staple  manufacture,  from  what  causes  soever  arising, 
never  failed  to  affect  all  the  other  branches  of  industry  in  that  district, 
down  to  the  bricklayer  and  common  day-labourer.  It  must  be  so;  the 
distribution  of  wealth,  the  close  connection  and  mutual  dependency 
of  the  various  branches  of  industry,  will  not  permit  it  to  be  otherwise. 

While  I  am  speaking  of  the  home  trade,  sir,  I  must  call  your 
attention  in  passing,  to  one  species  of  relief  which  is  more  apparent 
than  real,  arising  to  that  branch  of  our  commerce  out  of  the  war  and 
its  expenditure.  It  is  certain  that  at  present  a  great  part  of  the  trade 
which  remains  to  us  is  not  a  regular,  lucrative,  and  if  I  may  so  speak, 
wholesome  and  natural  trade — but  a  mere  transference  of  money 
from  the  tax-payer  through  the  tax-gatherer  to  the  manufacturer  or 
merchant — a  mere  result  of  the  operations  of  supply  within  this 
House,  and  the  operations  of  war  out  of  it.  I  speak  now,  not  only 
of  the  three  millions  a  year  paid  to  the  shipping  interest  for  the  trans- 
port service — nor  of  the  vast  amount  of  our  expenditure  in  the 


240  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

Peninsula  and  Mediterranean;  which  delusively  augment  by  many 
millions  the  apparent  exports  of  the  country,  but  I  will  take  an  instance 
from  the  evidence  and  the  papers  on  your  table,  and  it  shall  be  from 
Birmingham.  Half  of  the  trade  there  being  now  gone,  there  remains 
a  manufacture,  we  are  told,  of  goods  to  the  amount  of  1,200,000/.  a 
year,  for  home  consumption.  But  this  home  consumption  includes 
the  demand  of  that  great  and  extravagant  consumer  the  government. 
The  Ordnance  accounts  show  that  above  700,000/.  are  paid  in  one 
year  for  gun  and  pistol  barrels  made  at  Birmingham;  so  that  only  half 
a  million  is  the  real  and  genuine  extent  of  the  remaining  manufacture. 
The  rest  no  doubt  relieves  the  manufacturers  and  workmen,  but  it  is 
a  relief  at  the  expense  of  the  other  members  of  the  community;  and 
the  expense  goes  to  feed  the  war — to  support  soldiers  and  sailors, 
who  in  return,  though  doubtless  they  perform  great  and  precious  ser- 
vices to  the  country,  yet  do  not  at  all  contribute  to  augment  its  wealth, 
or  maintain  its  revenues,  as  workmen  and  peasants  would  do  if  the 
same  sums  were  expended  upon  them.  A  similar  observation  may 
be  applied  to  the  expenses  of  clothing  the  Army  and  Navy.  In 
Yorkshire,  and  some  parts  of  Scotland,  these  demands  have  been 
found  to  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  remaining  trade.  Their  amount  I 
know  not  with  any  accuracy,  as  the  returns  which  I  moved  for  are 
not  yet  produced;  but  it  is  easy  to  conjecture  that  six  or  seven  hundred 
thousand  men  cannot  be  clothed  at  a  very  small  expense.  All  these 
demands  must  be  deducted  from  the  account,  if  we  wish  to  exhibit 
a  fair  view  of  the  actual  state  of  our  manufactures. 

Suffer  me,  sir,  before  leaving  this  part  of  the  subject,  to  state  a 
circumstance  connected  with  the  Home  trade,  which  is  peculiarly 
striking,  arid  argues  to  show  clearly,  that  things  are  in  such  a  state 
that  any  relief  obtained  in  one  quarter  must  be  at  the  expense  of 
another.  In  the  clothing  districts,  it  was  stated  that  about  a  year  and 
a  half  ago,  a  considerable  extension  of  trade  had  been  experienced  in 
many  branches;  and  no  sooner  was  the  circumstance  mentioned  than 
the  Vice-President's  countenance  brightened  up,  as  if  he  had  at  length 
begun  to  see  daylight,  and  the  tide  was  really  turning  in  his  favour:  so 
he  greedily  pursued  the  inquiry.  It  turned  out,  however,  that  this 
relief,  (and  it  was  the  only  one  of  which  we  met  with  any  trace  during 
our  whole  investigation)  was  owing  to  a  change  of  fashions,  which 
about  that  time  was  introduced,  the  ladies  having  taken  to  wearing 
cloth  pelisses  during  that  winter.  But  soon  after  came  the  sequel  of 
the  same  tale;  for  we  were  examining  the  Spitalfields  weavers  on 
some  other  points,  and  upon  their  stating  that  they  were  never  so 
badly  off  as  about  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  we  inquired  to  what  this 
was  owing,  and  it  turned  out  that  it  rose  entirely  from  the  change  of 
fashions  among  the  ladies,  who  no  longer  wore  silk  pelisses.  Thus 
the  clothiers  were  relieved  entirely  at  the  expense  of  the  weavers,  and 
the  only  instance  which  this  long  and  various  inquiry  affords  of  the 
universal  sufferings  being  interrupted  by  any  more  favourable  events 
— the  only  diminution  to  the  distresses  that  is  anywhere  to  be  met 
with — is  one  which  increases  those  miseries  precisely  in  the  same 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  241 

degree  in  some  other  quarter,  equally  deserving  our  protection  and 
our  pity. 

But  there  is  one  ground  which  the  advocates  of  the  system  always 
retreat  to,  when  they  are  driven  out  of  the  facts,  and  find  themselves 
unable  either  to  deny  the  miseries  which  their  projects  have  occasioned, 
or  to  contend  that  there  are  any  practicable  means  of  relief.  They 
allow  that  our  commerce  is  destroyed — they  admit  that  the  people  are 
impoverished — but  there  are  other  considerations,  they  contend,  which 
a  great  nation  should  entertain — there  are  more  valuable  possessions 
than  trade  and  wealth — and  we  are  desired  to  consider  the  dignity 
and  honour  of  the  country.  Sir,  there  is  no  man  within  these  walls  to 
whom  such  an  appeal  could  be  made  with  more  effect  than  to  him. 
who  is  now  addressing  you.  Let  it  but  be  shown  to  me  that  our 
national  honour  is  at  stake — that  it  is  involved  in  this  system — nay  that 
it  touches  it  in  any  one  point — and  my  opposition  from  that  moment 
is  at  an  end — only  prove  to  me,  that  although  our  trade  is  gone,  or 
turned  into  confined,  uncertain  and  suspicious  channels — although 
our  manufacturers  are  ruined  and  our  people  starving — yet  all  these 
sacrifices  and  sufferings  are  necessary  for  our  character  and  name — 
I  shall  be  the  first  to  proclaim  that  they  are  necessary  and  must  be 
borne,  because  I  shall  ever  be  the  foremost  to  acknowledge  that  honour 
is  power  and  substantial  inheritance  to  a  great  people,  and  that  public 
safety  is  incompatible  with  degradation.  Let  me  but  see  how  the 
preservation  of  our  maritime  rights,  paramount  as  I  hold  them  to 
every  oilier  consideration,  is  endangered  by  the  repeal  of  the  Orders 
in  Council — and  I  sit  down  and  hold  my  peace.  But  I  now  urge  you 
to  that  repeal,  because  I  hold  it  most  conscientiously  to  be,  not  inju- 
rious, but  essential  to  the  preservation  and  stability  of  those  rights,  and 
of  the  naval  power  which  protects  them;  and  I  must  therefore  crave 
your  leave  to  step  aside  for  a  while  from  the  details  in  which  I  have 
been  engaged,  in  order  to  remove,  as  I  well  know  I  speedily  can,  all 
idea  of  the  necessity  of  the  Orders  in  Council  to  the  security  of  our 
naval  rights.  This  explanation  is  due  both  to  the  question  itself,  to 
the  numerous  parties  who  are  now  in  breathless  anxiety  awaiting  its 
decision,  and  if  I  may  presume  to  say  so,  to  my  own  principles  and 
character. 

On  the  foundation  of  our  pretensions  as  at  the  present  time  urged  I 
am  loth  to  enter,  because,  whether  they  are  just  or  not,  according  to 
my  view  of  the  question,  the  maintaining  or  abandoning  of  them,  even 
of  the  most  untenable  among  them,  is  quite  foreign  to  this  discussion. 
I  will  not,  therefore,  stop  to  examine  the  value,  or  the  justice  of  our 
claim  to  unlimited  blockade — what  is  significantly  termed  paper 
blockade.  I  might  ask  since  when  this  has  been  introduced  or  sanc- 
tioned by  even  our  own  courts  of  public  laws?  I  might  refer  you 
to  the  beginning  of  last  war,  when  our  commanders  in  the  West  Indies 
having  declared  the  ports  of  Murtinico  under  blockade,  the  highest 
authority  in  matters  of  prize,  the  Lords  of  Appeal,  without  hesitation 
decided  this  blockade  to  be  contrary  to  the  law  of  nations,  and  refused 
to  support  it.  But  as  my  argument  requires  no  such  position,  as  it 

VOL.  I. — 21 


242  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

leads  me  quite  clear  of  this  question,  I  wish  not  to  embarrass  myself 
at  all  with  it,  and  I  will  freely  grant  everything  that  can  be  asked 
upon  the  question  of  right.  I  will  admit  that  we  have  a  right  to 
blockade,  by  a  few  lines  in  the  Gazette,  whole  islands,  coasts,  con- 
tinents, nay,  the  entire  world  and  all  its  harbours,  without  sending  a 
single  sloop  of  war  to  enforce  the  order.  This  admission,  I  should 
think,  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  most  blockading  appetite  in  the  House, 
though  I  perceive,  by  the  smile  of  distrust  on  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer's  countenance,  that  it  falls  short  of  his  notions.  I  will  also 
pass  over  the  still  more  material  question,  how  far  we  have  a  right  to 
blockade,  for  purposes  not  belligerent  but  mercantile,  that  is,  to  exclude 
neutrals  from  trading  with  our  enemy,  not  with  the  view  of  reducing 
that  enemy  to  submission,  and  terminating  the  contest  more  speedily, 
for  the  general  good,  but  upon  the  speculation  of  stunting  the  enemy's 
trade  and  encouraging  our  own.  Lastly,  I  shall  say  nothing  of  the 
most  obvious  of  all  these  questions — how  far  have  we  a  right  to 
blockade  the  enemy,  and  exclude  the  neutral,  for  the  purpose  of  break- 
ing our  own  blockade  and  engrossing  the  trade  with  the  enemy,  from 
which  we  keep  the  neutral  out — a  question  ably  stated  the  first  time  I 
had  the  honour  of  bringing  forward  this  subject,  by  a  right  honourable 
gentleman  on  the  opposite  side.*  All  these  questions  I  pass  from, 
however  strong  my  opinion  may  be  upon  some  of  them;  and  I  do  not 
even  stop  to  show  what  the  evidence  does  at  every  step  substantiate, 
that  the  Orders  in  Council  do  in  no  respect  tend  to  secure  any  one  even, 
of  those  pretended  advantages  for  our  own  trade  over  the  enemy's; 
but  I  hasten  to  grapple  with  the  substance  of  the  argument  on  the 
other  side,  by  which  the  Orders  in  Council  are  connected  with  these 
maritime  rights,  all  of  which  I  am  now  admitting.  It  is  said,  that  if 
we  repeal  those  Orders,  and  waive  or  relinquish  for  the  present  and 
for  our  own  evident  advantage,  the  rights  on  which  they  are  founded, 
then  we  sacrifice  those  rights  for  ever,  and  can  never  again,  happen 
what  may,  enforce  them.  Is  it  really  so,  sir?  Then  woe  betide  us 
and  our  rights!  for  which  of  all  our  maritime  rights  have  we  not  at 
one  time  or  another  relinquished?  Free  ships  make  free  goods,  says 
the  enemy,  and  so  say  many  other  powers.  This  we  strenuously  deny, 
and  we  deem  our  denial  the  very  corner-stone  of  our  maritime  system. 
Yet  at  the  peace  of  Utrecht  we  gave  it  up,  after  a  war  of  unexampled 
success,  a  series  of  uninterrupted  triumphs,  in  which  our  power  was 
extended,  and  France  and  her  allies  humiliated.  The  famous  rule  of 
the  war  of  1756,  has  had  the  same  fate — that  principle  out  of  which 
the  Orders  in  Council  unquestionably  sprung.  The  name  by  which 
it  is  known  shows  that  it  is  but  a  modern  invention;  buf  it  seems  to 
have  been  waived  or  relinquished  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  discovered; 
for  in  the  American  war  it  was  given  up,  not  only  in  practice,  but  by 
repeated  decisions  in  our  Prize  Courts:  I  allude  especially  to  the  well 
known  judgments  of  Sir  James  Marriott  upon  this  point.  In  the  last 
war  it  was  also  departed  from,  by  express  acts  of  the  government  in 

*  Mr.  Canning. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  243 

1793  and  1794;  yet,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  the  very  person  who 
now  tells  us  that  to  refrain  from  forcing  a  right  and  to  abandon  it 
forever,  are  one  and  the  same  thing,  was  he  who  contributed  more 
than  any  other  man  to  revive  the  rule  of  the  war  of  1756;  he  who 
gave  to  the  world  an  able  and  learned  work,  certainly, — but  one  which 
I  deeply  lament  ever  saw  the  light, — I  mean  the  tract  known  by  the 
name  of  "  War  in  Disguise."  Another,  and,  in  my  opinion  by  far 
the  most  valuable  of  our  maritime  rights,  is  the  right  of  search  for 
contraband  of  war;  it  is  one  of  the  most  unquestionable,  too,  for  it  is 
strictly  a  belligerent  principle,  lint  have  we  invariably  exercised  it? 
Nay,  have  we  not  offered  to  give  it  up?  Recollect  the  first  armed 
neutrality,  at  the  close  of  the  American  war;  Mr.  Fox  was  then  en- 
gaged in  negotiating  away  this  very  right;  and  by  a  fatality  as  re- 
markable as  that  which  I  have  just  spoken  of,  this  very  statesman  (and 
a  grenter  has  never  ruled  in  this  kingdom,  nor  one  more  alive  to  the 
true  honour  of  his  country)  was  the  very  man  who  first  extended  the 
right  of  blockade,  in  May,  1S06;  and  his  colleagues,  regulated  by  his 
principles,  were  the  authors  of  the  coasting  blockade,  the  first  step  to 
the  famous  Orders  in  Council.  How,  then,  can  any  man,  who  has  a 
memory  about  him,  pretend  to  tell  us,  that  if  we  for  a  moment  cease 
to  exercise  those  rights,  we  never  can  again  enforce  them,  when  you 
find  that  we  have  not  merely  abstained  from  exercising,  but  actually 
surrendered  at  different  times  all  the  maritime  principles  which  we 
now  hold  most  sacred  and  most  essential?  Is  it  necessary  always  to 
do  a  thing  because  you  have  the  right  to  do  it?  Can  a  right  not  be 
kept  alive  except  by  perpetually  using  it,  whether  hurtful  or  beneficial  ? 
You  might  just  as  well  say,  that  because  I  may  have  a  clear  right  of 
way  through  my  neighbour's  close,  therefore  I  must  be  eternally  walk- 
ing to  and  fro  in  the  path,  upon  pain  of  losing  my  right  should  I  ever 
cease  to  perform  this  exercise.  My  honourable  and  learned  friend* 
would  run  up  and  tell  me,  if  he  saw  me  resting  myself,  or  eating,  or 
sleeping,  or  walking  to  church, — "  Why,  what  are  you  about  ?  You 
are  leaving,  relinquishing,  abandoning  your  inviolable  and  undoubted 
right;  if  you  do  not  instantly  return  and  constantly  walk  there,  you 
are  an  undone  man."  It  is  very  possible  that  this  may  be  destructive 
of  my  comforts,  nay,  absolutely  ruinous  to  me,  but  still  I  must  walk, 
or  my  right  of  way  is  gone.  The  path  may  lead  to  a  precipice  or  a 
coal-pit,  where  I  may  possibly  break  rny  neck  in  groping  after  my 
sacred  rights.  What  then  ?  My  grandchildren,  long  after  I  shall  have 
been  destroyed  in  preserving  tin's  claim,  may  have  to  thank  me  for 
some  pleasant  or  profitable  walk,  which  it  secrns  there  was  no  other 
way  of  keeping  possession  of  but  by  my  destruction.  This  is  pre- 
cisely the  argument  applied  to  the  present  question.  I  will  maintain 
that  every  right  may  safely  be  waived,  or  abandoned  for  reasons  of 
expediency,  and  resumed  when  those  reasons  cease.  If  it  is  other- 
wise—  if  a  right  must  be  exerted,  whether  beneficial  or  ruinous  to  him 
who  claims  it,  you  abuse  the  language  by  calling  it  a  right — it  becomes 

*  Mr.  Stephen. 


244  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

a  duty,  an  obligation,  a  burthen.  I  say,  if  your  interest  requires  the 
relinquishment  of  the  rights  in  question,  abstain  from  enforcing  them 
— give  them  up  under  protest — do  not  abandon  them — do  not  yield 
them  in  such  a  way  that  you  may  seem  to  acknowledge  yourselves 
in  the  wrong — but  with  all  the  solemnities  which  can  be  devised,  with 
as  many  protestations  and  other  formalities  as  the  requisite  number 
of  civilians  can  invent,  state  that  you  are  pleased  to  waive  the  exercise 
of  the  right  for  the  present,  or  until  further  notice;  and  that  for  your 
own  interest,  and  with  views  of  your  own,  you  are  content  to  refrain 
from  enforcing  this  chapter  of  the  maritime  code.  Their  brain  must 
be  filled  with  whimsies,  and  not  with  ideas  of  right,  who  can  imagine 
that  a  conduct  like  this  would  place  our  pretensions  in  jeopardy,  or 
throw  a  single  obstacle  in  the  way  of  exerting  on  the  morrow  the 
very  same  rights,  of  which  next  Saturday's  Gazette  should  contain 
the  waiver.  Always  let  it  be  remembered,  that  I  ask  no  surrender, 
no  acknowledgment.  I  say  keep  fast  hold  of  your  rights — on  no 
account  yield  them  up — but  do  not  play  the  part  of  madness,  and 
insist  on  always  using  those  rights  even  when  their  use  will  infallibly 
work  your  ruin. 

In  entering,  sir,  upon  the  discussion  of  our  maritime  system,  I 
have  been  drawn  aside  from  the  course  of  my  statement  respecting 
the  importance  of  the  commerce  which  we  are  sacrificing  to  those 
pure  whimsies,  I  can  call  them  nothing  else,  respecting  our  abstract 
rights.  That  commerce  is  the  whole  American  market — a  branch  of 
trade  in  comparison  of  which,  whether  you  regard  its  extent,  its  cer- 
tainty, or  its  progressive  increase,  every  other  sinks  into  insignificance. 
It  is  a  market  which  in  ordinary  years  may  take  off  about  thirteen 
millions  worth  of  our  manufactures;  and  in  steadiness  and  regularity 
it  is  unrivalled.  In  this  respect,  or  indeed  in  any  other,  it  very  little 
resembles  the  right  honourable  gentleman's*  famous  South  American 
market.  It  has  none  of  the  difficulty  and  uncertainty  which  it  seems 
are  now  among  the  characteristics  of  a  good  trade;  neither  has  it  that 
other  remarkable  quality  of  subjecting  those  who  use  it  to  a  loss  of 
fifty  or  sixty  per  cent,  unless  they  put  their  speculations  and  assort- 
ments under  the  fostering  care  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  All  such 
properties  I  disclaim  on  the  part  of  the  American  commerce;  it  is 
sure  and  easy,  and  known,  and  gives  great  and  steady  profits.  The 
returns  are  indeed  as  sure,  and  the  bad  debts  as  few,  as  they  used  to 
be  even  in  the  trade  of  Holland.  Those  returns  are  also  grown 
much  more  speedy.  Of  this  you  have  ample  proof  before  you,  not 
merely  from  the  witnesses  actually  examined,  who  have  all  said  that 
the  payment  was  now  as  quick  as  in  any  other  line,  and  that  the 
Americans  often  preferred  ready  money  bargains  for  the  discount; 
but  the  same  thing  is  exemplified  in  the  omissions  of  the  case  brought 
forward  by  the  petitioners.  Four  years  ago  they  told  you,  and  proved 
it  at  your  bar,  that  were  the  intercourse  with  the  United  States  cut 
off  we  should  lose  about  twelve  millions,  or  a  year  and  a  half's  pay- 

*  Mr.  Rose. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  245 

ments,  that  being  the  sum  then  due  from  America  to  this  country. 
Now  they  have  no  such  case  to  urge;  fur  they  well  know,  that  were 
a  balance  struck  between  the  two  nations  to-morrow,  it  would  be 
considerably  in  favour  of  the  Americans,  so  greatly  have  they  increased 
in  wealth,  and  so  rapidly  has  this  trade  been  growing  as  it  were  under 
our  very  eyes! 

There  are  some  political  facts,  which  we  must  take  as  facts,  be- 
cause they  are  proved  to  us,  without  being  able  to  account  for  them, 
or  to  trace  them  to  their  origin,  and  explain  their  causes.  But  the 
extent,  and  swift  and  regular  progress  of  the  American  market  for 
British  goods  is  not  of  this  number;  we  can  easily  and  clearly  account 
for  it.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  can  be  no  otherwise,  and  the  reason 
lies  on  the  very  surface  of  the  fact.  America  is  an  immense  agricul- 
tural country,  where  land  is  plentiful  and  cheap;  men  and  labour, 
though  quickly  increasing,  yet  still  scarce  and  dear  when  compared 
with  the  boundless  regions  which  they  occupy  and  cultivate.  In  such 
a  country,  manufacturers  do  not  naturally  thrive;  every  exertion,  if 
matters  be  left  to  themselves,  goes  into  other  channels.  This  people 
is  connected  with  England  by  origin,  language,  manners,  and  insti- 
tutions; their  tastes  go  along  with  their  convenience,  and  they  come 
to  us  as  a  matter  of  course  for  the  articles  which  they  do  not  make 
themselves.  Only  take  one  fact  as  an  example:  The  negroes  in  the 
Souihern  States  are  clothed  in  English  made  goods,  and  it  takes  forty 
shillings  a-year  thus  to  supply  one  of  those  unfortunate  persons. 
This  will  be  admitted  to  be  the  lowest  sum  for  which  any  person  in 
America  can  be  clothed;  but  take  it  as  the  average,  and  make  deduc- 
tion for  the  expenses  above  prime  cost — you  have  a  sum  upon  the 
whole  population  of  eight  millions,  which  approaches  the  value  of 
our  exports  to  the  United  States.  But  it  is  not  merely  in  clothing; 
go  to  any  house  in  the  Union,  from  their  large  and  wealthy  cities  to 
the  most  solitary  cabin  or  log-house  in  the  forests — you  find  in  every 
corner  the  furniture,  tools,  and  ornaments  of  Staffordshire,  of  War- 
wickshire, and  of  the  northern  counties  of  England.  The  wonder 
ceases  when  we  thus  reflect  for  a  moment,  and  we  plainly  perceive 
that  it  can  be  no  otherwise.  The  whole  population  of  the  country 
is  made  up  of  customers,  who  require  and  who  can  afford  to  pay  for 
our  goods.  This,  too,  is  peculiar  to  that  nation,  and  it  is  a  peculiarity 
as  happy  for  them  as  it  is  profitable  to  us.  I  know  the  real  or  affected 
contempt  with  which  some  persons  in  this  country  treat  our  kins- 
men of  the  west.  I  fear  some  angry  and  jealous  feelings  have  sur- 
vived our  former  more  intimate  connection  with  them — feelings 
engendered  by  the  event  of  its  termination,  but  which  it  would  be 
wiser  as  well  as  more  manly  to  forget.  Nay,  there  are  certain  ro- 
mantic spirits  who  even  despise  the  unadorned  structure  of  their 
massive  democratic  society.  But  to  me  I  freely  acknowledge  the 
sight  of  one  part  of  it  brings  feelings  of  envy,  as  an  Englishman;  I 
mean  the  happy  distinction,  that  over  the  whole  extent  of  that  bound- 
less continent,  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  there  is  not  one  pauper  to  be  found. 

21* 


246  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

Such  are  the  customers  whom  America  presents  to  us.  The  rapid 
increase  of  their  culture  and  population  too,  doubling  in  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years,  must  necessarily  augment  this  demand  for  our  goods 
in  the  same  proportion.  Circumstanced  as  the  two  countries  are,  I 
use  no  figure  of  speech,  but  speak  the  -simple  fact  when  I  say,  that 
not  an  axe  falls  in  the  woods  of  America  which  does  not  put  in  mo- 
tion some  shuttle,  or  hammer,  or  wheel  in  England.  Look  at  Mr. 
Parkes's  evidence,  and  you  will  see  that  the  changes  which  happen 
in  the  New  World,  or  the  political  proceedings  of  the  two  govern- 
ments, their  orders,  and  manifestoes,  and  negotiations,  may  be  per- 
ceptibly traced  in  their  instantaneous  effects  in  this  country — in  the 
increased  or  diminished  velocity  (I  speak  to  the  letter)  of  the  wheels 
which  are  moving  in  the  different  districts  where  English  manufac- 
tures used  to  flourish. 

But  let  us  merely  pause  upon  the  broad  fact  of  the  present  amount 
of  the  American  market,  and  let  us  keep  our  eye  for  a  moment  upon 
the  numerical  expression  of  its  demand — thirteen  millions  sterling  by 
the  year!  Why,  sir,  only  conceive  any  event  which  should  give  an 
opening  in  the  north  of  Europe,  or  the  Mediterranean  for  but  a  small 
part  of  this  vast  bulk — some  change  or  accident  by  which  a  thirteenth, 
aye,  or  a  thirtieth  of  this  enormous  value  of  British  goods  could  be 
thrown  into  the  enemy's  countries!  Into  what  transports  of  delight 
would  the  Vice  President  be  flung!  I  verily  believe  he  would  make 
but  one  step  from  his  mansion  to  his  office — all  Downing-street,  and 
all  Dukes'-place  would  be  in  an  uproar  of  joy.  Bless  me,  what  a 
scene  of  activity  and  business  should  we  see!  What  cabinets — what 
boards! — What  amazing  conferences  of  lords  of  trade! — What  a 
driving  together  of  ministers! — What  a  rustling  of  small  clerks!  — 
What  a  mighty  rushing  of  brokers! — Circulars  to  the  manufacturing 
towns — harangues  upon  'Change,  performed  by  eminent  naval  charac- 
ters— triumphal  processions  of  dollars  and  volunteers  in  St.  James's- 
square! — Hourly  deputations  from  the  merchants — courteous  and 
pleasing  answers  from  the  board — a  speedy  importation  into  White- 
hall, to  a  large  amount,  of  worthy  knights  representing  the  city — a 
quick  return  cargo  of  licenses  and  hints  for  cargoes — the  whole  craft 
and  mystery  of  that  license  trade  revived,  will)  its  appropriate  per- 
juries and  frauds— new  life  given  to  the  drooping  firms  of  dealers  in 
forgery,  whom  I  formerly  exposed  to  you — answered  by  correspond- 
ing activity  in  the  Board  of  Trade  and  its  clerks — slips  of  the  pen  worth 
fifteen  thousand  pounds* — judicious  mistakes — well  considered  over- 
sights— elaborate  inadvertencies — Why,  sir,  so  happily  constituted 
is  the  right  honourable  gentleman's!  understanding,  that  his  very 
blunders  are  more  precious  than  the  accuracies  of  other  men;  and  it 
is  no  metaphor,  but  a  literal  mercantile  proposition,  to  say,  that  it  is 
better  worth  our  while  to  err  with  him  than  to  think  rightly  with  the 

*  Mr.  Barinnr  had  stated,  that  by  two  mistakes  at  one  time  licenses  were  ren- 
dered so  valuable,  that  he  would  have  given  that  sum  for  them. 
Mr.  Rose. 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  247 

rest  of  mankind!  —  And  all  this  life,  and  activity,  and  machinery  for 
what? — To  snatch  at  a  miserable  export — occasional — fleeting  — 
irregular — ephemeral — very  limited  in  amount — unlikely  to  recur — • 
uncertain  in  its  return — precarious  in  its  continuance — beneficial  to 
the  enemy — exposed  to  his  caprices,  and  liable  by  his  nod  to  be  swept 
at  once  into  the  fund  of  his  confiscations — enjoyed  while  he  does 
permit  it,  by  his  sufferance  for  his  ends — enriching  his  subjects — 
manning  his  fleets — nursing  up  for  him  a  navy  which  it  has  already 
taken  the  utmost  efforts  of  our  unconquerable  marine  to  destroy! — 
Good  God!  the  incurable  perverseness  of  human  folly! — always 
straining  after  things  that  are  beyond  its  reach,  of  doubtful  worth 
and  discreditable  pursuit,  and  neglecting  objects  of  immense  value, 
because  in  addition  to  their  own  importance,  they  have  one  recom- 
mendation which  would  make  their  viler  possessions  desirable — that 
they  can  be  easily  obtained,  and  honestly  as  well  as  safely  enjoyed! 
— It  is  this  miserable,  shifting,  doubtful,  hateful  traffic  that  we  prefer, 
to  the  sure,  regular,  increasing,  honest  gains  of  American  commerce; 
to  a  trade  which  is  placed  beyond  the  enemy's  reach — which  besides 
encircling  ourselves  in  peace  and  honour,  only  benefits  those  who  are 
our  natural  friends,  over  whom  he  has  no  control,  but  who  if  they 
were  ever  so  hostile  to  us,  could  not  annoy  us — which  supports  at 
once  all  that  remains  of  liberty  beyond  the  seas,  and  gives  life  and 
vigour  to  its  main  pillar  within  the  realm,  the  manufactures  and  com- 
merce of  England! 

And  now,  sir,  look  to  the  other  side  of  this  picture. — See  to  what 
sources  of  supply  you  are  driving  the  Americans,  when  you  refuse 
them  your  own  markets — Why,  you  are  forcing  them  to  be  wholly 
dependent  on  themselves!  The  eighteenth  century  closed  with  a 
course  of  violence  and  folly,  which  in  spite  of  every  natural  tie,  dis- 
solved their  political  connection  with  the  crown;  and,  as  if  the  cup  of 
our  infatuation  was  not  full,  we  must  begin  the  nineteenth  with  the 
phrenzy  of  severing  them  from  all  connection,  and  making  them,  con- 
trary to  the  course  of  nature  itself,  independent  of  our  manufacturers 
and  merchants!  I  will  not  go  through  the  evidence  upon  this  impor- 
tant branch  of  the  case,  for  I  feel  myself  already  too  much  exhausted 
to  attempt  it;  but  whoever  reads  it  will  find  it  uniformly  in  every 
page  showing  the  effects  of  our  system,  in  forcing  manufactures  all 
over  America  to  rival  our  own.  There  is  not  one  branch  of  thfc  many 
in  which  we  used  quietly,  and  without  the  least  fear  of  competition 
to  supply  them,  that  is  not  now  to  a  certain  degree  cultivated  by 
themselves;  many  have  wholly  taken  rise  since  ISO? — all  have  rapidly 
sprung  up  to  a  formidable  maturity.  To  give  but  a  few  examples. — 
In  New  York  there  are  now  forty  thousand  looms  going — glass  is 
made  in  a  way  that  we  ourselves  witnessed,  for  we  saw  (lie  specimen 
produced —wool  cards  are  now  made  there  which  used  regularly  to 
be  imported  from  hence — and  there  is  a  considerable  exportation  of 
cotton  twist  to  the  South  of  Europe,  from  the  country  which  possesses 
the  most  abundantly  the  raw  material.  I  say  nothing  of  their  wool, 
and  the  excellent  Merino  breed  they  have  obtained  from  Spain.  Look 


248  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

only  to  one  striking  fact — Pittsburgh  is  a  town  remotely  situated  in 
the  most  western  part  of  the  Union.  Eighteen  years  ago  it  was  a 
hamlet,  so  feeble  and  insecure  that  the  inhabitants  could  scarcely 
defend  themselves  from  their  Indian  neighbours,  and  durst  hardly  quit 
the  place  for  fear  of  being  scalped.  Now  there  are  steam  engines 
and  a  large  glass  work  in  the  same  town,  and  you  saw  the  product 
of  its  furnaces.  It  stands  on  a  stratum  of  coal  fifteen  feet  thick,  and 
within  a  few  inches  of  the  surface,  which  extends  overall  the  country 
west  of  the  Alleghany  chain.  Coal  there  sells  for  .six  shillings  the 
chaldron,  and  the  same  precious  mineral  is  to  be  found  in  the  Atlantic 
States,  at  Richmond,  and  elsewhere,  accessible  by  sea.  It  is  usual  to 
see  men  on  'Change  in  the  large  towns  with  twenty,  thirty,  and  fifty 
thousand  pounds  in  trade — Companies  are  established  for  manufac- 
tures, insurance,  and  other  mercantile  speculations,  with  large  capitals, 
one  as  high  as  120,000/.  sterling — The  rate  of  interest  is  six  per  cent., 
and  the  price  of  land  in  some  places  as  high  as  in  England.  I  do 
not  enumerate  these  things  to  prove  that  America  can  already  supply 
herself— God  forbid! — If  she  could,  the  whole  mischief  would  be 
done,  and  we  could  not  now  avert  the  blow;  but  though  too  much 
has  indeed  been  effected  by  our  impolicy,  a  breathing  time  yet  is  left, 
and  we  ought  at  least  to  take  advantage  of  it,  and  regain  what  has 
been  thrown  away — in  four  or  five  years'  time  it  will  be  gone  for 
ever. 

But  I  shall  here  be  told,  as  I  often  have  been,  that  these  counsels 
sprang  from  fear,  and  that  I  am  endeavouring  to  instil  a  dread  of  Ame- 
rican manufactures,  as  the  ground  of  our  measures — Not  so,  sir — I  am 
inculcating  another  fear — the  wholesome  fear  of  utter  impolicy  mixed 
with  injustice — of  acting  unfairly  to  others  for  the  purpose  of  ruining 
yourselves.  And  after  all,  from  what  quarter  does  this  taunt  proceed? 
Who  are  they  by  whom  I  am  upbraided  for  preaching  up  a  dread  of 
rival  American  manufactures? — The  very  men  whose  whole  defence  of 
the  system  is  founded  upon  a  fear  of  competition  from  European  manu- 
factures— who  refuse  to  abandon  the  blockade  of  France,  from  an 
apprehension  (most  ridiculous  as  the  evidence  shows)  of  European 
manufactures  rivalling  us  through  American  commerce — who  blockade 
the  Continent  from  a  dread  that  the  manufactures  of  France,  by  means 
of  the  shipping  of  America,  will  undersell  our  own — the  men  whose 
whole  principle  is  a  fear  of  the  capital,  industry  and  skill  of  England 
being  outdone  by  the  trumpery  wares  of  France,  as  soon  as  her 
market  is  equally  open  to  both  countries! — Sir,  little  as  I  may  think 
such  alarms  worthy  of  an  Englishman,  there  is  a  kind  of  fear  which 
I  would  fain  urge — a  fear  too  of  France;  but  it  is  of  her  arms  and 
not  of  her  arts.  We  have  in  that  quarter  some  ground  for  apprehen- 
sion, and  I  would  have  our  policy  directed  solely  with  a  view  to 
removing  it.  Look  only  at  the  Spanish  war  in  its  relation  to  the 
American  trade. — In  that  cause  we  have  deeply  embarked — we  have 
gone  on  for  years,  pouring  into  it  our  treasures  and  our  troops,  almost 
without  limit,  and  all  the  profit  is  yet  to  come.  We  have  still  to  gain 
the  object  of  so  many  sacrifices,  and  to  do  something  which  may  show 


COMMERCE  AND  MANUFACTURES.  249 

they  have  not  been  made  in  vain.  Some  great  effort  it  seems  resolved 
to  make,  and  though  of  its  result  others  tire  far  more  sanguine  than 
I  am  able  to  feel,  I  can  have  litile  hesitation  in  thinking,  that  we  had 
better  risk  some  such  attempt  once  for  all,  and  either  gain  the  end  in 
view,  or,  convinced  that  it  is  unattainable,  retire  from  the  contest.  If 
then  this  is  our  policy,  for  God's  sake  let  the  grand  effort  be  made, 
single  and  undivided — undistracted  by  a  new  quarrel,  foreign  to  the 
purpose,  and  fatally  interfering  with  its  fulfilment. — Let  us  not  for  the 
hundredth  time  commit  the  ancient  error  which  has  so  often  betrayed 
us,  of  frittering  down  our  strength — of  scattering  our  forces  in  nume- 
rous and  unavailing  plans. — We  have  no  longer  the  same  excuse  for 
this  folly  which  we  once  had  to  urge.  All  the  colonies  in  the  world 
are  our  own — sugar  Islands  and  spice  Islands  there  are  none  from 
Marlinico  to  Java,  to  conquer — we  have  every  species  of  unsaleable 
produce  in  the  gross,  and  all  noxious  climates  without  stint.  Then  let 
ns  not  add  a  new  leaf  to  the  worst  chapter  of  our  book,  and  make  for 
ourselves  new  occasions,  when  we  can  find  none,  for  persisting  in  the 
most  childish  of  all  systems.  While  engaged  heartily  on  our  front  in 
opposing  France,  and  trying  the  last  chance  of  saving  Europe,  let  us 
not  secure  to  ourselves  a  new  enemy,  America,  on  our  flank.  Surely 
language  wants  a  name  for  the  folly  which  would,  at  a  moment  like 
the  present,  on  the  eve  of  this  grand  and  decisive  and  last  battle, 
reduce  us  to  the  necessity  of  feeding  Canada  with  troops  from  Por- 
tugal— and  Portugal  with  bread  from  England. 

I  know  I  shall  be  asked,  whether  I  would  recommend  any  sacrifice 
for  the  mere  purpose  of  conciliating  America.  I  recommend  no  sacri- 
fice of  honour  for  that  or  for  any  purpose;  but  I  will  tell  you,  that  I 
think  we  can  well  and  safely  for  our  honour  afford  to  conciliate  Ame- 
rica. Never  did  we  stand  so  high  since  we  were  a  nation,  in  point  of 
military  character.  We  have  it  in  abundance,  and  even  to  spare. 
This  unhappy  and  seemingly  interminable  war,  lavish  as  it  has  been 
in  treasure,  still  more  profuse  of  blood,  and  barren  of  real  advantage, 
has  at  least  been  equally  lavish  of  glory;  its  feats  have  not  merely 
sustained  the  warlike  fame  of  the  nation,  which  would  have  been 
much;  they  have  done  what  seemed  scarcely  possible;  they  have 
greatly  exalted  it;  they  have  covered  our  arms  with  immortal  renown. 
Then  I  say  use  this  glory — use  this  proud  height  on  which  we  now 
stand,  for  the  purpose  of  peace  and  conciliation  with  America.  Let 
this  and  its  incalculable  benefits  be  the  advantage  which  we  reap  from 
the  war  in  Europe;  for  the  fame  of  that  war  enables  us  safely  to 
take  it. — And  who,  I  demand,  give  the  most  disgraceful  councils — 
they  who  tell  you  we  are  in  military  character  but  of  yesterday— we 
have  yet  a  name  to  win — we  stand  on  doubtful  ground  —  we  dare  not 
do  as  we  list  for  fear  of  being  thought  afraid — we  cannot  without  loss 
of  name  stoop  to  pacify  our  American  kinsmen!  Or  I,  who  say  we 
are  a  great,  a  proud,  a  warlike  people — we  have  fought  everywhere, 
and  conquered  wherever  we  fought — our  character  is  eternally  fixed 
— it  stands  too  firm  to  be  shaken — and  on  the  faith  of  it  we  may  do 
towards  America,  safely  for  our  honour,  that  which  we  know  our 


250  ORDERS  IN  COUNCIL. 

interests  require! — This  perpetual  jealousy  of  America!  Good  God! 
I  cannot  with  temper  ask  on  what  it  rests!  It  drives  me  to  a  passion 
to  think  of  it — Jealousy  of  America!  I  should  as  soon  think  of  being 
jealous  of  the  tradesmen  who  supply  me  with  necessaries,  or  the 
clients  who  entrust  their  suits  to  my  patronage.  Jealousy  of  America! 
whose  armies  are  yet  at  the  plough,  or  making,  since  your  policy  has 
wielded  it  so,  awkward  (though  improving)  attempts  at  the  loom — 
whose  assembled  navies  could  not  lay  siege  to  an  English  sloop  of 
war: — Jealousy  of  a  power  which  is  necessarily  peaceful  as  well  as 
weak,  but  which,  if  it  had  all  the  ambition  of  France  and  her  armies 
to  back  it,  and  all  the  navy  of  England  to  boot,  nay,  had  it  the  lust 
of  conquest  which  marks  your  enemy,  and  your  own  armies  as  well 
as  navy  to  gratify  it — is  placed  at  so  vast  a  distance  as  to  be  perfectly 
harmless!  And  this  is  the  nation  of  which  for  our  honour's  sake  we 
are  desired  to  cherish  a  perpetual  jealousy,  for  the  ruin  of  our  best 
interests! 

I  trust,  sir,  that  no  such  phantom  of  the  brain  will  scare  us  from 
the  path  of  our  duty.  The  advice  which  I  tender  is  not  the  same 
which  has  at  all  times  been  offered  to  this  country.  There  is  one 
memorable  era  in  our  history,  when  other  uses  were  made  of  our 
triumphs  from  those  which  I  recommend.  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht, 
which  the  execrations  of  ages  have  left  inadequately  censured,  we 
were  content  to  obtain  as  the  whole  price  of  Ramillies  and  Blenheim, 
an  additional  share  of  the  accursed  slave  trade.  I  give  you  other 
counsels.  I  would  have  you  employ  the  glory  which  you  have  won 
at  Talavera  and  Cornnna,  in  restoring  your  commerce  to  its  lawful, 
open,  honest  course;  and  rescue  it  from  the  mean  and  hateful  chan- 
nels in  which  it  has  lately  been  confined.  And  if  any  thoughtless 
boaster  in  America  or  elsewhere  should  vaunt  that  you  had  yielded 
through  fear,  I  would  not  bid  him  wait  until  some  new  achievement 
of  our  arms  put  him  to  silence,  but  I  would  counsel  you  in  silence  to 
disregard  him. 

Sir,  I  move  you — "That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his 
Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent,  representing  to  his  Royal  High- 
ness that  this  House  has,  for  some  time  past,  been  engaged  in  an 
inquiry  into  the  present  depressed  state  of  the  manufactures  and  com- 
merce of  the  country,  and  the  effects  of  the  Orders  in  Council  issued 
by  his  Majesty  in  the  years  1807  and  1S09;  assuring  his  Hoyal  High- 
ness, that  this  House  will  at  all  times  support  his  Royal  Highness  to 
the  utmost  of  its  power,  in  maintaining  those  just  maritime  rights 
which  have  essentially  contributed  to  the  prosperity  and  honour  of  the 
realm — but  beseeching  his  Royal  Highness,  that  he  would  be  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  recall  or  suspend  the  said  orders,  and  to  adopt  such 
measures  as  may  tend  to  conciliate  neutral  powers,  without  sacrificing 
the  rights  and  dignity  of  his  Majesty's  crown." 


SPEECH 


AT 


THE   LIVERPOOL    ELECTION 


1812. 


INTRODUCTION. 

MR.   ROSCOE. — MR.  C  REE  VET. 

IN  cor-equence  of  Mr.  Brougham's  connection,  both  in  1808  and  1812,  with  the 
commercial  interests  of  Liverpool,  especially  those  persons  engaged  in  the  American 
trade,  he  was  invited  to  attend  a  public  dinner  after  the  termination  of  the  Northern 
Circuit,  in  August  1812.  Mr.  Roscoe  presided,  and  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  late 
Lord  Derby,  as  well  as  the  present  Earl,  then  Lord  Stanley,  with  Lord  Sefton, 
and  many  others  of  the  Lancashire  country  gentlemen  who  favoured  liberal  princi- 
ples, attended.  Dr.  Shepherd,  the  able,  learned,  and  enlightened  friend  of  every 
cause  connected  with  the  interests  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  also  honoured  the 
meeting  with  his  presence.  A  requisition  was  soon  after  sent  inviting  Mr.  Broug- 
ham to  stand  as  candidate  for  the  borough  at  the  approaching  general  election,  and 
it  was  immediately  manifest  that  one  of  the  present  members,  General  Tarleton, 
had  no  chance  of  success,  should  Mr.  Brougham  accept  the  invitation,  which  he  im- 
mediately did. 

But  a  further  resolution  was  taken,  which  has  been,  in  consequence  of  the  event- 
ual failure,  the  subject  of  much  animadversion  upon  the  Whig  leaders  of  Liverpool. 
Not  satisfied  with  returning  one  member,  they  brought  forward  a  second  in  the 
person  of  their  fellow-townsman,  Mr.  Creevoy,  then  member  for  Thetford,  for 
which  place  he  was  again  returned  during  the  Liverpool  election.  The  first  effect 
of  this  proceeding  was  to  cofirm  the  Tory  parly  in  the  intention  which  they  had 
already  been  discussing  among  themselves,  that  of  bringing  forward  Mr.  Canning, 
together  with  General  Gascoigne,  who  stood  upon  the  old  corporation  interest. 
Mr.  Canning  accepted  the  invitation  of  the  great  and  spirited  body  of  Tory  mer- 
chants not  immediately  connected  with  that  municipal  body,  and  there  were  thus 
four  candidates  in  the  field  standing  upon  four  several  interests — General  Gas- 
coigne,  upon  that  of  ilio  Corporation — Mr.  Canning  upon  the  Tory  Independent 
int<  rest — Mr.  IJrougharn  and  Mr.  Creevey,  upon  the  Whig  interest — and  General 
Tarlelon,  upon  such  support  as  might  remain  to  him  among  his  former  adherents. 

Those  who  were  acquainted  with  Liverpool  well  knew  that  the  Whig  interest, 
at  least  in  later  times,  had  never  returned  even  a,  single  member  but  once,  when 
Mr.  lioscoe  was  chosen  with  General  Gascoigm:  in  180G,  the.  Grcnville  ministry 
being  then  in  power;  for  though  General  Tarleton  was  commonly  ranked  as  one 
of  Mr.  Fox's  friends,  he  yet  owed  his  seat  as  much  to  Tory  support  as  to  Whig, 


252  INTRODUCTION. 

being  chosen  from  local  and  personal  connection  with  the  place.  No  one,  there- 
fore at  all  acquainted  with  Liverpool  politics,  and  whose  judgment  was  left  calm 
and  unbiassed  by  the  passing  events,  especially  the  late  victory  against  the  Orders 
in  Council,  had  any  very  sanguine  expectation  that  the  Whig  interest  could  defeat 
entirely  all  the  Tory  power,  the  Corporation  interest,  and  the  government  influence; 
and  the  total  defeat  of  the  opposition  party  seemed  inevitable,  unless  one  of  their 
candidates  should  be  withdrawn. 

Mr.  Roscoe  was  the  principal  advocate  of  the  measure  now  under  consideration 
—and  certainly  there  was  no  man  whose  opinion  better  deserved  to  be  consulted, 
whose  wishes  had  more  claims  to  compliance,  or  whose  errors,  if  such  they  were, 
had  a  greater  right  to  indulgence.  He  was  in  some  respects  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable persons  that  have  of  late  years  appeared  in  either  the  political  or  the 
literary  world.  Born  in  the  most  humble  station,  for  his  parents  were  menial  ser- 
vants in  the  fine  country  mansion  which  afterwards  was  his  own,  he  had  risen  to 
the  highest  rank  in  a  laborious  and  useful  profession,  having  become  one  of  the 
most  eminent  of  the  Lancashire  Solicitors — a  class  of  practitioners  distinguished 
among  those  of  the  kingdom  at  large  by  great  knowledge  of  their  profession, 
and  admirable  skill  in  the  conduct  of  their  clients'  affairs.  Struggling  with  all 
the  disadvantages  of  narrow  circumstances,  and  of  an  education  necessarily  restrict- 
ed, he  had  not  only  accomplished  himself  in  the  legal  walks  of  his  profession, 
but  educated  himself  in  more  classical  studies,  so  as  to  have  become  a  great  pro- 
ficient in  pursuits  seldom  if  ever  before  combined  with  the  practice  of  an  attorney. 
His  taste  was  cultivated  and  refined  by  familiarity  with  Roman  literature,  and  his 
mind  was  still  farther  enriched  by  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  monuments 
of  Italian  genius.  He  devoted  himself,  notwithstanding  the  constant  interruption 
of  liis  business,  to  the  study  of  all  modern,  as  well  as  of  Latin  poetry,  and  with 
the  rare  exception  of  Mr.  Mathias,  it  may  be  affirmed,  that  no  one  on  this  side  the 
Alps,  has  ever  been  more  intimately  acquainted  with  the  writers,  especially  the 
poets,  of  modern  Italy.  The  natural  elegance  of  his  mind,  connected  in  a  great 
measure  with  his  honest  simplicity  of  character,  and  the  unruffled  gentleness  of  his 
bland  and  kindly  temper,  was  soon  displayed  in  some  poetical  productions,  among 
•which  his  celebrated  song  on  the  early  progress  of  the  French  Revolution,  acquired 
the  greatest  reputation. 

But  he  united  with  the  exercise  of  this  talent  a  love  of  historical  research,  and 
an  exercise  of  critical  power,  which  combined  with  his  poetical  resources  and 
his  knowledge  of  languages,  to  form  in  him  the  most  accomplished  cultivator  of 
literary  history  that  ever  appeared  in  any  age.  For  although  Muratori  first,  and 
afterwards  Tirabosohi,  in  Italy,  some  others  in  France,  and  many  in  Germany, 
have  left  monuments  of  greater  research — have  thoroughly  traced  the  progress  of 
letters  in  various  ways — have  compiled  their  annals  with  that  industry  which  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  survived  them— and  have  bequeathed  to  after  ages  rich 
mines  wherein  to  quarry,  rather  than  galleries  of  finished  works  to  gaze  at — we 
shall  in  vain  search  their  numerous  volumes  for  that  grace  and  ease,  that  mixture 
of  history  and  anecdote,  that  interspersion  of  philosophy  with  narrative,  that  com- 
bination of  sagacity  in  commenting  upon  characters  and  events  with  taste  in  de- 
scribing and  in  judging  the  productions  of  the  fine  arts,  which  lend  such  a  charm  to 
the  Lives  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici  and  Leo  X;  while  their  interest  is  still  further 
heightened  by  the  rich  vein  of  the  most  felicitous  poetical  translation  which  runs 
through  the  whole  of  these  admirable  works,  and  leaves  the  less  learned  reader 
hardly  a  right  to  lament,  because  it  scarcely  lets  him  feel,  his  ignorance  of  the 
original  tongues.  The  sensation  caused  by  the  life  of  the  great  Prince-Merchant 
of  Tuscany  suddenly  appearing  to  enlighten  the  literary  hemisphere,  is  still 
remembered  by  many.  It  seemed  as  if  a  new  pleasure  had  been  invented,  a  new 
sense  discovered.  Criticism  was  dumb;  men  had  only  time  to  be  pleased  and  to  be 

f  ratified;  and  at  a  period  whon  the  dignity  of  the  Senate,  even  of  its  Lower  Cham- 
er,  never  allowed   any  allusion  to  the  contemporary  productions  of  the  press,  a 
Peer  who  had  twice  been  minister  and   was  still  a  great  party  chief,*  begged  their 
lordships  to  devote  as  much  time  as  they  might  be  able  to  spare  from  Lorenzo  de 

*  Marquis  of  Lansdownc,  father  of  the  present  Lord. 


LIVERPOOL  ELECTION.  253 

Medici,  to  (he  study  of  an  important  state  affair.  I3y  those  works  Mr.  Roseoe  not 
only  laid  deep  and  solid  the  foundations  of  an  enduring  fame  for  himself,  but 
founded  also  a  school,  in  which  Dr.  Shepherd,  author  of  the  life  of  Poggio  Brac- 
ciolini,  and  others  have  since  distinguished  themselves,  and  enriched  the  republic 
of  letters. 

Although  it  is  by  the  productions  of  his  pen  that  Mr.  Roscoe's  name  has  been 
made  famous  throughout  Europe,  yet  were  his  merits  and  his  claims  to  the  grati- 
tude of  mankind  of  a  more  various  kind.  An  ardent  devotion,  from  pure  principle, 
to  the  best  interests  of  humanity,  was  the  unvarying  and  the  constant  guide  of  his 
public  conduct,  as  the  most  strict  discharge  of  every  duty  marked  each  step  of  his 
walk  in  private  life.  A  solicitor  in  extensive  practice,  he  was  the  advocate  of  all 
sound  law  reform.  An  attorney  in  the  Borough  Courts,  he  was  the  stern  uncom-v 
promising  enemy  of  chicanery,  the  fearless  defender  of  the  oppressed.  A  man  of 
business  vmder  a  wealthy  and  powerful  corporation,  he  was  ever  the  implacable  de- 
nouncer of  jobs  and  abuses.  A  confidential  adviser  among  the  aristocracy  of  the 
most  Tory  county  in  England,  he  was  the  most  uncompromising  enemy  of  tyranny, 
the  friend  of  the  people,  the  apostle  of  even  democratic  opinions.  A  leader  among 
the  parties  who  most  gained  by  the  war,  he  was  throughout  its  whole  course  the 
zealous  preacher  of  peace;  and  standing  high  among  the  traders  of  Liverpool,  and 
at  the  head  of  its  society,  he  was  tho  unflinching  enemy  of  the  African  Slave  Trade, 
the  enthusiastic  advocate  of  its  abolition.  When  ho  rose  in  fame,  and  throve  in 
wealth — when  he  became  one  of  the  great  bankers  of  the  place,  and  was  courted  by 
all  the  leading  men  in  its  society — when  his  fame  was  spread  over  the  world,  and 
his  native  town  became  known  in  many  remote  places,  as  having  given  him  birth, 
when  he  was  chosen  to  represent  her  in  Parliament,  and  associated  with  the  first 
statesmen  of  the  age — this  truly  excellent  person's  unaffected  modesty,  his  primi- 
tive, simplicity  of  manners,  never  deserted  him.  As  his  rise  in  life  had  been  rapid 
and  easy,  he  bore  his  good  fortune  with  an  equal  mind;  and  when  the  commercial 
distresses  of  the  country  involved  his  affairs  in  ruin,  the  clouds  which  overcast  the 
evening  of  his  days  disturbed  not  the  serenity  of  his  mind;  the  firmness  which 
could  maintain  itself  against  the  gales  of  prosperity,  found  the  storms  of  adverse 
fortune,  though  more  boisterous,  much  louder  in  their  noise,  yet  not  at  all  deceitful, 
and  really  less  rude  in  their  shock.  His  latter  years  were  passed  in  his  much 
loved  literary  leisure — consoled  by  the  kindness  of  his  friends — happy  in  the  bosom 
of  his  amiable  family — universally  respected  by  his  countrymen — by  all  the  wise 
admired — beloved  by  all  the  good. 

Mr.  Hoscoe  had  satisfied  his  own  mind  that  if  Liverpool  only  sent  one  Whig 
with  one  Tory  member  to  Parliament,  the  votes  of  the  two  neutralizing  each  other, 
she  would  be  unrepresented  — a  fallacy  plausible  enough  when  thus  stated,  but 
easily  exposed,  by  reflecting  that  if  each  constituency  had  been  so  represented,  the 
Tory  government  must  be  at  once  overthrown.  His  councils,  however,  assisted  by 
the  great  victory  recently  obtained  in  Parliament,  and  with  which  this  contest  w*is 
intimately  connected,  prevailed  with  the  party.  Mr.  Creevey  was  brought  into  tho 
field,  and  the  contest  proceeded  with  a  violence  until  then  unprecedented. 

Of  Mr.  Canning,  the  champion  of  the  Tory  party,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  speak. 
His  great  talents,  his  extensive  accomplishments — the  happy  events  which  con- 
nected him  with  the  liberal  parly,  first  upon  the  question  of  religious  toleration, 
then  upon  foreign  policy— the  accident  of  his  becoming  the  instrument  by  which 
mainly  the  old  Tory  party  in  this  county  was  broken  up — are  all  fresh  in  any  rea- 
der's recollection.  His  connection  with  Liverpool  was  not  without  its  influence, 
both  upon  the  course  of  those  great  events,  and  upon  his  political  character.  It 
took  its  latter  shade  very  much  from  the  contact  with  the  people  into  which  he  was 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life  brought  at  Liverpool;  and  if  the  disposition  to  take 
popular  courses  which  he  then  acquired,  tended  to  alienate  from  him  the  confidence 
of  the  court  party,  who  not  only  deserted,  but  ill-used  and  persecuted  him  during 
his  latter  years,  it  i.s  equally  certain  that  from  this  source  we  may  trace  much  of 
the  goo. I  which  has  in  late  times  been  accomplished  for  the  cause  of  the  people 
and  of  liberal  policy. 

Hut  of  Mr.  Creevey,  it  is  fit  that  something  should  here  be  said,  as  upon   his 
share  in  the  contest  of  1812,  although  assuredly  not  from  any  the  least  desire  on 
VOL.  I. — 22 


254  INTRODUCTION. 

his  own  part  to  mix  in  it,  the  issue  of  the  election  finally  turned.  "When  a  second 
candidate  was  resolved  upon,  there  could  be  no  doubt  where  to  look  for  him.  Mr. 
Creevey  was  a  native  of  Liverpool,  well  known  to  the  chief  men  of  the  place,  on 
very  intimate  habits  with  many  of  them,  with  their  leader  Mr.  Roscoe,  especially, 
and  recommended  to  the  people  by  a  long  and  consistent  course  of  the  most  steady 
disinterested  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  liberal  party.  For  he  had  been 
ten  years  in  parliament,  during  which  time  he  had,  at  great  personal  sacrifices, 
devoted  himself  to  the  strenuous  assertion  of  popular  rights,  the  exposure  of  all 
abuses  in  the  management  of  affairs,  the  promotion  of  retrenchment  and  economy 
in  all  departments  of  the  public  service,  the  restoration  of  peace,  and  the  further- 
ance of  constitutional  principles  after  the  Whig  or  Foxite  model.  His  opinions 
coincided  with  those  of  the  Whig  aristocracy  on  questions  of  Parliamentary 
Reform,  being  friendly  to  that  policy,  but  not  carrying  it  to  any  great  length,  and 
regarding  many  abuses  in  the  elective  system,  such  as  the  bribery  and  expenses  of 
elections  where  there  are  two  or  three  hundred  voters,  as  far  worse  in  themselves, 
and  much  more  pernicious  in  their  consequences,  both  to  the  character  of  the  voters 
and  to  the  structure  of  the  Parliament,  than  those  flaws  of  rotten  and  nomination 
boroughs,  which  look  far  worse,  and  on  all  abstract  principle,  are  much  more 
difficult  to  defend.  But  on  other  matters  he  had  many  wide  differences  with  the 
regular  leaders  of  his  party.  He  despised  the  timidity  which  so  often  paralyzed 
their  movements;  he  disliked  the  jealousies,  the  personal  predilections  and  preju- 
dices which  so  frequently  distracted  their  councils;  he  abhorred  the  spirit  of  in- 
trigue, which  not  rarely  gave  some  inferior  man,  or  some  busy  meddling  woman, 
probably  unprincipled,  a  sway  in  the  destiny  of  the  party,  fatal  to  its  success, 
and  all  but  fatal  to  its  character;  he  held  in  utter  ridicule  the  squeamhhness  both 
as  to  persons  and  things,  which  emasculated  so  many  of  the  genuine,  regular 
"Whigs;  and  no  considerations  of  interest — no  relations  of  friendship — no  regard 
for  party  discipline  (albeit  in  other  respects  a  decided  and  professed  party  man, 
and  one  thoroughly  sensible  of  the  value  of  party  concert) — could  prevail  with 
him  to  pursue  that  course  so  ruinous  to  the  Whig  opposition,  of  half-and-half 
resistance  to  the  government;  marching  to  the  attack  with  one  eye  turned  to  the 
court,  and  one  askance  to  the  country,  nor  ever  making  war  upon  the  Ministry 
without  regarding  the  time  when  themselves  might  occupy  the  position,  now  the 
object  of  assault. 

This  manly,  straightforward  view  of  things  not  unaccompanied  with  expressions, 
both  as  to  men  and  measures,  in  which  truth  and  strength  seemed  more  studied 
than  courtesy,  gave  no  little  offence  to  the  patrician  leaders  of  the  party,  who  never 
could  learn  the  difference  between  1810  and  1780 — still  fancied  they  lived  "  in  times 
before  the  flood"  of  the  French  Revolution,  when  the  heads  of  a  few  great  families 
could  dispose  of  all  matters  according  to  their  own  good  pleasure — and  never  could 
be  made  to  understand  how  a  feeble  motion,  prefaced  by  a  feeble  speech,  if 
made  by  an  elderly  lord,  and  seconded  by  a  younger  one,  could  fail  to  satisfy  the 
country  and  shake  the  Ministry.  But  Mr.  Creevey,  and  those  who  thought  with 
him,  such  as  Lord  Folkestone  (now  Radnor)  and  General  Ferguson,  did  not  con- 
fine their  dissidence  to  criticism,  complaint,  remonstrance.  Their  conduct  kept  pace 
with  their  language,  and  was  framed  upon  the  sentiments  to  which  we  have  refer- 
red. Carefully  avoiding  any  course  that  might  give  a  victory  to  the  common 
enemy,  or  retard  the  progress  of  their  principles,  they  nevertheless  often  took  a 
line  of  their  own,  bringing  forward  motions  which  were  deemed  too  strong,  as 
well  as  expressing  opinions  supposed  to  be  too  vehement,  and  opposing  a  resist- 
ance to  many  errors  and  abuses  of  the  government  which  the  more  aristocratic 
portion  of  the  Whig  party  were  inclined  either  feebly  to  impugn  or  altogether  to 
pass  over.  On  all  that  regarded  the  economy  of  the  public  money,  still  more  on 
every  instance  of  abuse,  most  of  all  on  official  corruption  or  delinquency  of  any 
kind,  they  were  inexorable;  nor  did  any  sort  of  questions  tend  more  to  sow  dissen- 
sion between  them  and  the  party  at  large,  than  questions  of  this  description 
which  involved  considerations  of  economy  and  abuse,  and  of  necessity  led  to 
personal  charges  often  against  men  in  high  rank  and  station.  The  inquiries 
respecting  the  Duke  of  York,  and  those  cognate  questions  respecting  public  cor- 
ruption, which  grew  out  of  that  famous  passage,  first  banded  together  this  party, 


LIVERPOOL  ELECTION.  255 

jocularly  termed  "  The  Mountain,"  and  drc\v  a  line  of  demarcation  between  them 
and  the  more  regular  portion  of  the  Whigs.  \or  were  the  marks  of  this  separation 
ever  well  effaced  until  the  enjoyment  of  office  for  several  years  had  reconciled 
men's  minds  to  thi-ir  lot,  and  smoothed,  without  wholly  planing  down,  the 
asperities  of  the  line  denoted  by  the  junction  of  the  two  parts  whereof  the  party  was 
composed. 

Mr.  Creevcy  was  a  man  of  strong  natural  sense,  without  much  cultivation, 
though  extremely  well-informed  up.iii  all  political  subjects.  His  judgment  being 
so  much  more  remarkable  than  his  imagination,  he  was  apt  to  hold  everything  in 
contempt  which  betokened  either  fancy  or  refinement.  Preferring  the  shortest  and 
the  plainest  road  to  his  point,  either  looking  down  upon  the  ornamental  parts  of 
eloquence  with  contempt,  or  seeing  them  from  a  distance  which  he  never  aspired 
to  pass,  his  style  of  speaking  was  that  of  a  plain,  reasoning,  sensible  person,  who 
never  left  statements  of  facts  and  of  reason,  except  to  deal  in  somewhat  fluent  if 
not  coarse  invective.  Even  his  invective  consisted  more  in  stating  plain  f.icts  of 
an  unpleasant  nature,  than  in  mere  vituperative  declamation.  His  taste,  with  all 
this  contempt  for  refinement  and  delicacy,  was  perfectly  correct;  perhaps  too  severe 
and  unbending;  certainly  defective  in  classing  the  flights  of  oratory,  however  sus- 
tained, with  the  less  chaste  productions  of  the  rhetorician.  Frequently  in  public, 
always  in  private  society,  his  distinguishing  excellence  was  a  broad,  inimitable, 
most  successful  humour;  for  he  had  a  quick  sense  of  the  ridiculous  in  character,  and 
a  lively  relish  of  the  ludicrous,  nor  was  he  slow  to  indulge  in  the  gratification  of 
it.  Mob  oratory  was  never  in  much  estimation  with  him;  yet  he  was  sure  to  suc- 
ceed in  it  when  lie  tried,  as  at  the  Liverpool  election — where  his  description  of  the 
meaning  of  the  Previous  Question  was  much  noted;  and  conveys  an  idea  of  his 
manner.  "  You  often  hear  when  any  of  our  irregular  partisans  having  framed  a 
motion  against  some  public  defaulter,  that  it  is  said  to  have  been  got  rid  by  the 
Previous  Question.  Now  you  may  just  as  well  know  what  this  means.  It  is 
that  the  whole  House  says,  'All  these  things  are  very  true,  and  we  have  no  answer 
to  make,  and  therefore  the  less  that's  said  about  the  matter  the  better.'  "  He  had 
some  defects  of  temper  which  made  him  an  undervaluer  of  all  who  differed  from 
him  in  opinion,  and  a  somewhat  fierce  enemy.  He  took  more  pleasure  in  censure 
than  in  praise,  and  was  not  very  patient  of  the  candour  towards  adversaries  iu 
others,  which  he  so  much  wanted  himself.  But  if  he  was  a  prejudiced  antago- 
nist and  a  strong  hater,  he  was  also  a  warm  supporter  and  a  steady  friend,  nor 
grudged  any  trouble,  nor  shrunk  from  any  hazard  in  defence  of  those  to  whom  ho 
was  attached.  lie  is  said  to  have  left  a  minute  Journal  of  political  as  well  as 
personal  occurrences,  which  he  kept  for  above  thirty  years  of  his  life;  and  although 
it  will  require  to  be  read  with  large  allowances  for  the  force  of  his  personal  preju- 
dices, it  is  likely  to  contain  more  interesting  materials  for  secret,  and  indeed  for 
general  history,  than  any  collection  of  the  kind  which  has  ever  appeared  in  this 
country. 

After  the  election  had  gone  on  for  some  days,  the  Tories  who  supported  Mr. 
Canning,  made  a  direct  proposition  for  a  junction  with  Mr.  Brougham's  party,  on 
the  footing  of  the  former  giving  up  General  Gaseoigne,  and  the  latter  withdraw- 
ing Mr.  Crecvey.  But  this  proposal  was  rejected,  neither  Mr.  Brougham  nor  Mr. 
Crecvey  giving  any  opinion  upon  the  subject,  nor  expressing  any  wish;  except 
that  the  latter  desired  to  be  put  wholly  out  of  the  question,  the  more  especially  as 
his  se.it  was  already  secured  by  his  being  returned  for  Thetford.  The  proposition 
was  rejected,  and  the  election  was  lost;  General  Gascoigne  being  then  supported 
by  Mr.  Canning's  friends,  and  returned  along  with  him.  Mr.  Brougham  was  in 
consequence  lliruwn  out  of  parliament,  anil  no  seat  could  bo  found  for  him  among 
all  the  \\  big  boroughs,  until,  al'ter  an  exclusion  of  three  sessions,  he  was,  by 
Lord  I);ir]iii!_rton's  (Duke  of  Cleveland's)  interest,  at  the  request  of  his  steady 
and  fitlil'ul  friend,  Lord  Grey,  returned  for  \\incliolsea,  which  lie  represented  un- 
til Ih.'iO,  when  he  was  returned  first  for  Knaresborougli  upon  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire's interest,  and  then  for  Yorkshire  upon  his  own. 

The  following  speech  was  addressed  to  the.  people  at  Liverpool  on  the  close 
of  the  poll,  on  tbt;  evening  of  the  fourth  day — being  a  very  critical  moment  ol 
the  contest,  and  the  night  before  the  proposal  above  referred  to  came  lioiu  the 
other  party. 


S  P  E  E  C  H 


AT 


THE    LIVERPOOL    ELECTION 

FRIDAY,  OCT.  8,  1812. 


GENTLEMEN — I  feel  it  necessary  after  the  fatigues  of  this  long  and 
anxious  day,  to  entreat,  as  I  did  on  a  former  occasion, that  you  would 
have  the  goodness  to  favor  me  with  as  silent  a  hearing  as  possible, 
that  I  may  not  by  over-exertion  in  my  present  exhausted  state,  de- 
stroy that  voice  which  I  hope  I  may  preserve  to  raise  in  your  defence 
once  more  hereafter. 

Gentlemen,  I  told  you  last  night  when  we  were  near  the  head  of 
the  poll,  that  I,  for  one  at  least,  would  never  lose  heart  in  the  conflict, 
or  lower  my  courage  in  fighting  your  battles,  or  despair  of  the  good 
cause  although  we  should  be  fifty,  a  hundred,  or  even  two  hundred 
behind  our  enemies.  It  has  happened  this  day,  that  we  have  fallen 
short  of  them,  not  quite  by  two  hundred,  but  we  have  lost  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  votes:  I  tell  you  this  with  the  deepest  concern,  with 
feelings  of  pain  and  sorrow  which  I  dare  not  trust  myself  in  attempt- 
ing to  express.  But  I  tell  it  you  without  any  sensation  approaching 
to  despondency.  This  is  the  only  feeling  which  I  have  not  now  pre- 
sent in  my  breast.  I  am  overcome  with  your  unutterable  affection 
towards  me  and  my  cause.  I  feel  a  \vonder  mingled  with  gratitude, 
which  no  language  can  even  attempt  to  describe,  at  your  faithful, 
unwearied,  untarneable  exertions  in  behalf  of  our  common  object.  I 
am  penetrated  with  an  anxiety  for  its  success,  if  possible,  more  lively 
than  any  of  yourselves  can  know,  who  are  my  followers  in  this 
mighty  struggle — an  anxiety  cruelly  increased  by  that  which  as  yet 
you  are  ignorant  of,  though  you  are  this  night  to  hear  it.  To  my 
distinguished  friends  who  surround  me,  and  connect  me  more  closely 
with  you,  I  am  thankful  beyond  all  expression.  I  am  lost  in  admi- 
ration of  the  honest  and  courageous  men  amongst  you  who  have 
resisted  all  threats  as  well  as  bribes,  and  persevered  in  giving  me 
their  free  mibonght  voices.  For  those  unhappy  persons  who  have 
been  scared  by  imminent  fear  on  their  own  and  their  children's  be- 
half from  obeying  the  impulse  of  their  conscience,  I  feel  nothing  of 


LIVERPOOL  ELECTION.  257 

resentment — nothing  but  pity  and  compassion.  Of  those  who  hatfe 
thus  opposed  us,  I  think  as  charitably  as  a  man  can  think  in  such 
circumstances.  For  this  great  town,  (if  it  is  indeed  to  be  defeated  in 
the  contest,  which  I  will  not  venture  to  suppose)  for  the  country  at 
large  whose  cause  we  are  upholding — whose  fight  we  are  fighting — 
for  the  whole  manufacturing  and  trading  interests — for  all  who  love 
peace — all  who  have  no  profit  in  war — I  feel  moved  by  the  deepest 
alarm  lest  our  grand  attempt  may  not  prosper.  All  these  feelings  are 
in  my  heart  at  this  moment — they  are  various — they  are  conflicting 
— they  are  painful — they  are  burthensome — but  they  are  not  over- 
whelming! and  amongst  them  all,  and  I  have  swept  round  the  whole 
range  of  which  the  human  mind  is  susceptible — there  is  not  one  that 
bears  the  slightest  resemblance  to  despair.  I  trust  myself  once  more 
into  your  faithful  hands — 1  fling  myself  again  on  you  for  protection 
— I  call  aloud  to  you  to  bear  your  own  cause  in  your  hearts — I  im- 
plore of  you  to  come  forth  in  your  own  defence — for  the  sake  of  this 
vast  town  and  its  people — for  the  salvation  of  the  middle  and  lower 
orders — for  the  whole  industrious  part  of  the  whole  country — I  en- 
treat you  by  your  love  of  peace — by  your  hatred  of  oppression — 
by  your  weariness  of  burthensome  and  useless  taxation — by  yet 
another  appeal  to  which  those  must  lend  an  ear  who  have  been  deaf 
to  all  the  rest — I  ask  it  for  your  families — for  your  infants — if  you 
would  avoid  such  a  winter  of  horrors  as  the  last !  It  is  coming  fast  upon 
us — already  it  is  near  at  hand — yet  a  few  short  weeks  and  we  may  be 
in  the  midst  of  those  unspeakable  miseries,  the  recollection  of  which  now 
rends  your  very  souls.  If  there  is  one  freeman  amongst  this  immense 
multitude  who  has  not  tendered  his  voice — and  if  he  can  be  deaf  to 
this  appeal — if  he  can  suffer  the  threats  of  our  antagonists  to  frighten 
him  away  from  the  recollections  of  the  last  dismal  winter — that  man 
will  not  vote  for  me.  But  if  I  have  the  happiness  of  addressing  one 
honest  man  amongst  you,  who  has  a  care  left  for  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, or  for  other  endearing  ties  of  domestic  tenderness,  (and  which 
of  us  is  altogether  without  them?)  that  man  will  lay  his  hand  on  his 
heart  when  I  now  bid  him  do  so — and  with  those  little  threats  of 
present  spite  ringing  in  his  ear,  he  will  rather  consult  his  fears  of 
greater  evil  by  listening  to  the  dictates  of  his  heart,  when  he  casts  a 
look  towards  the  dreadful  season  through  which  he  lately  passed — 
and  will  come  bravely  forward  to  place  those  men  in  parliament 
whose  whole  efforts  have  been  directed  towards  the  restoration  of 
peace,  and  the  revival  of  trade. 

/  Do  not,  gentlemen,  listen  to  those  who  tell  you  the  cause  of  freedom 
is  desperate; — they  arc  the  enemies  of  that  cause  and  of  you — but 
listen  to  me — for  you  know  me — and  I  am  one  who  has  never  yet 
deceived  you — I  say,  then,  that  //  icill  he  desperate  if  you  make  no 
exertions  to  retrieve  it.  I  tell  you  that  your  languor  alone  can  betray 
it — that  it  can  only  be  made  desperate  through  your  despair.  I  am 
not  a  man  to  be  cast  down  by  temporary  reverses,  let  them  come 
upon  me  as  thick,  and  as  swift,  and  as  sudden  as  they  may.  I  am 
not  he  who  is  daunted  by  majorities  in  the  outset  of  a  struggle  for 

22* 


258  LIVERPOOL  ELECTION. 

worthy  objects — else  I  should  not  now  stand  here  before  you  to  boast 
of  triumphs  won  in  your  cause.  If  your  champions  had  yielded  to 
the  force  of  numbers — of  gold — of  power — if  defeat  could  have  dis- 
mayed them — then  would  the  African  Slave  Trade  never  have  been 
abolished — then  would  the  cause  of  reform,  which  now  bids  fair  to 
prevail  over  its  enemies,  have  been  long  ago  sunk  amidst  the  deser- 
tions of  its  friends — then  would  those  prospects  of  peace  have  been 
utterly  benighted,  which  I  still  devoutly  cherish,  and  which  even  now 
brighten  in  our  eyes — then  would  the  orders  in  council  which  I  over- 
threw by  your  support,  have  remained  a  disgrace  to  the  British  name, 
and  an  eternal  obstacle  to  our  best  interests.  I  no  more  despond  now 
than  I  have  done  in  the  course  of  those  sacred  and  glorious  conten- 
tions— but  it  is  for  yoi^to  say  whether  to-morrow  shall  not  make  it 
my  duty  to  despair.  ^To-morrow  is  your  last  day — your  last  efforts 
must  then  be  made; — if  you  put  forth  your  strength  the  day  is  your 
own — if  you  desert  me,  it  is  lost.  To  win  it  I  shall  be  the  first  to 
lead  you  on,  and  the  last  to  forsake  you. 

Gentlemen,  when  I  told  you  a  little  while  ago,  that  there  were  new 
and  powerful  reasons  to-day  for  ardently  desiring  that  our  cause  might 
succeed,  I  did  not  sport  with  you — yourselves  shall  now  judge  of 
them.  I  ask  you — Is  the  trade  with  America  of  any  importance  to 
this  great  and  thickly  peopled  town?  (cries  of  Yes!  yes!)  Is  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  rupture  with  America  likely  to  destroy  that  trade? 
(loud  cries  of,  It  is!  it  is!)  Is  there  any  man  who  would  deeply  feel 
it,  if  he  heard  that  the  rupture  was  at  length  converted  into  open 
war?  Is  there  a  man  present  who  would  not  be  somewhat  alarmed 
if  he  supposed  that  we  should  have  another  year  without  the  Ame- 
rican trade?  Is  there  any  one  of  nerves  so  hardy,  as  calmly  to  hear 
that  our  government  have  given  up  all  negotiation — abandoned  all 
hopes  of  speedy  peace  witli  America?  Then  I  tell  that  man  to  brace 
up  his  nerves — I  bid  you  all  be  prepared  to  hear  what  touches  you 
all  equally.  We  are  by  this  day's  intelligence  at  war  with  America 
in  good  earnest — our  government  have  at  length  issued  letters  of 
rnarque  and  reprisal  against  the  United  States!  (universal  cries  of, 
God  help  us!  God  help  us!}  Aye,  God  help  us!  God  of  his  infinite 
compassion  take  pity  on  us!  God  help  and  protect  this  poor  town — 
and  this  whole  trading  country! 

Now,  I  ask  you  whether  you  will  be  represented  in  Parliament  by 
the  men  who  have  brought  this  grievous  calamity  on  your  heads,  or 
by  those  who  have  constantly  opposed  the  mad  career  which  was 
plunging  us  into  it?  Whether  will  you  trust  the  revival  of  your  trade 
— the  restoration  of  your  livelihood — to  them  who  have  destroyed  it, 
or  to  me  whose  counsels,  if  followed  in  time,  would  have  averted  this 
unnatural  war,  and  left  Liverpool  flourishing  in  opulence  and  peace? 
Make  your  choice — for  it  lies  with  yourselves  which  of  us  shall  be 
commissioned  to  bring  back  commerce  and  plenty — they  whose  stub- 
born infatuation  has  chased  these  blessings  away — or  we,  who  are 
only  known  to  you  as  the  strenuous  enemies  of  their  miserable  policy, 
the  last  friends  of  your  best  interests. 


LIVERPOOL  ELECTION'.  259 

Gentlemen,  I  stand  up  in  this  contest  against  the  friends  and  follow- 
ers of  Mr.  Pitt,  or,  as  they  partially  designate  him,  the  immortal  states- 
man now  no  more.  Immortal  in  the  miseries  of  his  devoted  conn- 
try!  Immortal  in  the  wounds  of  her  bleeding  liberties!  Immortal  in 
the  cruel  wars  which  sprang  from  his  cold  miscalculating  ambition! 
Immortal  in  the  intolerable  taxes,  the  countless  loads  of  debt  which 
these  wars  have  Hung  upon  us — which  the  youngest  man  amongst  us 
will  not  live  to  see  the  end  of!  Immortal  in  the  triumphs  of  our  ene- 
mies, and  the  ruin  of  our  allies,  the  costly  purchase  of  so  much  blood 
and  treasure!  Immortal  in  the  afflictions  of  England,  and  the  humilia- 
tion of  her  friends,  through  the  whole  results  of  his  twenty  years'  reign, 
from  the  first  rays  of  favour  with  which  a  delighted  court  gilded  his 
early  apostacy,  to  the  deadly  glare  which  is  at  this  instant  cast  upon  his 
name  by  the  burning  metropolis  of  our  last  ally!*  But  may  no  such 
immortality  ever  foil  to  my  lot — let  me  rather  live  innocent  and  inglo- 
rious; and  when  at  last  I  cease  to  serve  you,  and  to  feel  for  your 
wrongs,  may  I  have  an  humble  monument  in  some  nameless  stone,  to 
tell  that  beneath  it  there  rests  from  his  labours  in  your  service,  "an 
enemy  of  the  immortal  statesman — a  friend  of  peace  and  of  the 
people." 

Friends!  you  must  now  judge  for  yourselves,  and  act  accordingly. 
Against  us  and  against  you  stand  those  who  call  themselves  the  suc- 
cessors of  that  man.  They  are  the  heirs  of  his  policy;  and  if  not  of 
his  immortality  too,  it  is  only  because  their  talents  for  the  work  of  de- 
struction are  less  transcendent  than  his.  They  are  his  surviving  col- 
leagues. His  fury  survives  in  them,  if  not  his  fire,  and  they  partake 
of  all  his  infatuated  principles,  if  they  have  lost  the  genius  that  first 
made  those  principles  triumphant.  If  you  choose  them  for  your  dele- 
gates, you  know  to  what  policy  you  lend  your  sanction — what  men 
you  exalt  to  power.  Should  you  prefer  me,  your  choice  falls  upon 
one  who,  if  obscure  and  unambitious,  will  at  least  give  his  own  age 
no  reason  to  fear  him,  or  posterity  to  curse  him — one  whose  proudest 
ambition  it  is  to  be  deemed  the  friend  of  Liberty  and  of  Peace. 

*  The  news  of  the  burning  of  Moscow  had  arrived  by  that  day's  post. 


SPEECHES 


ox 


AGRICULTURAL    AND    MANUFACTURING 

DISTRESS, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
1816,  1817. 


INTRODUCTION. 

DISTRESSES    OF    THE    COUNTRY     IN    1S1G — METHOD     OF     SUCCESSFULLY 
SUPPORTING    THE    PEOPLE    IN    PARLIAMENT. 

THE  return  of  peace  did  not  bring  back  prosperity  to  any  portion  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  country.  Whether  it  was  that  a  war  of  twenty-throe  years  duration 
had  carried  all  the  functions  of  the  body  politic  to  an  unnatural  state,  only  to  be 
maintained  by  the  stimulants  which  war  supplies,  in  place  of  more  wholesome  sup- 
port; or  that  the  drains  of  the  heavy  expenditure,  created  by  the  hostilities  carried 
on  all  over  the  globe,  had  exhausted  our  resources;  or  that  the  mere  transition  from 
one  state  to  another,  operated  on  the  political  system,  giving  it  the  sudden  shock 
that  a  sudden  relief  from  pain  or  from  want  would  communicate  to  the  natural 
frame;  certain  it  is,  that  there  had  never  during  the  whole  contest  just  closed,  been 
more  general  embarrassment  felt,  than  was  suffered,  first  by  the  agricultural  interest 
in  1810,  and  then  by  the  manufacturing  classes  the  year  after.  The  relief  obtained 
from  the  burden  of  eighteen  millions,  by  the  repeal  of  the,  income  tax  and  war  malt 
duties  in  Isltj,  however  important,  appeared  to  make  but  little  impression  upon 
the  mass  of  distress;  and  men  were  heard  in  all  directions  regretting  the  change 
from  war  to  peace,  farmers  wishing  Napoleon  back  again,  and  merchants  sighing 
for  the  times  when  no  ships  but  our  own  could  keep  the  sea.  The  country,  there- 
fore, had  recourse  to  the  Parliament,  and  approached  both  houses,  but  especially  that 
of  their  representatives,  with  numerous  petitions  sitting  forth,  in  moving  terms,  the 
calamities  that  had  befallen  all  the  industrious  classes,  and  praying  F<T  some 
measures  which  might  tend  to  their  relief.  These  petitions  wete  less  numerous 
iu  Hit'.,  because  the  meetings  upon  the  income  tax  then  engrossed  the  attention  of 
the  people;  and  its  repeal  was  expected  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  the  farmers. 
Hut  in  the  following  session,  when  the  distress  extended  to  the  manufacturing 
classes,  the  petitions  increased  in  number,  and  were  directed  in  some  instances 
by  fallacious  views,  tu  extremely  injudicious  measures,  the  must  numerously 


262  INTRODUCTION. 

signed  of  them  all  having  for  its  prayer  the  prohibition  of  exporting  cotton 
twist,  upon  the  notion  that  this  encouraged  foreign  manufactures  at  the  expense 
of  our  own.  The  course  of  petitioning  had  come  of  late  years  into  great  favour 
with  the  country,  and  it  seems  important  to  explain  in  what  way  this  opinion 
arose. 

In  the  long  inquiry  which  occupied  the  House  in  1812,  respecting  the  orders 
in  council,  the  efforts  of  the  petitions  against  that  policy  had  been  attended  with 
the  most  complete  success.  Although  opposed  by  the  whole  weight  of  the  govern- 
ment both  in  public  and  out  of  doors;  although  at  first  vigorously  resisted  by  the 
energy,  the  acuteness,  the  activity  and  the  expertness,  which  made  Mr.  Perceval 
one  of  the  best  debaters  of  his  day;  although  after  his  death  the  struggle  was 
maintained  by  the  father  of  the  system  with  all  his  fire  and  with  his  full  know- 
ledge of  the  whole  subject — nay,  although  the  Ministry  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
question,  what  is  reckoned  the  most  formidable  engine  that  any  government  can 
set  in  motion  against  its  adversaries  in  any  single  measure,  the  announcement  that 
their  official  existence  depended  upon  the  result — yet  had  the  country  gained  a 
signal  and  complete  victory,  and  the  favourite  policy  of  the  cabinet  had  been  at 
once  and  entirely  surrendered  to  the  pressing  instance  of  the  petitioners.  When 
men  came  to  consider  how  this  battle  had  been  gained,  no  doubt  could  remain  in 
their  minds  as  to  the  causes  of  success.  It  appeared  clear  that,  as  far  as  any 
thing  was  to  be  expected  from  the  direct  expression  of  the  people's  voice  through 
their  regular  organs  in  Parliament,  nothing  could  well  be  more  desperate  than  the 
prospect  of  the  petitioners.  But  indirectly,  the  country  could  make  its  voice 
heard  and  its  influence  felt.  It  was  roused  extensively  to  the  consideration  of 
the  question.  Meetings  were  generally  held,  and  many  petitions  came  from  them, 
while  others  proceeded  from  persons  who  signed  them,  without  otherwise  bearing 
a  part  in  any  public  debates.  The  plan  was  now  adopted  by  Mr.  Brougham  and 
Mr.  Baring  of  promoting  discussion  on  all  fair  occasions  connected  with  the  sub- 
ject. The  interlocutory  debates  arising  from  questions  raised  by  the  examination 
of  the  witnesses,  provided  many  such  opportunities.  Motions  for  the  production 
of  papers  and  accounts  added  to  their  number;  and  each  petition  that  came  up 
from  the  country  was  made  studiously,  but  very  naturally,  the  subject  of  a  con- 
versation which  often  swelled  into  a  long  debate.  The  effects  of  this  series  of 
discussions,  lasting  for  six  or  seven  weeks,  were  prodigious.  They  strongly  excited 
the  country,  and  they  communicated  in  their  turn  the  influence  of  that  excitement 
to  the  House  itself.  They  brought  the  public  feeling  to  bear  directly  upon  the 
members  who  represented  counties  or  towns,  but  they  were  not  without  their  in- 
fluence upon  those  who  had  no  constituents  at  all.  They  were  besides  of  the 
most  signal  use  in  promoting  the  most  thorough  and  sifting  examination  of  every 
part  of  the  subject — bringing  all  statements  of  facts  to  the  test  of  rigorous 
scrutiny — trying  by  the  criterion  of  free  debate,  liberated  from  the  fetters  of  mere 
form,  the  soundness  of  every  position,  and  conclusiveness  of  every  reason— and 
making  it  quite  impossible  for  sophistry  to  seek  shelter  behind  vague  assertion, 
or  imbecile  and  fallacious  argument  to  escape  exposure  behind  the  convenient 
screen  of  those  parliamentary  rules  which  govern  more  regular  debates.  Hardly 
an  hour  passed  without  detecting  some  false  statement  or  illogical  argument:  hardly 
a  night  passed  without  gaining  some  convert  to  the  cause  of  truth;  and  real  represen- 
tatives who  could  face  their  constituents,  and  borough  members  who  had  no  dread 
of  the  county  or  of  the  society  they  lived  in,  provided  their  support  of  the  vicious 
and  unpopular  system  were  confined  to  a  single  vote  by  which  its  fate  should  be 
decided  once  for  all,  would  no  longer  venture  to  hold  out,  during  all  the  skirmishes 
and  other  movements  that  prepared  the  way  for  the  great  engagement,  and  they 
dreaded  still  more  the  endless  remonstrances  by  letter  and  by  conference  of  deputa- 
tions, which  they  had  to  undergo  while  the  matter  hung  in  so  lengthened  a  sus- 
pense, and  the  country  was  all  the  while  exerting  its  activity  to  attain  the  common 
object.  This  battle,  then,  for  the  people,  was  fought  by  the  joint  efforts  of 
themselves  out  of  doors,  and  of  their  supporters  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
by  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  the  House  and  the  people  upon  each  other.  It 
is  a  battle  which  may  always  be  renewed;  and  is  always  of  certain  success  on 
any  ground  naturally  adapted  to  its  movements;  that  is  to  say,  wherever  a  great 


INTRODUCTION.  263 

popular  feeling  can  bo  excited  and  maintained,  and  wherever  there  are  persons  of 
firmness  and  spirit  to  set  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  people,  regardless  of  the 
frowns  and  the  threats  of  power.  It  is  equally  certain  that  such  a  fight  never 
can  be  fought,  with  any  chance  of  success,  where  the  people  are  indifferent 
to  tho  subject,  and  where  they  have  no  leaders  in  Parliament  adequate  to  the 
occasion. 

The  session  of  181 G  offered  an  example  yet  more  remarkable  of  the  same  tactics 
being  attended  with  equally  signal  success.  On  the  termination  of  tho  war,  the 
government  were  determined,  instead  of  repealing  the  whole  income  tax,  which 
the  act  enforcing  it  declared  to  be  "for  and  during  the  continuance  of  the  war  and 
no  longer,"  to  retain  one  half  of  it,  that  is,  to  reduce  it  from  ten  to  five  per  cent, 
and  thus  keep  a  revenue  raised  from  this  source  of  between  seven  and  eight 
millions,  instead  of  fifteen.  As  soon  as  this  intention  was  announced,  several 
meetings  were  held,  and  two  or  three  petitions  were  presented.  The  ministers 
perceived  the  risk  they  ran,  if  the  former  policy  should  be  pursued,  of  continued 
discussion  for  a  length  of  time;  and  they  saw  the  vast  importance  of  dispatch. 
Accordingly,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer*  gave  notice  on  the  Tuesday  for 
his  motion  on  the  Thursday  immediately  following.  The  opposition  took  the  alarm, 
and  Mr.  Brougham  declared  on  presenting  a  petition  numerously  signed  from  one 
of  the  London  parishes,  that  if  the  hurry  now  indicated  should  be  persevered  in, 
he  should  avail  himself  of  all  the  means  of  delay  afforded  by  the  forms  of  the 
House.  Lord  Folkestone,!  one  of  the  most  strenuous,  and  in  [those  days  one  of 
the  most  active  and  powerful  supporters  of  the  popular  cause,  vigorously  seconded 
this  menace,  in  which  he  entirely  joined.  On  the  next  day  more  petitions  were 
flung  in;  more  discussions  took  place,  and  the  government  postponed  for  a  week 
the  introduction  of  the  bill.  That  week  proved  quite  decisive;  for  so  many  meet- 
ings were  held,  and  so  many  petitions  sent  up,  that  the  Bill  was  put  off  from 
time  to  time,  and  did  not  finally  make  its  appearance  till  the  17th  of  March. 
Above  six  weeks  were  almost  entirely  spent  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  receiv- 
ing the  numberless  petitions  poured  in  from  all  quarters  against  the  tax.  For  it 
was  speedily  seen  that  the  campaign  of  1812  was  renewed,  and  that  the  same 
leaders,  Messrs.  Brougham  and  Baring,  had  the  management  of  the  operations. 

At  first  the  ministers  pursued  the  course  of  obstinate  silence.  The  Opposi- 
tion debated  each  petition  in  vain;  every  minister  and  ministerial  member  held  his 
peace.  No  arguments,  no  facts,  no  sarcasms,  no  taunts,  could  rouse  them;  no 
expression  of  the  feelings  of  the  country,  no  reference  to  tho  anxiety  of  particular 
constituencies,  could  draw  a  word  from  the  Ministers  and  their  supporters.  At 
length  it  was  perceived  that  their  antagonists  did  not  the  less  debate,  and  that  con- 
sequently the  scheme  had  failed  in  its  purpose  of  stifling  discussion.  The  only 
effect  of  it,  then,  was,  that  all  the  debating  was  on  one  side,  and  this  both  bccamo 
hurtful  to  the  government  in  the  House,  and  more  hurtful  still  in  the  country. 
They  were  forced  into  discussion,  therefore;  and  then  began  a  scene  of  unexampled 
interest  which  lasted  until  the  second  reading  of  the  bill.  Each  night  at  a  littlo 
after  four,  commenced  the  series  of  debates  which  lasted  until  past  midnight. 
These  were  of  infinite  variety.  Arguments  urged  by  different  speakers;  instances 
of  oppression  and  hardships  recounted;  anecdotes  of  local  suffering  and  personal 
inconvenience;  accounts  of  the  remarkable  passages  at  different  meetings;  personal 
altercations  interspersed  with  more  general  matter — all  filled  up  the  measure  of 
the  night's  hill  of  fare;  and  all  were  so  blended  and  so  variegated,  that  no  one  ever 
perceived  any  hour  thus  spent  to  pass  tediously  away.  Those  not  immediately 
concerned.  Peers,  or  persons  belonging  to  neither  House,  flocked  to  the  spectacle 
which  each  day  presented.  The  interest,  exciled  out  of  doors  kept  pace  with  that 
of  the  spectators;  and  those  who  carried  on  these  active;  operations  showed  a. 
vigour  and  constancy  «if  purpose,  an  unwearied  readiness  for  the  combat,  which 
astonished  while  it  animated  all  beholders.  It  is  recounted  of  this  remarkahlu 
struggle,  that  one  niglit  towards  the  latter  end  of  tho  period  in  question,  when 
at  a  late  hour,  the  House  having  been  in  debate  from  four  o'clock,  one  speaker  had 
resumed  his  seat,  the  whole  members  Kitting  upon  one  entire  bench  rose,  at  once  and 

»  Mr.  Vansittart.  t  Now  Earl  of  Radnor. 


264  INTRODUCTION. 

addressed  the  chair — a  testimony  of  unabated  spirit  and  unquenchable  animation 
which  drew  forth  the  loudest  cheers  from  all  sides  of  the  House. 

At  length  came  the  17th  of  March,  the  day  appointed  for  the  decision;  but  it 
was  soon  found  that  this  had  been,  with  the  debate,  wholly  anticipated.  The  usual 
number  of  petitions,  and  even  more,  were  poured  thickly  in  during  some  hours; 
little  or  no  debating  took  place  upon  them;  unusual  anxiety  for  the  result  of  such 
long  continued  labour,  and  such  lengthened  excitement  kept  all  silent  and  in  sus- 
pense; when  about  eleven  o'clock  Sir  William  Curtis,  representing  the  City  of 
London,  proceeded  up  the  House  bearing  in  his  arms  the  petition,  which  he  pre- 
sented without  any  remark,  of  the  great  meeting  of  the  bankers  and  merchants 
holden  in  the  Egyptian  Hall,  and  signed  by  twelve  thousand  persons.  The 
division  took  place  after  a  debate  that  did  not  last  half  an  hour;  no  one  could 
indeed  be  heard  in  an  assembly  so  impatient  for  the  decision,  and  by  a  majority 
of  thirty-seven  voices,  the  tax  was  defeated  for  ever,  and  the  wholesome  principle, 
as  Mr.  Wilberforce  well  observed,  was  laid  down,  that  war  and  income  tax  are 
wedded  together. 

The  same  display  which  led  to  such  important  and  even  glorious  success,  the 
cause  of  the  people,  in  an  unreformed  Parliament,  is  to  the  full  as  requisite  now, 
and  would  produce,  if  possible,  greater  results.  Neither  slavery,  nor  limited 
suffrage,  nor  petty  constituencies,  nor  refusal  of  the  ballot  would  stand  before  it 
half  a  session.  But  unhappily  it  has  seemed  good  to  the  Whig  government  that 
they  should  adopt  a  course  of  proceeding  which  renders  all  the  tactics  of  1812  and 
1816  impracticable.  Forgetting  what  it  was  that  raised  them  to  power,  the 
remote  cause  of  the  Tory  downfall,  the  policy  which  produced  all  the  triumphs  of 
liberal  opinions;  forgetting,  too,  that  though  now  in  office,  they  may  to-morrow  be 
restored  to  that  opposition  from  which  the  triumphs  of  1812  and  181G  raised 
them — they  have  resolved  that  no  petition  shall  now  be  discussed — that  whoever 
presents  it  shall  merely  state  its  substance,  after  telling  the  body  and  the  place 
it  comes  from — and  that  no  other  member  shall  make  it  the  subject  of  any  obser- 
vation. To  this  plan  for  stifling  the  people's  voice,  and  giving  the  ministers  of 
the  day  and  their  majority  in  Parliament  an  absolute  control  over  the  policy  of  the 
empire,  disarming  the  opposition  of  their  main  weapons,  and  shearing  the  people 
of  their  chief  strength,  the  speaker,  Mr.  Abercromby,  has  unhappily  lent  the  support 
of  his  authority,  if  he  was  not  indeed  the  author  of  the  scheme.  It  is  of  little  mo- 
ment to  reflect  that  but  for  the  policy  of  former  and  better  times,  this  distinguished 
and  excellent  person  would  now  have  been  in  the  honourable  but  cheerless  exile  of 
an  Edinburgh  sinecure  judgeship,  as  his  ministeral  coadjutors  would  have  been 
doomed  to  exclusion  from  power  on  the  benches  of  an  eternal  opposition.  It  is  of 
more  importance  to  remark,  that  unless  a  speedy  end  is  put  to  the  present  course  of 
proceeding,  the  mainstay  of  English  liberty,  the  only  effectual  safeguard  against 
misgovernment  and  oppression,  is  taken  from  the  people  of  these  realms. 


SPEECH 

ON  THE 

DISTRESSED    STATE  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
APRIL  9,  1816. 


MR.  BROGDEN:  I  feel  very  sensibly  the  disadvantages  under  which  I 
rise  to  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  tin's  momentous  subject;  not  only 
because  I  am  in  all  respects  so  ill  qualified  to  handle  it  successfully, 
but  because  a  pretty  general  indisposition  has  been  expressed  by  the 
House,  to  proceed  in  the  inquiry  this  night.  Nevertheless,  as  I  was 
one  of  those  who  objected  to  delay,  and  as  I  stated  rny  readiness  to 
go  on  with  the  debate,  I  am  desirous  of  delivering  my  sentiments,  such 
as  they  are,  upon  the  present  occasion,  that  I  may  lay  before  the 
Committee  the  ideas  (whatever  they  may  be  worth)  which  I  have 
gathered  from  an  honest  and  patient  attention  to  the  subject  matter  of 
our  investigation. 

There  is  one  branch  of  the  argument  which  I  shall  pass  over  alto- 
gether; I  mean  the  amount  of  the  distresses  which  are  now  univer- 
sally admitted  to  prevail  over  almost  every  part  of  the  empire.  Upon 
this  topic  all  men  are  agreed;  the  statements  connected  with  it  are  as 
unquestionable  as  they  are  afllicting;  each  day's  experience  since  my 
honourable  friend's  motion*  has  added  to  their  number  and  increased 
their  force;  and  the  petition  from  Cambridgeshire  presented  at  an  early 
part  of  this  evening,  has  laid  before  you  a  fact,  to  which  all  the  former 
expositions  of  distress  afforded  no  parallel,  that  in  one  parish,  every 
proprietor  and  tenant  being  ruined  with  a  single  exception,  the  whole 
poor  rates  of  the  parish  thus  wholly  inhabited  by  paupers,  are  now 
paid  by  an  individual,  whose  fortune,  once  ample,  is  thus  swept  entirely 
away.  Of  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  evil,  then,  it  is  quite  super- 
fluous to  speak;  I  purpose,  with  your  permission,  to  apply  myself  to 
the  examination  of  its  causes,  and  to  such  a  view  of  the  remedies  or 
palliatives  proposed,  as  may  naturally  be  suggested  by  a  consideration 

•  Mr.  (now  Lord)  Western. 
VOL.  I.— 23 


266  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

of  those  causes.  Without  entering  somewhat  at  large  into  the  origin 
of  our  present  difficulties,  I  am  afraid  we  shall  be  apt  to  go  astray  in 
our  search  after  the  means  of  relief. 

A  circumstance  which  must  strike  every  observer  who  turns  his 
attention  toward  this  state  of  the  country,  is  the  comparative  state  of 
prices  before  and  since  the  late  war.  In  1792,  the  average  price  of 
wheat  was  47s.  the  quarter;  now  its  price  is  57s.,  almost  20  per  cent, 
higher;  and  yet  no  complaint  was  ever  heard  of  low  prices  before  the 
war,  nor  were  any  of  those  signs  of  distress  to  be  perceived,  which  in 
these  times  claim  our  pity  in  every  part  of  the  empire.  This  con- 
sideration is  of  itself  sufficient  to  show,  that  over-trading — that  excess 
of  cultivation  is  not  the  only  cause  of  the  evil  we  complain  of;  and 
may  warn  us  against  the  error  of  imputing  it  to  the  operation  of  any 
one  cause  alone;  for  I  am  certainly  disposed  to  rank  the  great  extension 
of  cultivation  among  the  principal  causes,  or  at  least  to  regard  it  as 
lying  near  the  foundation  of  the  mischief.  In  attempting  to  unravel 
the  difficulties  of  this  question,  I  trust  the  Committee  will  believe  me, 
when  I  say  that  I  approach  it,  as  I  should  the  solution  of  a  problem 
in  the  mathematics,  without  the  smallest  taint  of  party  feeling,  and 
with  no  other  view  whatsoever  than  a  desire  to  discover  the  truth,  upon 
a  question  of  great  and  universal  concernment. 

The  first  circumstance  to  which  I  would  solicit  the  attention  of  the 
Committee,  as  lying  at  the  root  of  the  matter,  is  the  progress  of  agri- 
culture during  the  long  period  of  the  last  war — I  mean  from  the  year 
1792  downwards.  The  commencement  of  hostilities  in  1793  produced 
the  stagnation  of  trade  and  manufactures  which  usually  accompanies 
a  transition  from  peace  to  war;  but  these  difficulties  were  of  uncommon 
short  duration,  and  the  brilliant  success  of  our  arms  at  sea,  the  capture 
of  some  of  the  enemy's  colonies,  the  revolt  of  others,  and  the  crippled 
state  of  his  mercantile  resources  at  home,  from  internal  confusion, 
speedily  diminished  his  commerce  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  aug- 
menting our  own  in  nearly  the  same  proportion.  As  his  conquests  or 
influence  extended  over  other  nations  possessed  of  trade  or  colonial 
establishments,  these  in  their  turn  became  exposed  to  our  maritime 
hostility,  and  lost  their  commerce  and  their  plantations;  so  that  in  a 
very  short  time  this  country  obtained  a  mercantile  and  colonial  mo- 
nopoly altogether  unprecedented,  even  in  the  most  successful  of  her 
former  wars.  The  consequence  was,  a  sudden  extension  of  our  manu- 
facturing industry  and  wealth;  and  a  proportionate  improvement  in 
our  asriculture.  But  although  this  effect  began  to  be  perceivable  soon 
after  the  first  successes  of  the  war.  it  was  not  fully  produced  until  a 
few  years  had  elapsed,  and  a  number  of  circumstances,  in  some 
measure  accidental,  happened  to  coincide  with  those  which  might  more 
reasonably  have  been  expected  to  occur  during  the  course  of  the  war, 
in  promoting,  I  might  almost  say  in  forcing,  the  cultivation  of  the 
country.  I  should  be  disposed  to  take  the  ten  years  from  1797  to 
1S08,  as  the  period  when  all  those  circumstances,  of  what  nature 
soever,  concurred  to  produce  the  same  ell'ect.  It  will  be  worth  the 
attention  of  the  Committee  to  observe  how  singularly  this  period  is 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  267 

filled  with  events,  all  tending  one  way,  all  bearing  upon  the  extension 
of  agriculture. 

The  French  commerce  and  colonies  had  heen  previously  destroyed; 
and  in  1797,  1798,  and  1799,  those  of  Spain  and  Holland  shared  the 
same  fate.  About  this  time  our  monopoly  might  be  said  to  have 
reached  its  height.  But  several  accidental  events  now  concurred  with 
those  results  of  the  war,  and  influenced  the  progress  of  cultivation  in 
a  visible  manner.  The  scarcity  of  wheat  in  1790,  and  all  sorts  ol 
grain  in  1799  and  1SOO,  raised  the  prices  so  much  as  to  force  a  vast 
portion  of  land  into  cultivation.  In  1797,  and  still  more  after  1SOO, 
lands  were  broken  up  which  had  never  before  known  the  plough,  and 
many  wastes  were  taken  in,  the  tillage  of  which  prudence  would  per- 
haps never  have  authorized.  Somewhat  of  the  same  effect  was  thus 
produced  which  arose  from  the  destruction  of  the  principal  French 
West  Indian  colonies  early  in  the  lato  war.  The  sudden  diminution  in 
the  supply  of  sugar  raised  its  price  beyond  all  example,  and  occasioned 
a  vast  extent  of  new  land  to  be  cleared  and  planted,  promoting  at  the 
same  time  the  culture  of  the  old  plantations.  The  African  slave  trade, 
and  the  conquest  of  the  Dutch,  French,  and  Spanish  settlements,  with 
the  consequent  influx  of  British  capital,  facilitated  the  progress  of  West 
Indian  agriculture,  until,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  blank 
created  by  the  commotions  at  St.  Domingo  and  Guadaloupe  was  much 
more  than  supplied;  sugars  fell  as  far  below  their  ordinary  price  as 
they  had  lately  risen  above  it;  all  West  Indian  proprietors  were  dis- 
tressed, and  many  utterly  mined;  the  colonies,  generally  speaking, 
were  in  a  state  nearly  resembling  the  most  suffering  districts  of  the 
mother  country  at  the  present  time;  and  relief  was  only  afforded  by 
the  abandonment  of  many  estates,  chiefly  such  as  were  loaded  wiih 
debts  and  consisted  of  inferior  lands,  the  supply  being  thus  restored 
to  a  level  with  the  demand.  I  do  not  mention  the  cases  as  in  all 
respects  parallel,  but  they  agree  in  many  of  their  principal  circum- 
stances. 

Together  with  the  scarcities  of  1790  and  1SOO,  the  financial  and 
military  operations  of  the  war,  concurretl  to  raise  the  prices  of  agricul- 
tural produce.  Those  operations  did  not  certainly  create  capital,  or 
multiply  the  number  of  mouths  for  consuming  food;  but  they  collected 
capital  in  masses  to  be  expended  less  economically  in  feeding  a  number 
of  persons  more  carelessly  than  the  same  individuals  would  have  been 
supported  by  part  of  the  same  capital,  had  it  been  left  in  the  hands  of 
private  persons.  I  desire  to  be  understood  as  casting  no  reflection 
upon  the  administration  of  the  revenue  appropriated  to  the  demands 
of  the  war,  because  it  is  quite  unnecessary  at  present  to  express  my 
opinion  upon  this  point.  Every  one  must  admit  that  a  given  sum  in 
the  hands  of  government,  even  of  the  most  economical  ministers, 
especially  if  allotted  to  meeting  the  various  pressing  exigencies  of 
warfare,  must  be  expended  with  much  less  care  and  parsimony  than 
the  same  sums  appropriated  to  the  uses  of  private  families  under  all 
the  checks  imposed  by  individual  prudence.  The  tendency  of  such 
a  national  expenditure  unquestionably  is,  to  raise  prices  above  their 


268  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

natural  level,  for  a  time  at  least,  and  thus  to  force  cultivation  forward, 
although,  in  a  long  course  of  years,  the  same  capital  in  the  hands  of 
the  community  would  have  been  much  more  augmented,  and  would 
gradually  and  healthfully  have  increased  the  production  of  the  country 
in  a  greater,  but  not  in  a  disproportionate  degree.  It  is  not,  however, 
for  its  effect  in  stimulating  agriculture  that  any  man  will  be  disposed 
to  quarrel  with  the  war  and  its  expenditure.  Had  it  no  other  sins  to 
answer  for,  this  might  well  be  forgiven. 

While  the  circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned  were  disposing 
men  to  extend  the  cultivation  of  the  kingdom,  an  event  occurred,  which 
in  its  consequences  mightily  facilitated  this  operation.  I  allude  to  the 
stoppage  of  the  Bank  of  England,  in  the  early  part  of  1797.  The 
alarm  in  which  that  extrordinary  measure  originated,  very  speedily 
subsided;  and  with  the  restoration  of  confidence,  came  a  disposition 
to  accommodate,  on  the  part  of  bankers  and  other  dealers  in  money 
and  credit  wholly  unexampled.  The  Bank  of  England  soon  increased 
its  issues;  and  the  numbers  of  country  banks  were  everywhere  aug- 
mented. In  districts  where  no  such  establishment  had  ever  before 
been  known,  they  were  to  be  found  actively  engaged  in  discounting 
and  lending — and  in  issuing  their  own  notes.  In  places  too  small  to 
support  a  bank,  there  were  agents  appointed  by  banks  fixed  at  some 
distance:  or  a  shopkeeper  or  tradesman,  added  to  his  usual  and  regular 
calling,  the  new  employment  of  cashing  bills  and  passing  notes.  It 
is  true  that  the  check  which  had  now  been  removed  from  the  great 
Bank  in  London,  still  operated  to  a  certain  extent  upon  the  minor 
dealers  in  credit,  thus  scattered  over  the  country;  they  were  obliged 
to  pay,  if  required,  in  Bank  of  England  paper,  although  the  issuers 
of  that  paper  were  not  compelled  to  pay  in  specie.  But  this  was 
rather  a  nominal  than  a  real  restraint;  for  if  the  holders  of  country 
bank  paper  could  not  obtain  gold  in  exchange,  they  preferred  coarse 
notes  with  the  names  of  Mr.  or  Sir  John  such-a-one,  whom  they  knew, 
to  notes  somewhat  better  engraved,  but  worth  just  as  little,  and  with 
the  names  of  a  governor  and  company  and  a  Mr.  Newland,  whom 
they  knew  nothing  about — so  that  the  country  banks  enjoyed  the  same 
facility  with  the  bank  in  London,  of  increasing  their  issues;  and  they 
used  it  with  much  less  reserve.  Hence  the  unlimited  accommodation 
which  they  afforded  to  farmers,  and  generally  to  all  speculators  in 
land.  They  assisted  all  adventurers  more  or  less,  but  adventurers  in 
land  most  of  all,  because  they  had  better  security  to  give,  and  were 
supposed  to  be  engaged  in  a  less  hazardous  line  of  trade.  I  must 
here  repeat  the  remark  I  made  upon  the  tendency  of  the  war  to  pro- 
mote cultivation.  If  the  stoppage  of  the  bank  had  produced  no  worse 
effects  than  throwing  dormant  capital  into  circulation,  and  affording  a 
stimulus  to  industry,  especially  to  agriculture,  I  should  have  little  to 
say  against  that  measure — nay,  it  might  have  been  rather  beneficial 
than  hurtful,  at  least  in  this  point  of  view,  had  the  accommodation 
which  it  afforded  been  withdrawn  more  gradually,  and  at  all  events, 
not  at  the  particular  moment,  when  perhaps  the  state  of  things  required 
it  to  be  still  farther  extended. 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  269 

Another  circumstance  to  which  I  shall  advert,  also  occurred  within 
the  period  in  question,  between  1797  and  1SOS,  I  mean  the  great 
extension  of  our  colonial  possessions.  The  value  of  those  establish- 
ments is,  I  believe,  somewhat  underrated  in  this  country:  not  that  we 
are  slow  to  parade  their  importance  in  several  particulars — on  the 
contrary  we  are  prone  to  magnify  them  in  our  accounts  of  exports  and 
imports,  and  of  the  quantity  of  tonnage,  and  the  number  of  seamen 
employed  in  our  trade;  but  we  seldom,  if  ever,  reflect  on  the  vast 
effects  produced  by  them  upon  the  agriculture  of  the  mother  country. 
In  promoting  this,  their  wealth  operates  both  through  the  channels  of 
commerce  and  of  remittances,  almost  as  directly  as  the  riches  of  one 
district  of  this  island  expand  themselves  over  and  fertilize  another  less 
wealthy  territory  in  its  neighbourhood.  The  conquest  and  rapid  culti- 
vation of  the  Dutch  colonies,  to  take  the  most  remarkable  instance, 
may  be  traced  in  its  effects  upon  many  a  once  barren  tract  of  land  in 
the  northern  parts  of  Great  Britain,  where  by  the  names  of  the  farms 
and  of  their  occupiers  you  may  be  reminded  of  those  lucrative  specu- 
lations in  Surinam,  Demerara,  and  Berbice,  to  which  the  agriculture 
of  the  mother  country  owed  these  accessions. 

The  last  circumstance  I  shall  mention  as  falling  within  the  same 
period,  is  the  completion  of  our  commercial  and  manufacturing  mo- 
nopoly, by  the  destruction  of  almost  all  other  trade  and  peaceful 
industry,  the  final  result  of  Buonaparte's  continental  and  military 
system.  In  the  end,  indeed,  we  felt  the  effects  of  this  prodigious 
attempt,  as  I  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  state;  but  for  some  time 
it  only  consummated  the  ruin  of  our  competitors,  and  gave  new  re- 
sources to  our  seaport  and  manufacturing  towns.  The  effects  of  this 
increase  upon  the  industry  of  the  country,  at  a  period  when  men  were 
singularly  prone  to  farming  speculations,  cannot  easily  be  overrated. 
We  are  apt  to  suppose  the  sphere  of  such  influence  much  more  con- 
tracted than  it  really  is.  If  any  one  is  desirous  of  perceiving  how 
widely  it  extends,  I  think  I  can  furnish  him  with  a  medium  through 
which  he  may  view  it.  When  the  measures  of  the  enemy,  which 
began  with  the  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees,  had,  through  the  co-operation 
of  our  own  Orders  in  Council,  succeeded  in  crippling  the  trade  of  almost 
all  our  great  towns,  the  distresses  of  the  merchant  and  manufacturer 
affected  not  merely  the  farmer  in  his  neighbourhood,  but  lowered  the 
cattle  and  corn  markets  to  a  great  distance,  so  that  fat  beasts  were  sc,ld 
at  very  low  prices,  one  hundred,  and  even  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  from  the  manufacturing  districts  in  Lancashire  and  the  West 
Hiding  of  Yorkshire,  in  consequence  of  the  distresses  prevailing  over 
those  parts  of  the  country.  In  like  manner,  it  is  evident  that  the 
earlier  events  of  the  war,  which  suddenly  promoted  the  wealth  of  the 
great  towns,  tended  as  rapidly  to  augment  the  cultivation  of  i-vi-n  ilu: 
remote  provinces. 

Now,  sir,  having  ascertained  the  existence  of  so  many  and  such 
powerful  causes,  uniting  their  forces  in  one  direction,  during  the  period 
I  have  mentioned,  and  all  tending  manifestly  to  promote  the  agriculture 
of  the  country,  some  of  them  by  tempting  men  to  embark  in  fanning 

23* 


270  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

concerns,  others  by  furnishing  them  with  the  means  of  speculation, 
even  if  we  do  not  take  into  the  account  such  circumstances  as  the 
general  progress  of  the  arts  and  the  depreciation  in  the  value  of  the 
circulating  medium,  and  the  consequent  rise  in  the  money  price  of 
produce,  which  I  am  very  far  from  underrating,  but  only  pass  over  for 
the  present  as  operating  less  exclusively  upon  the  cultivation  of  land 
than  the  other  circumstances  which  I  have  enumerated,  I  say  even  if 
these  considerations  are  omitted,  enough  has  been  shown  to  prove  that 
a  start  must  have  been  made  in  the  productive  powers  of  this  island, 
quite  unexampled  in  any  equal  period  of  its  former  history.  When, 
on  the  other  hand,  I  reflect  upon  the  nature  of  the  causes  which  I 
have  enumerated,  and  find  that  most  of  them  are  of  sudden  occurrence, 
and  that  their  combination  in  the  short  space  of  about  ten  years  was 
accidental;  when,  moreover,  I  perceive  that  the  most  material  of  them 
were  of  a  temporary  duration,  and  could  not  remain  long  to  support 
the  great  cultivation  which  they  had  occasioned,  I  am  disposed  to 
think  that  I  have  got  hold  of  a  principle  upon  which  something  like 
an  over-trading  in  agriculture,  and  a  consequent  redundance  of  produce, 
may  be  inferred  to  have  happened,  how  difficult  soever  it  may  be  to 
ascertain  the  amount  of  this  excess  by  any  strict  calculation.  In  truth 
I  am  little  inclined  to  resort  to  estimates  upon  the  present  question; 
where  circumstances  are  clearly  proved  to  have  existed,  the  natural 
operation  of  which  plainly  was  such  as  I  have  described,  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  seek  among  statistical  returns  for  evidence  of  effects  which  we 
know  must  have  been  produced.  I  have  heard  of  conjectures  as  to 
the  number  of  acres  enclosed,  during  the  ten  years  I  am  referring  to, 
in  which  there  may  have  been  1200  enclosure  bills  passed.  Some  of 
my  honourable  friends  near  me,  I  know,  have  estimated  this  amount  at 
two  millions,  which  I  mention  not  so  much  from  any  reliance  upon  the 
accuracy  of  the  statement,  as  out  of  respect  for  them,  and  because  this 
admission  is  at  variance  with  their  own  doctrine,  that  there  has  been 
no  excessive  cultivation.  But  it  is  evident  that  such  an  estimate,  even 
if  correct  to  an  acre,  would  by  no  means  show  the  increase  of  produc- 
tion, for  a  good  deal  of  the  land  enclosed  by  act  of  parliament  was 
formerly  cultivated  in  common  field;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  im- 
provements in  the  cultivation  of  the  old  enclosures  have  probably  done 
more  to  augment  the  whole  agricultural  produce,  than  all  the  new  lands 
that  have  been  taken  in.  If,  however,  we  take  the  total  amount,  every 
thing  included,  to  be  equal  to  the  produce  of  two  millions  of  acres 
added  to  the  former  produce,  and  if  it  be  true  that  the  population  has 
only  increased  two  millions  during  the  same  period,  there  will  appear 
to  have  been  an  increase  of  nearly  six  millions  of  quarters  in  the  sup- 
ply, and  only  an  increase  in  the  permanent  demand,  in  the  proportion 
of  two  millions.  But,  as  I  have  already  said,  these  estimates  are  not 
to  be  trusted  either  way,  and  I  had  much  rather  rest  upon  the  broad 
principle  furnished  by  a  reference  to  the  known  events  in  the  history 
of  the  late  war,  down  to  the  year  1S08.  The  improvements  in  most 
parts  of  the  country  have  been  going  on  so  visibly,  that  the  most 
careless  observer  must  have  been  struck  by  them.  Not  only  wastes 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  271 

have  disappeared  for  miles  and  miles,  giving  place  to  houses,  fences, 
and  crops;  not  only  have  even  the  most  inconsiderable  commons,  the 
very  village  greens,  and  the  little  stripes  of  sward  by  the  way  side, 
been,  in  many  places,  subjected  to  division  and  exclusive  ownership, 
and  cut  up  into  corn-fields  in  the  rage  for  farming;  not  only  have 
stubborn  soils  been  forced  to  bear  crops  by  mere  weight  of  metal,  by 
sinking  money  in  the  earth,  as  it  has  been  called, — but  the  land  that 
formerly  grew  something  has  been  fatigued  with  labour,  and  loaded 
with  capital,  until  it  yielded  much  more;  the  work  both  of  men  and 
cattle  has  been  economized,  new  skill  has  been  applied,  and  a  more 
dexterous  combination  of  different  kinds  of  husbandry  been  practised, 
until,  without  at  all  comprehending  the  waste  lands  wholly  added  to 
the  productive  territory  of  the  island,  it  may  be  safely  said,  not  per- 
haps that  two  blades  of  grass  now  grow  where  only  one  grew  before, 
but  I  am  sure,  that  five  grow  where  four  used  to  be;  and  that  this 
kingdom  which  foreigners  were  wont  to  taunt  as  a  mere  manufacturing 
and  trading  country,  inhabited  by  a  shopkeeping  nation,  is  in  reality 
for  its  size,  by  far  the  greatest  agricultural  state  in  the  world. 

Previous  to  the  year  1810  or  1811,  no  great  effect  appears  to  have 
been  felt  in  the  corn  market  from  all  this  system  of  improvement. 
The  measures  to  increase  our  produce  had  not  begun  fully  to  operate, 
and  the  new  enclosures  had  not  yielded  their  due  returns.  The  crop 
of  1810  was  not  a  very  good  one,  and  that  of  1811  was  extremely 
bad.  But  about  1812,  when  the  new  cultivation  and  the  improve- 
ments in  farms  generally,  may  be  supposed  to  have  produced  their 
full  effect,  there  began  a  series  of  events,  some  of  them  accidental  and 
beyond  human  foresight  to  anticipate,  others  less  strange  perhaps  in 
themselves,but  in  their  union  scarcely  more  to  be  expected, all  operating 
in  the  same  direction,  and  that  direction  the  very  opposite,  as  far  as 
regards  agriculture,  to  the  line  in  which  the  no  less  unparalleled  com- 
bination of  circumstances  already  mentioned,  had  been  operating  in 
the  preceding  years.  The  harvest  of  1812  was  a  very  abundant  one; 
that  of  1813,  I  believe,  exceeded  any  that  had  ever  been  known:  and 
the  crop  of  1814  was  not  much  inferior.  Hut  the  political  events  of 
those  three  years  had  an  influence  still  more  important  upon  the  mar- 
kets. Here  I  must  take  leave  to  state  how  widely  I  differ  with  my 
honourable  friend  the  member  for  Essex,*  respecting  the  effects  of  the 
peace.  In  the  able  and  luminous  speech  with  which  he  introduced 
this  subject  to  the  House,  and  in  which  he  showed  at  once  the  greatest 
industry,  talent,  and  moderation,  he  contended  that  the  termination 
of  hostilities  could  not  be  assigned  as  the  cause  of  the  depression  in 
prices,  because  those  prices  had  begun  to  fall  during  the  war;  and  he 
observed  in  confirmation  of  his  position,  that  after  the  former  treaties 
of  peace,  agricultural  produce  had  risen.  The  facts  upon  which  he 
relied  when  taken  altogether,  far  from  supporting  his  doctrine,  furnish 
me  with  a  satisfactory  answer  to  it.  After  the  peace  of  Paris,  it  is 
true,  wheat  rose  from  3G*.  to  41*.  the  quarter,  in  1763,  and  to  42.v.  (></. 

•  Mr.  (now  Lord)  Western. 


272  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

on  an  average  of  five  years,  ending  1767.  So,  after  the  peace  of  Ver- 
sailles, it  rose  55.  the  quarter.  But  the  statements  upon  which  my 
honourable  friend  relied,  as  decisive  in  his  favour,  were  taken  from  the 
period  in  question,  viz.  the  year  IS  13.  In  January  of  that  year,  the 
market  price  of  wheat  was  120*.,  and  in  November  it  had  fallen  to 
75-s.  The  victualling  contracts  of  Portsmouth  were  made  in  January 
at  123*.  Wd. ;  in  November  at  67s.  lOd.  Those  of  Plymouth,  in 
February  at  1215.  9d.,  in  September  at  865.  Those  of  Deptford,  in 
February  for  flour  per  sack — at  1005.  3d.,  in  November  at  655.  Now 
I  beg  the  committee's  attention  to  these  facts,  because  when  coupled 
with  the  well  known  events  of  the  year  1813,  they  clearly  refute  my 
honourable  friend's  argument,  pretended  to  be  built  upon  them.  In 
January  and  February  wheat  and  flour  were  high;  in  September  they 
had  fallen  very  considerably,  owing,  partly  no  doubt,  to  the  very 
abundant  harvest  reaped  during  the  interval,  but  in  no  small  degree 
owing  to  the  important  change  in  public  affairs,  which  had  taken  place 
during  the  same  interval.  The  destruction  of  Buonaparte's  grand 
army  had  been  effected  the  winter  before,  and  had  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  deliverance  of  Europe,  but  that  happy  event  had  not  been 
completed.  The  most  gigantic  enterprise  which  unprincipled  force 
had  ever  attempted  in  modern  times,  had  been  defeated  by  a  lucky 
concurrence  of  accidents  with  the  violence  that  gave  birth  to  the 
project;  but  much  of  its  author's  power  still  remained  unbroken,  and 
no  man  could  foresee  that  the  blind  fury  which  had  borne  him  into 
jeopardy,  would  still  hurry  him  to  ruin.  At  all  events,  a  new  and  a 
desperate  struggle  was  inevitable,  and  the  great  prize  of  peace  on  the 
one  side,  or  universal  empire  on  the  other,  was  to  be  fought  for  once 
more,  in  the  ensuing  campaign.  In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1813, 
this  battle  was  fought;  and  the  enemy,  after  incredible  efforts  of  gal- 
lantry and  skill,  was  repulsed — but  nothing  more.  Peace  seemed 
considerably  more  probable,  therefore,  in  September,  than  it  had  been 
in  January;  but  it  was  not  certain.  The  improvement  in  our  pros- 
pects, however,  co-operated  with  the  harvest,  and  prices  were  lowered 
from  1225.  to  865.  Soon  after  this  period  came  the  decisive  battle  of 
Leipsic;  peace  was  now  certain,  and  all  that  remained  to  be  settled 
was  the  terms  upon  which  it  should  be  made,  and  the  degree  of  secu- 
rity which  should  attend  it;  for  the  struggle  which  followed  could  be 
said  to  decide  nothing  more.  Accordingly,  in  the  interval  between 
September  and  November,  prices  had  fallen  from  86  to  68,  in  round 
numbers.  Contractors  could  no  longer  expect  the  same  terms  when 
in  all  likelihood  this  was  their  last  bidding.  Government  was  not 
pressed  as  before,  when  its  difficulties  were  so  nearly  at  an  end;  and 
the  market  felt  the  effects  not  only  of  an  extraordinary  crop,  but  of  the 
approaching  times  of  peace,  when  the  demands  of  government  should 
be  withdrawn,  and  the  supplies  of  the  continent  poured  in.  No  man 
who  attends  to  these  facts  and  dates  can  entertain  a  reasonable  doubt 
that  the  fall  of  prices  was  in  some  degree  connected  with  the  approach- 
ing termination  of  the  war. 

In  truth,  sir,  it  is  impossible  to  overlook  the  tendency  of  such  a 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  273 

change  as  the  peace  brought  about  in  all  the  great  markets  of  agricul- 
tural produce.  A  sudden  diminution  in  the  expenditure  of  government, 
to  the  amount  of  above  fifty  millions,  could  not  be  effected  without 
greatly  deranging  all  markets,  both  for  manufactures  and  produce 
directly;  and  by  affecting  the  markets  for  manufactures,  it  must  also 
have  influenced  circuitously  those  in  which  the  farmer  is  more  imme- 
diately interested.  To  take  only  a  few  specimens  of  these  effects: 
Can  it  be  denied  that  the  stoppage  of  the  exportation  of  grain,  pro- 
visions, and  even  forage,  to  the  peninsula,  had  an  influence  in  lowering 
the  prices  of  those  articles  at  home?  When  orders  are  no  longer  given 
for  clothing  in  Yorkshire,  aud  arms  in  Warwickshire,  does  the  change 
which  throws  so  many  manufacturers  out  of  employment  produce 
no  diminution  in  the  demand  for  food,  and  no  increase  in  the  levy 
of  parish  rates  ?  Look  at  the  effects  of  the  government  retiring  from 
the  Irish  provision  market,  now  that  three-fourths  of  the  navy  are 
dismantled.  Beside  the  accounts  from  the  sister  kingdom,  every 
gentleman  connected  with  the  north  and  west  of  England  knows,  that 
last  summer  and  autumn  the  droves  of  Irish  cattle  poured  through 
Liverpool,  Bristol,  and  the  Welsh  ports,  covered  the  roads  for  miles; 
and  that  the  price  of  butchers'  meat,  and  the  rents  of  grazing  farms, 
which  had  till  then  kept  up,  notwithstanding  the  fall  of  grain  and  of 
corn  lands,  began  to  be  sensibly  affected.  I  state  these  circumstances 
with  the  more  satisfaction  because  they  are  in  their  nature  temporary, 
and  we  are  led  to  a  somewhat  more  comfortable  prospect  by  the  con- 
sideration, that  whatever  part  of  the  present  distresses  is  ascribable  to 
the  change  from  war  to  peace,  may  reasonably  be  expected  to  diminish 
every  day,  at  least  as  soon  as  the  results  of  the  peace  shall  enable  the 
general  trade  of  the  country  to  resume  its  natural  and  accustomed 
channels;  and  shall  supply  the  blank  occasioned  directly  and  cir- 
cuitously in  the  demands  for  produce,  by  the  diminished  expenditure 
of  government. 

The  next  circumstance  to  which  I  shall  advert  as  materially  opera- 
ting against  agriculture,  is  the  distress  in  the  commercial  world  during 
the  latter  years  of  the  war.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  effects  of  the 
fatal  year  1S10,  continue  to  be  felt  at  this  day  in  the  mercantile  world. 
The  foundations  were  then  laid  of  many  failures,  which  have  only 
been  delayed  by  the  natural  efforts  of  unfortunate  men  to  ward  off  a 
blow  they  could  not  escape;  efforts  which  it  is  impossible  very  harshly 
to  blame,  although  undoubtedly  the  delay  of  the  crash  has  in  most 
instances  only  rendered  it  more  pernicious  to  creditors,  and  extended 
its  effect  more  widely,  occasioning,  perhaps,  several  failures  instead 
of  one.  The  difficulties  of  1812  are  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the 
committee,  and  are  still  working  their  effects  in  many  parts  of  the 
country,  although  the  repeal  of  the  Orders  in  Council,  by  enabling  us 
to  export  goods,  which  were  all  paid  for  to  the  amount  of  seven  or 
eight  millions,  afforded  a  most  seasonable  and  important  relief,  and 
enabled  capitalists  to  lower  their  stock  on  hand  in  a  great  proportion. 
That  stock,  however,  began  to  increase  during  the  unhappy  con- 
tinuance of  the  American  war;  and  the  peace,  unexpectedly  made,  in 


274  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

Europe,  followed  by  the  treaty  with  America,  soon  produced  an  effect 
to  which  I  must  request  the  serious  attention  of  the  committee,  because 
I  believe  its  nature  and  extent  are  by  no  means  well  understood. 
After  the  cramped  state  in  which  the  enemy's  measures,  and  our  own 
retaliation  (as  we  termed  it),  had  kept  our  trade  for  some  years,  when 
the  events  of  spring  1814  suddenly  opened  the  continent,  a  rage 
for  exporting  goods  of  every  kind  burst  forth,  only  to  be  explained 
by  reflecting  on  the  previous  restrictions  we  had  been  labouring  under, 
and  only  to  be  equalled  (though  not  in  extent),  by  some  of  the  mer- 
cantile delusions  connected  with  South  American  speculations.  Every 
thing  that  could  be  shipped  was  sent  off;  all  the  capital  that  could  be 
laid  hold  of  was  embarked.  The  frenzy,  I  can  call  it  nothing  less, 
after  the  experience  of  1806  and  1810,  descended  to  persons  in  the 
humblest  circumstances,  and  the  furthest  removed,  by  their  pursuits, 
from  commercial  cares.  It  may  give  the  committee  some  idea  of  this 
disease,  if  I  state  what  I  know  to  have  happened  in  one  or  two  places. 
Not  only  clerks  and  labourers,  but  menial  servants,  engaged  the  little 
sums  which  they  had  been  laying  up  for  a  provision  against  old  age 
and  sickness;  persons  went  round  tempting  them  to  adventure  in  the 
trade  to  Holland,  and  Germany,  and  the  Baltic;  they  risked  their  mite 
in  the  hopes  of  boundless  profits;  it  went  with  the  millions  of  the 
more  regular  traders:  the  bubble  soon  burst,  like  its  predecessors  of 
the  South  Sea,  the  Mississippi,  and  Buenos  Ayres;  English  goods  were 
selling  for  much  less  in  Holland  and  the  North  of  Europe,  than  in 
London  and  Manchester;  in  most  places  they  were  lying  a  dead  weight 
without  any  sale  at  all;  and  either  no  returns  whatever  were  received, 
or  pounds  came  back  for  thousands  that  had  gone  forth.  The  great 
speculators  broke;  the  middling  ones  lingered  out  a  precarious  existence, 
deprived  of  all  means  of  continuing  their  dealings  either  at  home  or 
abroad;  the  poorer  dupes  of  the  delusion  had  lost  their  little  hoards, 
and  went  upon  the  parish  the  next  mishap  that  befell  them;  but  the 
result  of  the  whole  has  been  much  commercial  distress — a  caution  now 
absolutely  necessary  in  trying  new  adventures — a  prodigious  diminu- 
tion in  the  demand  for  manufactures,  and  indirectly  a  serious  defalca- 
tion in  the  effectual  demand  for  the  produce  of  land. 

The  peace  with  America  has  produced  somewhat  of  a  similar  ef- 
fect, though  I  am  very  far  from  placing  the  vast  exports  which  it 
occasioned  upon  the  same  footing  with  those  to  the  European  market 
the  year  before;  both  because  ultimately  the  Americans  will  pay, 
which  the  exhausted  state  of  the  continent  renders  very  unlikely: 
and  because  it  was  well  worth  while  to  incur  a  loss  upon  the  first 
exportation,  in  order,  by  the  glut,  to  stifle  in  the  cradle  those  rising 
manufactures  in  the  United  States,  which  the  war  had  forced  into 
existence  contrary  to  the  natural  course  of  things.  But,  in  the  mean- 
time, the  enormous  amount,  of,  I  believe,  eighteen  millions  worth  of 
goods  were  exported  to  North  America  in  one  year;  I  am  informed 
nearly  sixteen  millions  went  through  the  port  of  Liverpool  alone; 
and,  for  a  considerable  part  of  this,  no  returns  have  been  received, 
while  still  more  of  it  must  have  been  selling  at  a  very  scanty  profit. 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  275 

The  immediate  effect  has  been  a  sensible  increase  of  the  difficulties 
which  I  have  already  described  as  flowing  from  the  unexpected  open- 
ing of  the  European  market  in  the  impoverished  and  unsettled  state  of 
the  continent. 

And  now  it  was,  when  a  general  commercial  distress  began  to 
prevail,  that  the  consequences  of  our  paper  circulation,  and  the  hank- 
ing operations  connected  with  it,  not  gradually  as  had  been  expected, 
but  almost  instantaneously  developed  themselves.  Whether  the 
change  of  measures,  which  I  am  about  to  mention  as  one  of  the 
principal,  if  not  the  very  first  cause  of  our  present  sullerings,  began 
with  the  country  banks,  or  the  bank  of  England;  whether  it  was  the 
necessary  consequence  of  the  difficulties  which  were  pressing  upon 
trade,  and  which,  at  any  rate,  it  mightily  increased,  or  was  the  chief 
cause  of  those  difficulties;  whether  or  not  blame  is  imputable  to  any 
persons  or  bodies  corporate,  I  will  not  stop  to  inquire,  for  it  is  wholly 
immaterial  to  the  present  investigation;  and  when  I  mention  certain 
known  facts  in  one  order  rather  than  another,  I  do  so  without  intend- 
ing to  assert  that  they  were  connected  together.  The  bank  of  Eng- 
land not  very  slowly  limited  its  discounts,  and  diminished  its  issues 
of  paper  about  three  millions.  At  one  period,  indeed,  the  amount  of 
notes  in  circulation  had  exceeded  that  to  which  they  were  now 
reduced,  by  six  millions;  but  the  average  had  been  for  some  time 
about  three  millions  higher.  The  country  banks  acting  less  upon 
system,  and  more  under  the  influence  of  alarm,  lessened  their  discounts 
in  a  much  greater  degree.  A  single  failure  would  stop  all  such  trans- 
actions over  a  whole  district,  and  I  could  mention  one  large  stoppage 
which  made  it  difficult,  for  a  length  of  time,  to  discount  a  bill  any- 
where in  three  or  four  counties.  The  persons  who  felt  this  change  most 
severely  Were  of  course  those  \vho  had  been  speculating  in  any  way,  but 
above  all  others,  speculators  in  land;  those  who  had  either  purchased 
or  improved  beyond  their  actual  means,  upon  the  expectation  of  that 
credit  and  accomodation  being  continued,  which  had  enabled  them  to 
commence  their  operations.  Ordinary  traders  have  much  greater 
facilities  in  the  money  market;  and  their  speculations  are  much  more 
speedily  terminated.  The  improver  of  land  has  to  deal  with  property 
not  easily  convertible  into  money,  and  his  adventures  extend  neces- 
sarily over  a  long  course  of  years.  Persons  in  this  situation  soon 
found  their  borrowed  capital  withdrawn;  when  the  fall  of  produce 
made  it  difficult  for  them  to  pay  the  interest,  they  were  suddenly  called 
upon  for  the  principal;  they  had  gotten  into  a  situation  which  no 
prudence  could  have  enabled  them  to  avoid,  because  it  was  the  result 
of  events  which  no  sagacity  could  have  foreseen;  they  had  for  many 
ye;irs  been  tempted  to  speculate  by  a  facility  of  obtaining  capital  or 
credit,  winch  in  a  month  or  two  was  utterly  withdrawn;  and  before 
the  least  warning  had  been  given,  either  by  the  course  of  events,  or 
by  the  dealers  in  money  and  accommodation,  a  support  was  removed, 
which  the  most  cautions  of  men  might  well  have  expected  lo  be  con- 
tinued indefinitely,  or  at  any  rale  to  be  gradually  removed.  I  beg 
leave  in  illustration  of  this  mutter,  to  remind  the  committee  ho\v  those 


276  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

undertakings  have  been  carried  on,  which  I  before  described  as  ex- 
tending so  greatly  the  agriculture  of  the  country.  A  man  of  small 
fortune,  or  a  farmer  making  considerable  profits  by  the  high  prices  of 
the  period  I  have  so  often  alluded  to,  saw  an  opportunity  of  making 
a  desirable  purchase,  upon  an  enclosure  or  a  sale  in  his  neighbour- 
hood. He  had  scraped  together  a  couple  of  thousand  pounds,  perhaps; 
but  the  sum  required  for  buying,  and  then  improving  the  land,  was 
four  or  five.  The  banker  supplied  this  difference,  and  by  his  accom- 
modations enabled  some  middle  man,  trading  in  credit,  to  supply  it, 
and  the  cultivator  had  every  reason  to  hope  he  should  in  a  few  years, 
be  able  to  repay  it,  by  the  continued  prosperity  of  farming  concerns. 
At  any  rate  he  reckoned  upon  paying  the  interest  and  not  being  called 
upon  for  the  principal,  in  security  of  which  he  probably  deposited  the 
title-deeds  of  his  purchase  as  a  pledge.  The  extension  of  cultivation 
caused  by  these  very  operations,  together  with  the  other  circumstances 
to  which  I  have  referred,  rapidly  lowers  the  price  of  all  produce;  the 
alarm  of  money  dealers  begins  to  spread;  hardly  able  to  pay  the  inte- 
rest, which  is  in  reality  a  fourth  part  more  than  it  was  while  the  cur- 
rency was  depreciated  25  per  cent.,  he  is  called  upon  to  pay  up  the 
principal  itself;  destitute  of  anything  that  can  be  turned  into  money, 
he  is  fain  to  abandon  his  purchase,  with  all  the  improvements  which 
his  savings  and  his  toil  have  made  upon  it;  and  the  lender  finds  him- 
self in  hardly  a  better  situation,  without  the  means  of  obtaining 
payment,  and  with  title-deeds  in  his  hands,  which  he  can  turn  to  no 
account,  unless  he  brings  the  land  into  the  market.  Now,  the  cer- 
tainty of  such  a  measure  lowering  its  price  prevents  this  step  from 
being  taken;  and  accordingly,  great  as  the  distress  has  been,  very 
little  land  has  been  actually  sold;  not  so  much  as  ought  to  have  been, 
is  thrown  out  of  cultivation;  good  money,  to  use  the  common  expres- 
sion, is  thrown  after  bad;  the  money-dealer  becomes,  from  necessity, 
a  land-jobber;  and  the  distress  continues  pushing  its  shoots  in  all 
directions,  round  the  whole  circle  of  trade,  until,  by  reaction,  the 
farmer  suffers  again  indirectly,  and  the  total  amount  of  suffering  is, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  augmented  by  its  universality,  and  the  connection 
of  its  parts.  Nor  should  I  be  at  all  surprised,  if  things  were  to  grow 
worse  before  they  got  better;  at  least  I  am  very  certain  that  the 
price  of  land  will  be  lower  before  it  is  higher,  from  the  undoubted 
fact  of  many  sales  that  must  take  place  having  been  delayed  as  long 
as  possible,  in  the  vain  hope  of  the  necessity  being  evaded. 

In  referring  to  the  state  of  credit  and  circulation,  I  have  purposely 
avoided  dwelling  upon  the  great  evils  that  have  resulted  from  the 
fluctuations  in  the  value  of  the  currency,  not  because  I  underrate 
them,  but  because  they  only  affect  one  class  of  sufferers  from  the 
present  distress,  I  mean  those  who  have  made  bargains  or  formed 
calculations  for  time;  such  as  persons  taking  long  leases,  or  borrow- 
ing money  at  a  fixed  rate  of  interest,  or  speculating  upon  making 
sales  at  a  future  period.  Of  these  classes  I  shall  say  a  word  or  two 
by-and-by.  But  there  is  a  circumstance  affecting  all  classes,  and  of 
which  it  is  quite  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  importance,  in  account- 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  277 

ing  for  the  changes  that  have  recently  afflicted  the  agriculture  of  the 
kingdom — I  mean  the  state  of  our  finances,  the  complete  revolution 
which  the  last  twenty-five  years  have  effected  in  the  revenue  and  expen- 
diture of  the  country. 

During  that  period  our  revenue  has  increased  from  fifteen  to  about 
sixty-six  millions;  our  expenditure  in  one  year  exceeded  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  millions;  this  year  of  peace  it  is  to  be  above  seventy- 
two  millions,  and  no  hopes  are  held  Out  of  its  being  permanently 
below  sixty-five.  That  such  a  prodigious  change  could  be  wrought 
in  the  system  of  taxation  and  of  public  credit,  without  seriously  affect- 
ing the  landed  interest,  from  which  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  taxes 
is  drawn,  no  man  will  for  a  moment  suppose.  But  I  believe  few 
have  formed  to  themselves  distinct  ideas  of  the  manner  in  which 
excessive  taxation  has  been  operating  on  agriculture,  and  very  inade- 
quate notions  are,  I  am  sure,  entertained  of  the  amount  of  that  opera- 
tion. It  is  not,  indeed,  very  easy  to  trace  it;  and  to  estimate  precisely 
how  much  of  the  pressure  falls  exclusively  upon  the  cultivator  would 
be  impossible.  But  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  submitting  to  you  such 
means  of  approximation  as  I  have  been  able  to  find,  aware  of  the  jus- 
tice of  an  observation  made  this  night  by  the  member  for  Surrey,* 
that  by  communicating  freely  the  ideas  which  have  struck  each  of  us 
upon  this  great  question,  we  may  hope  for  mutual  correction  and  in- 
struction. 

I  shall  suppose  a  farm  of  '100  acres  of  fair  good  land,  yielding  a 
rent  of  from  £500  to  £600  a-year,  managed  according  to  the  husbandry 
practised  in  the  northern  counties,  with  which  only  I  can  profess  any 
particular  acquaintance.  It  will  require  for  a  four  years'  course,  200 
acres  being  in  corn,  100  fallow,  and  100  in  hay  and  grass,  fourteen 
plough  horses;  and  supposing  a  saddle  horse,  and  a  servant,  and  a 
dog  to  be  paid  for,  with  a  farm-house  of  twelve  windows,  the  assessed 
taxes  will  amount  to  £22,  8s.  a-year.  This  is  a  clear  addiiion  to  the 
expenses  of  1792,  with  which  I  am  making  the  comparison.  I  pass 
over  the  income  tax,  as  not  peculiar  to  farmers,  though  it  has  been 
peculiarly  oppressive  to  them,  wherever  the  estimated  exceeds  the 
real  profits.  But  the  principal  increase  of  expense  has  been  upon 
the  labour.  The  wages  of  the  nine  regular  men  servants  who  must 
be  employed,  have  risen  since  1792,  from  £30  to  £50  each,  but  I  will 
put  the  rise  only  at  £15,  making  in  the  whole  £135.  Besides  this, 
we  must  allow  for  the  rise  of  the  day  labour  required  in  spring  and 
fall.  Upon  the  200  acres  in  corn,  this  will  amount  to  a  rise  from  10s. 
an  acre  to  I5.y.,  or  £50  in  all;  upon  the  other  in  hay  and  grass,  the 
rise  will  be  from  5.v.  an  acre  to  7.v.  G</.,  and  the  same  upon  the  100 
acres  of  fallow,  making  an  addition  of  £25,  or  £75  for  the  whole 
increase  upon  day  labour.  Two  women  servants  must  be  allowed — 
and  their  wages  are  more  increased  in  proportion  than  those  of  men, 
principally,  1  believe,  from  the  unwillingness  of  farmers'  wives  and 
daughters  to  work  as  they  used  to  do  before  the  more  flourishing 

*  Mr.  H.  Sumner. 
VOL.  I. — 24 


273  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS 

times;  but  take  the  rise  on  this  head  only  at  £10—  and  we  have  the 
total  increase  on  labour  £220.  Blacksmiths'  and  carpenters'  bills 
have  in  like  manner  been  raised,  certainly  not  less  than  £15  each 
upon  such  a  farm  as  I  am  supposing;  and  the  rise  on  saddlers'  bills 
cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than  £10,  making  upon  these  bills  a  rise 
of  £40,  which  added  to  the  former  heads,  gives  the  total  increase 
in  the  expenses  of  cultivating  such  a  farm,  as  equal  to  £282,  8s.,  inde- 
pendent of  the  great  rise  on  lime  and  all  sorts  of  manure. 

Now,  I  admit  that  we  have  no  right  to  set  down  the  whole  or 
nearly  the  whole  of  this  large  sum  to  the  taxes  which  have  been  im- 
posed since  1792,  but  a  great  part  of  it  manifestly  does  arise  from 
those  taxes.  Whatever  part  arises  from  the  increased  prices  of  grain 
and  other  provisions  may  be  deducted,  and  will  fall  again  with  those 
prices.  Whatever  remains  must  be  ascribed  to  the  taxes  chiefly. 
Above  £22  of  the  sum  comes  from  direct  taxation.  At  least  one- 
half  of  the  rise  on  the  saddlers'  bills,  or  £5  more,  is  owing  to  the  same 
cause.  But  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  grand  item  of  labour  is 
imputable  to  the  taxes  also.  For  let  us  only  reflect  on  the  nature  of 
the  duties  which  have  been  imposed.  Many  of  them  affect  articles 
of  prime  necessity,  as  soap,  salt,  leather,  and  candles,  all  of  which 
are  ranked  among  necessaries  of  life  by  the  writers  on  these  subjects, 
and,  what  is  better  authority,  are  felt  to  be  such  by  the  consumers; 
taxes  upon  all  of  which  are  allowed  by  those  writers  to  affect  directly 
the  price  of  labour.  Now  the  tax  on  leather  has  been  doubled  within 
the  last  four  years,  being  raised  from  three  half  pence,  at  which  it 
stood  before  the  war — [Here  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  said 
across  the  table  "And  ever  since  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne"] — to 
three  pence,  the  present  duty.  The  duty  on  salt,  which  in  17S2,  and 
I  believe  up  to  1792,  was  only  Wd.  a  bushel,  had  been  raised  pre- 
vious to  1S06,  to  15s.,  the  present  duty.  And  candles  have  in  the  same 
period  been  taxed  considerably.  But  these  articles  are  not  the  only 
ones  which  may  be  reckoned  necessaries,  and  are  subjected  to  addi- 
tional duties.  In  most  parts  of  England,  beer  is  to  be  classed  in  this 
list,  from  the  universal  custom  of  drinking  it  which  prevails,  and  the 
duties  upon  it  most  seriously  affect  the  farmer  as  a  consumer  of  it, 
besides  their  pernicious  tendency  against  his  interest  as  a  grower. 
The  duty  on  malt  has  been  raised  from  10s.  Id.  per  quarter  to  34s. 
Sd.,  of  which  165.  is  war  duty;  that  on  beer  since  1802  has  been  in- 
creased from  5s.  Hd.  per  barrel  to  9*.  l$d.,  or  about  4s.,  while  that 
on  spirits  has  been  raised  since  1792  from  Id.  to  1*.  9d.  per  gallon, 
or  1*.  2d.  additional.  The  total  revenue  collected  from  these  duties 
is  £12,350,000,  by  which  the  land  suffers  directly  in  proportion  to  the 
whole  amount,  and  indirectly  in  proportion  as  its  cultivators  are 
consumers  of  the  manufactured  article.  But  the  price  of  agricultural 
labour  is  affected  likewise  by  the  duties  of  custom  on  many  imported 
goods,  which  long  habit  has  rendered  scarcely  less  essential  than 
some  which  I  have  enumerated  as  articles  of  first  necessity.  Of  this 
class  is  sugar,  upon  which  the  heaviest  taxes  known  in  the  history  of 
finance,  are  laid.  I  believe,  indeed,  there  are  many  persons  who 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  279 

would  rather  go  without  soap  than  sugar;  and  this  is  now  subject  to 
a  duty  of  30.9.  per  cwt.,  instead  of  15*.,  at  which  it  was  taxed  before 
1793.  It  must  also  be  observed  that  whatever  prohibiting  or  protect- 
ing duties  have  been  laid  upon  foreign  manufactures  of  articles  used 
in  clothing,  these  fall  directly  upon  the  labourer,  and  in  so  much  tend 
to  raise  his  wages  for  the  benefit,  not  certainly  of  the  farmer,  but  the 
manufacturer.  It  is  therefore  evident  that  much  of  the  augmentation 
in  the  expense  of  working  a  farm,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  sum 
of  £220,  which  I  have  stated  to  have  been  added  since  1792  to  that 
large  branch  of  a  farmer's  expenditure,  is  chargeable  to  the  taxes; 
and  a  portion  also  of  the  sum  of  £35,  the  part  of  the  rise  in  the  car- 
penter's and  other  bills  not  directly  affected  by  taxes,  must  also  be 
charged  to  the  same  account.  It  is  impossible  to  state  with  any  de- 
gree of  accuracy  what  the  total  amount  of  the  increase  of  taxation 
has  been  upon  these  items;  but  that  it  must  have  been  considerable, 
no  one  can  reasonably  doubt;  and  I  beg  to  warn  gentlemen  against 
underrating  it,  from  the  fall  in  the  rate  of  wages  that  has  lately  taken 
place.  Labour  has  indeed  come  down;  and  in  my  opinion,  a  good 
deal  more  than  was  to  be  wished,  I  mean  a  good  deal  more  than  the 
fall  of  other  prices  justified.  This  fall  must  have  resulted  from  the 
general  distress  of  the  country,  and  the  number  of  hands  in  conse- 
quence everywhere  thrown  out  of  employment;  but  it  is  no  sort  of 
proof  that  the  present  is  the  natural  and  healthy  state  of  wages;  or 
that  they  will  long  remain  so  low;  or  that  the  fall  in  the  price  of 
provisions  has  permanently  reduced  wages  to  their  level  before  the 
war;  and  therefore  it  is  no  kind  of  evidence  that  the  increase  in  the 
expense  of  cultivation  has  arisen  from  the  rise  in  prices  alone,  and  not 
also  from  the  increase  of  taxation. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  the  taxes  have  not  fallen  exclusively  upon 
the  farmer,  and  that  he  only  suffers  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
country.  Now,  to  this  I  shall  offer,  I  think,  the  most  satisfactory 
answers.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  the  first  place,  that  part  of  the 
taxes  fall  directly  and  exclusively  upon  ihe  landed  interest.  Some  of 
the  assessed  taxes,  and  the  enormous  malt,  beer,  and  spirit  duties  are 
clearly  of  this  description.  But  next  observe  how  differently  the  farmer 
is  circumstanced  in  these  times  from  the  other  parts  of  the  community, 
with  respect  to  the  rise  in  wages,  produced  partly  by  the  taxes.  The 
commodity  in  which  he  deals  is  on  the  decline  in  point  of  price  from 
over-cultivation;  ho  cannot,  therefore,  throw  the  tax  upon  the  consu- 
mer. If  manufactured  goods  are  in  high  demand,  the  customer  pays 
the  duties  to  which  the  manufacturer  may  be  subject,  either  directly 
or  indirectly  by  the  rise  in  wages  caused  by  those  taxes.  If  those 
goods  are  falling  in  price,  the  tax  presses  upon  the  manufacturer 
himself.  Now  this  is,  and  for  some  time  past  has  been,  in  a  peculiar 
manner,  the  state  of  the  farmer,  who  indeed  never  has  the  means  of 
suddenly  accommodating  tho  supply  of  his  commodity  to  the  dcmnnd, 
with  the  nicety  and  despatch  observable  in  the  operations  of  trade 
But,  a  still  more  material  circumstance  distinguishes  the  situation  «>f 
the  farmer  from  that  of  the  manufacturer,  relieving  the  latter  at  the 


280  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

expense  of  the  former.  I  allude  to  the  state  of  the  law,  which  throws 
upon  the  land  the  whole  burthen  of  maintaining  the  poor,  and  reduces 
the  price  of  all  labour  below  its  natural  level,  at  the  sole  expense  of 
the  cultivator.  It  is  well  known  to  the  committee,  that  whatever 
may  have  been  the  intention  of  the  legislature,  (and  the  meaning  of 
the  statute  of  Elizabeth  is  sufficiently  plain,)  yet  from  the  defect  in 
the  powers  of  the  act,  the  money  raised  for  the  support  of  the  poor  is 
paid  entirely  by  the  land.  Persons  in  trade  only  pay  in  so  far  as  they 
are  also  owners  of  real  property.  Thus  a  manufacturer  who  is  de- 
riving ten  or  twelve  thousand  a-year  from  his  trade,  is  rated  as  if  he 
only  had  a  large  building  worth  four  or  five  hundred  a-year  beside 
his  dwelling-house,  while  his  neighbour,  who  possesses  a  farm  of  the 
same  yearly  value  pays  as  much;  that  is,  the  man  of  ten  thousand 
a-year  in  trade,  pays  no  more  than  the  man  of  five  hundred  a-year  in 
land.  Yet,  only  observe  the  difference  between  the  two  in  their  re- 
lation to  labour  and  to  the  poor.  The  farmer  employs  a  few  hands 
— the  manufacturer  a  whole  colony;  the  farmer  causes  no  material 
augmentation  in  the  number  of  paupers — the  manufacturer  multiplies 
paupers  by  wholesale;  the  one  supports — the  other  makes  paupers, 
manufacturing  them  just  as  certainly,  and  in  something  of  the  same 
proportion  as  he  manufactures  goods.  The  inequality  of  this  distri- 
bution is  plain  enough,  but  I  am  now  speaking  of  it  in  its  relation 
chiefly  to  the  subject  of  wages.  From  the  abuse  of  the  poor  laws,  it 
has  become  the  prevailing  practice  to  support  by  parish  relief,  not 
merely  persons  who  are  disabled  from  working  by  disease  or  age,  but 
those  who,  though  in  health,  cannot  earn  enough  to  maintain  them; 
and,  by  a  short-sighted  policy  wholly  unaccountable,  the  custom  has 
spread  very  widely  of  keeping  down  the  wages  of  labour  by  the  appli- 
cation of  the  poor-rates,  as  if  anything  could  equal  the  folly  of  paying 
rates  rather  than  hire;  of  parting  with  the  disposition  of  your  own 
money,  and  of  paying  for  labour,  not  in  proportion  to  your  own  de- 
mand for  that  labour,  but  in  proportion  to  some  general  average  of 
the  district  you  chance  to  live  in.  I  pass  over  the  inevitable  effect  of 
this  arrangement  in  raising  the  total  amount  of  the  sums  paid  for 
labour,  and  in  throwing  upon  one  farm  the  expenses  of  cultivating 
another  less  favourably  circumstanced;  it  is  enough  for  my  present 
purpose  to  remark,  that  the  whole  effect  of  the  system  is  to  make  the 
land  pay  a  sum  yearly,  levied  in  the  most  unequal  manner,  applied 
in  the  least  economical  way,  for  the  purpose  of  lowering  the  wages 
generally,  and  lowering  the  wages  of  manufacturing  as  well  as  agri- 
cultural labour.  From  this  unquestionable  position  I  draw  two  infer- 
ences, I  think  equally  undeniable,  and  bearing  directly  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  our  present  inquiry; — the  one  is,  that  the  effects  of  taxation  in 
raising  the  price  of  labour  are  not  distributed  equally  over  all  classes 
of  the  community,  but  fall  exclusively  upon  the  land,  the  land  paying 
for  the  rise  which  the  taxes  have  occasioned,  both  in  agricultural 
labour,  and  in  all  other  kinds  of  work — the  other  is,  that,  even  if  the 
fall  in  the  price  of  provisions  should  apparently  restore  wages  per- 
manently to  their  former  level,  the  real  rate  of  wages  would  still  be 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  281 

raised,  and  the  real  cost  of  cultivation  be  augmented,  unless  the 
poor  rates  also  were  brought  back  to  their  former  amount.  The 
sum  now  levied  upon  the  land  for  this  purpose,  exceeds  eight  mil- 
lions. Before  the  American  war.  it  was  less  than  two.  I  think  I 
have  said  enough  to  show  how  immediately,  how  severely,  how  ex- 
clusively, the  rise  in  the  taxes  from  fifteen  to  sixty-six  millions  has 
pressed  upon  agriculture;  how  impossible  it  is  to  expect  substantial 
relief  as  long  as  that  pressure  continues. 

I  have  now,  sir,  I  fear  at  a  very  unreasonable  length,  gone  through 
the  causes  which  appear  to  have  co-operated  in  producing  our  present 
distresses;  and  I  come  at  last  to  a  consideration  of  the  means  by  which 
the  evil  may  be  remedied,  or  at  least  rendered  supportable.  In  enter- 
ing upon  this  part  of  the  subject,  I  feel  sensibly  the  delicacy  of  the 
ground  I  am  going  to  tread.  No  one  ought  without  tiie  most  serious 
examination  of  it,  to  venture  an  opinion  which  (from  the  respect  paid 
to  our  deliberations  in  this  place)  may  have  a  material  influence  upon, 
the  fortunes  of  individuals,  and,  at  any  rate,  may  agitate  their  hopes 
and  fears  in  a  crisis  of  general  solicitude.  I  wish,  therefore,  to  state 
nothing  that  has  not  been  suggested  to  my  mind  by  very  mature 
and  anxious  deliberation;  but  whatever  may  appear  justified  by  such 
research,  I  think  it  my  duty  to  propound,  without  the  smallest  regard 
to  personal  considerations,  or  to  the  prejudices  that  may  prevail  in  any 
quarter. 

And,  first,  I  am  afraid  there  is  one  class  of  persons  who  can  hardly 
expect  effectual  relief  from  any  measures,  or  from  any  supposable 
change  of  times;  I  mean  those  who  have  been  trading  largely  in  land 
upon  borrowed  capital.  They  liave.  speculated  upon  a  continuance 
of  extravagant  prices,  and  the  fund  is,  in  all  likelihood,  gone  for  ever, 
out  of  which  their  debts  \vere  to  have  been  repaid.  The  fall  in  the 
market  price  of  bullion  is  of  itself  a  severe  loss  to  such  adventurers; 
they  have  still  to  pay  in  money  as  before,  when  every  hundred 
pounds  is  really  worth  one  hundred  and  twenty-five;  they  have  to 
pay  as  much  money  to  their  creditors  as  formerly,  and  they  can  only 
receive  three-fourths  as  much  from  their  customers.  I  would  fain 
hope,  however,  that  such  is  not  the  situation  of  the  great  bulk  of 
proprietors,  to  whom,  perhaps,  a  permanent  relief  (and  even  to  the 
speculator  a  palliative)  may  possibly  be  found.  Those  who  have 
been  expending  large  sums  on  bad  land  are  in  the  worst  state,  and 
I  fear  that  a  good  deal  which  ought  never  to  have  been  cultivated  at 
all,  must  be  abandoned,  and  much  grass  land  that  should  not  have 
been  broken  up,  must  be  laid  down  again  as  well  as  circumstances 
will  permit,  unquestionably  at  a  great  loss.  The  lowering  of  rents, 
which  has  pretty  generally  taken  place,  can  hardly  be  reckoned  any 
considerable  relief,  if  other  circumstances  remain  the  same.  It  is  a 
severe  loss  to  the  landlord,  a  loss  which  he  sustains  alone  of  all  who 
have  made  time  bargains;  for  no  one  hears  of  mortgagees  or  other 
creditors  giving  np  twenty-five  per  cent.,  either  on  principal  or  interest, 
because  the  value  of  money  has  risen  in  that  proportion;  but  to  the 
tenant  it  affords  a  very  inadequate  relief,  for  he  is  complaining  of  a 


282  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

fall  in  the  price  of  his  gross  produce,  of  above  three  pounds  an  acre, 
(supposing  the  produce  to  be  three  quarters  of  wheat  per  acre),  and 
all  that  the  landlord  can  do  for  him  is  to  take  off  five  shillings  an 
acre,  leaving  him  to  struggle  against  a  loss  of  fifty-five  shillings.  But 
I  shall  now  beg  the  attention  of  the  committee  to  the  different 
measures  which  have  been  proposed,  and  in  discussing  these  as  well 
as  in  submitting  others  to  your  consideration,  I  shall  he  guided  by 
the  view  which  I  have  taken  of  the  nature  and  causes  of  the  evil. 

The  first  of  these  remedies,  in  point  of  importance  as  well  as  of 
time,  is  the  Corn  Bill  of  last  session.  Although  that  measure  is  no 
longer  a  matter  of  discussion,  yet  as  I  had  not  the  honour  of  a  seat 
in  this  house  either  when  my  honourable  friend*  brought  forward 
the  bill  of  1S04,  or  when  he  raised  the  importation  price  last  year 
from  635.  6d.  to  80,?.,  I  deem  it  more  fair  not  to  avoid  the  topic,  but  to 
state  my  opinion  frankly  upon  its  merits,  the  more  especially  as  it 
has  been  the  object  of  very  strong  disapprobation  in  many  parts  of 
the  country.  I  certainly  am  disposed  to  think  favourably  of  it, 
although  I  arn  well  aware  how  diffidently  it  becomes  us  to  speak 
upon  a  measure  which  has  divided  so  widely  the  ablest  men,  both  in 
Parliament  and  out  of  doors,  marshalling  in  almost  equally  formida- 
ble array  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  dispute,  the  statesmen  and  the 
political  authors;!  whose  opinions  upon  such  a  subject  are  the  most 
entitled  to  respect.  As  it  impossible,  however,  upon  such  a  contro- 
versy not  to  oppose  great  authorities,  so  it  is  some  comfort  that  for  the 
same  reason,  one  has  the  support  also  of  eminent  names;  and  this 
emboldens  me  in  stating,  that  I  conceive  the  measure  to  be  politic, 
at  the  least  as  a  palliative,  or  as  affording  the  means  of  carrying  the 
country  through  difficulties,  the  greatest  pressure  of  which  we  may 
hope  will  only  prove  temporary.  But  then,  I  can  by  no  means  ex- 
cuse the  language  of  those  who  deride  it  merely  because  it  is  tem- 
porary, or,  as  they  term  it,  an  expedient.  If  it  enables  us  to  get  over 
the  existing  evils,  arising,  in  great  part,  from  a  transition  to  a  new 
state  of  things,  it  does  a  great  permanent  good;  it  saves  much  valua- 
ble capital  from  being  totally  lost,  much  skill  and  labour  already 
bestowed,  from  being  thrown  away;  and  it  may  thus,  even  where  it 
fails  in  affording  entire  relief,  be  most  important  as  preventing  entire 
ruin.  A  measure  of  this  description  is  only  in  name  one  of  a  tempo- 
rary nature;  its  operation  is  solid  and  lasting.  I  pass  over  its  tending 
to  secure  a  constant  and  certain  supply  of  food  to  the  community;  I 
am  speaking  of  it  merely  as  a  measure  calculated  for  the  relief  of  the 
agricultural  interests,  and  of  all  the  branches  of  trade  immediately  de- 
pendent upon  them.  In  the  same  light  may  be  regarded  the  extension 
of  the  measure  to  some  other  kinds  of  agricultural  produce,  which  is  at 
present  before  Parliament. 

But  I  own  I  view,  in  a  very  different  light,  my  honourable  friend's 

*  Mr.  Western. 

f  See  on  the  one  side,  Mr.  MaUhus's  excellent  tracts — and  on  the  other,  the  very 
able  dissussion  of  the  corn  bill  of  1804,  by  Mr.  Mill. 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  283 

proposition  respecting  bounties  upon  the  exportation  of  corn.  To 
pass  over  every  other  objection  to  such  a  plan,  it'  there  be  any  truth 
in  the  positions  which  I  think  I  have  established,  that  the  principal 
causes  of  our  distresses  are  the  too  rapid  extension  of  cultivation,  and 
the  intolerable  weight  of  the  taxes;  surely  it  follows  inevitably  that 
to  force  exportation  by  a  bounty,  would  only  perpetuate  the  one  of 
these  causes,  and  increase  the  other.  Indeed,  I  marvel  that  my  hon- 
ourable friend  could  have  thought  of  such  a  measure  in  times  like 
the  present.  Why,  its  very  essence  is  taxation,  and  to  a  vast  amount 
— taxation  upon  the  people  of  this  country  to  make  us  sell  corn  cheap 
to  foreigners — taxation  upon  the  land  already  oppressed  with  bur- 
thens. And  how  are  such  new  sums  to  be  levied?  We  have  got 
rid  of  the  income  tax — that  is  some  relief  to  the  farmer.  Does  my 
honourable  friend  wish  this  burthen  to  be  once  more  imposed  for  the 
relief  of  agriculture?  Or  does  he  peradventure  desire  to  see  the  malt 
tax  again  raised  from  14*.  to  30.?.  in  order  to  encourage  the  production 
of  grain?  All  that  has  ever  been  paid  in  bounties  formerly,  is  a  trifle 
compared  with  the  sums  which  this  new  scheme  would  require.  In, 
1814,  for  instance,  the  last  year  for  which  we  have  the  return,  the 
whole  of  the  bounties  paid  by  government  did  not  exceed  £206,800 
— a  sum,  in  all  probability,  very  injudiciously  bestowed,  but  still  not 
very  ruinous  in  its  amount.  A  corn  bounty,  when  wheat  is  selling, 
perhaps  20.9.  a  quarter  higher  in  this  country  than  in  foreign  markets, 
would  cost  a  million  for  every  million  of  quarters  taken  out  of  the 
home  market:  and  each  effect  produced  by  this  forced  exportation,  in 
raising  the  price  at  home,  would  render  the  exportation  more  costly. 
But  nothing,  in  my  humble  opinion,  can  be  worse  founded  than 
another  remedy  suggested  by  my  honourable  friend;  I  mean  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  corn  from  our  warehouses,  and  the  encourage- 
ment to  store  our  own  grain  in  the  public  repositories.  Have  farmers 
no  barn  yards  or  granaries  of  their  own,  in  which  they  can  keep  their 
corn  until  the  market  is  favourable?  Are  the  crops  in  greater  danger 
of  rats  there  than  in  the  king's  warehouses?  But  it  is  pretended 
that  foreign  corn  is  at  present  imported,  and  fills  the  public  granaries, 
ready  to  be  poured  out  the  instant  that  the  Gazette  gives  the  signal, 
by  declaring  the  average  to  be  SO.?,  for  the  last  six  weeks;  and  my 
honourable  friend  considers  that  if  the  permission  thus  to  warehouse 
foreign  grain  were  withdrawn,  no  such  (.'fleet  could  be  produced. 
Now,  I  will  suffer  myself  to  be  devoured  by  the  vermin  I  have  been 
talking  of,  if  I  do  not,  in  a  few  minutes,  show  my  honourable  friend 
himself  the  fallacy  of  this  argument.  Does  he  think  that  merchants 
wait  for  the  Gazette  to  learn  the  price  during  any  period  of  six 
weeks?  Are  they  ignorant  of  the  weekly  and  daily  state  of  the  mar- 
kets? Do  they  not  know  at  any  moment  of  any  six  weeks  how  the 
prices  arc  running,  and  can  they  form  no  guess,  as  the  six  weeks 
elapso,  of  the  average,  at  which  the  Gazette  return  is  likely  to  state 
them?  Why,  the  corn  merchant  does  not  even  wait  until  a  harvest  is 
ripe  before  he  commences  his  calculations,  in  order  to  form  his  plans 
of  importation.  I  happen  to  know  a  little  of  this  branch  of  trade, 


284  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

and  I  can  inform  my  honourable  friend,  that  there  are  emissaries  sent 
round  the  country  while  the  grain  is  in  the  ear,  to  collect  samples, 
which  are  sifted  out  and  measured  and  weighed,  in  order  to  obtain 
data  upon  which  the  goodness  of  the  crop,  its  yield,  may  be  estimated, 
long  before  a  sickle  has  glanced  among  the  stalks.  While  my  hon- 
ourable friend  is  sitting  in  his  study,  forming  plans  upon  the  supposi- 
tion that  those  corn  merchants  will  wait  for  the  periodical  promulgation 
of  the  average  by  the  king's  printer,  they  are  actually  in  his  fields,  com- 
mitting an  innocent  trespass,  to  obtain  the  earliest  information  of  the 
next  crop  as  the  ground  work  of  their  speculations;  and  upon  this  know- 
ledge they  speedily  begin  to  act.  If  the  permission  to  warehouse  is 
withheld,  they  still  must  act  upon  the  rise  of  the  markets,  and  the  only 
difference  will  be,  that  instead  of  collecting  the  grain  on  this  side  of 
the  water,  they  will  have  it  on  the  other,  to  the  benefit  of  foreign 
merchants,  agents  and  warehousemen,  but  just  as  ready  to  be  poured 
in  as  if  it  were  in  our  own  ports.  Indeed,  any  one  must  be  sensible, 
after  a  moment's  consideration,  that  nothing  but  a  constant  expec- 
tation of  the  price  approaching  to  80s.  could  induce  merchants  to 
bring  over  their  cargoes  and  lodge  them  in  this  country,  when  they 
know,  that  until  it  reaches  that  point,  all  the  expenses  of  the  impor- 
tation are  incurred  for  nothing.  Whether  the  voyage  is  made  before 
or  after  the  day  on  which  the  Gazette  declares  that  point  to  have 
been  attained,  must  obviously  be  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference;  and 
it  is  the  only  thing  which  the  permission  or  prohibition  of  warehousing 
can  effect. 

The  alteration  suggested  in  the  laws  relating  to  wool,  appears 
to  me  in  a  very  different  light.  I  had  the  honour  of  broaching 
this  important  subject  on  the  first  day  of  the  session,  and  every- 
thing that  has  since  come  to  my  knowledge  confirms  the  opinion  I 
then  ventured  to  express.  As  a  committee  has  been  appointed  this 
night  to  investigate  the  question  at  the  suggestion  of  my  honourable 
friend,*  who  has  thrown  so  much  light  on  the  whole  matter  now 
under  discussion,  I  shall  abstain  from  going  into  it  at  length;  but  I 
must  beg  to  press  upon  your  attention  how  greatly  the  agricultural 
interests  are  concerned  in  it.  The  most  important  relief  has  been  af- 
forded to  many  parts  of  the  country  by  the  good  prices  which  wool 
has  borne  during  the  depression  of  almost  all  other  produce:  I 
allude  especially  to  the  long  coarse  wool,  the  ancient  and  peculiar 
staple  of  this  island.  Ten  years  ago  it  was  from  9d.  to  Is.  the  pound; 
now  it  is  2ld.,  and  it  was  recently  as  high  as  2s.  This  article  is  the 
growth,  and  has,  during  the  bad  times,  formed  the  support  of  Lin- 
colnshire and  the  midland  counties.  Further  northwards  we  have 
principally  the  coarse  wool  from  the  black-faced  sheep.  This  is  grown 
in  the  northern  counties,  and  as  far  as  Edinburgh:  it  used  to  be  Id.  or 
3d.,  and  is  now  I4d.  or  I5d.  the  pound.  The  relief  afforded  by  such 
prices  is  not  confined  to  the  wool  grower;  it  extends  to  all  other 
agriculturists  in  his  neighbourhood;  because  whatever  saves  a  farmer 

*  Mr.  Frankland  Lewis. 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  2S5 

from  distress  or  ruin  upon  the  general  balancing  of  his  accounts,  keeps 
him  from  glutting  the  market  with  his  produce  or  stock,  and  prevents 
the  general  market  of  agricultural  produce  from  being  depressed.  In 
like  manner,  the  support  of  the  wool  districts  has  extended  relief  to 
the  other  districts,  and  has  produced  a  favourable  effect  upon  the 
whole  markets  of  the  country,  rendering  the  pressure  of  the  general 
distress  considerably  lighter  than  it  would  have  been  had  the  wool- 
grower  been  in  the  same  predicament  with  all  other  agriculturists. 
There  is  every  reason,  however,  to  apprehend,  that  this  article  also  is 
on  the  decline:  it  has  actually  fallen  within  the  last  three  months,  and 
would  certainly  fall  much  more  rapidly,  but  for  the  large  orders  now 
in  market  in  consequence  of  extensive  contracts  for  clothing  foreign 
troops.  I  have  heard  of  one  contract  for  the  uniforms  of  150,000 
men,  which  must  raise  the  demand  for  the  wool  immediately  used  in 
that  manufacture.  In  these  circumstances,  and  indeed  at  any  time, 
it  seems  to  be  a  most  unwise  policy,  as  far  as  regards  our  agriculture, 
to  prohibit  the  exportation  of  wool.  The  finer  sort  would  in  all 
probability  find  no  market  abroad,  and  a  permission  to  export  it  would 
therefore  have  no  effect  either  way;  but  for  the  coarse,  especially  the 
long  wool,  there  must  always  be  a  great  demand,  as  4t  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  certain  manufactures,  and  is  at  present  peculiar  to  this 
island.  It  well  deserves  the  attention  of  the  committee,  whether  the 
prohibiting  laws  should  not  be  repealed,  which  compel  the  wool 
grower  to  sell  his  commodity  at  home,  in  order  that  the  manufacturer 
may  work  it,  and  the  consumer  may  wear  it,  much  cheaper  than  they 
would  if  the  farmer  had  the  choice  of  his  market.  The  establishment 
of  a  free  trade  would  not  raise  the  price  above  its  present  stand- 
ard, nor  in  all  likelihood  would  it  prevent  some  further  fall,  but  it 
would  at  least  guard  us  against  the  great  depression  which  may  now 
be  apprehended.  These  are  points,  however,  well  worthy  of  inquiry, 
and  I  look  to  the  labours  of  the  committee  appointed  to  night,  for  much 
information  upon  them. 

But  the  most  material  subject  for  our  consideration,  consistently 
with  the  view  which  I  have  taken  of  the  present  distresses  manifestly 
the  burdens  peculiarly  affecting  land;  and  these  are  the  tithes,  parish 
rates,  and  general  taxes.  Upon  the  subject  of  tithes,  I  have  much  to 
submit  to  your  notice,  as  it  has  Ion?  and  anxiously  engaged  my  atten- 
tion; but  it  seems  not  to  be  peculiarly  connected  with  our  present  in- 
quiry, astithes  rather  affect  the  expenditure  of  capital  in  improvements, 
and  this  is  certainly  not  the  predicament  of  almost  any  person  in  these 
times.  I  am  desirous  therefore  of  deferring  to  another  opportunity 
the  observations  which  I  have  to  make  on  the  plans  of  commutation 
proposed  by  different  gentlemen,  particularly  by  my  honourable 
friend  the  member  for  Hertfordshire,*  as  well  as  another  method  not 
yet  suggested,  by  which  I  feel  assured  an  arrangement  of  this  impor- 
tant matter  might  be  made  with  great  facility  and  safety.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  poor-rates,  however,  is  one  which,  in  an  especial  manner, 

•  Mr.  Brand. 


286  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

presses  for  discussion;  and  I  am  confident  that  every  one  who  may 
have  honoured  with  his  attention  the  observations  which  I  have  sub- 
mitted to  you,  will  perceive  how  essential  some  revision  of  the  system 
is  to  the  welfare  of  agriculture. 

It  is  clear  that  the  exclusive  pressure  of  parish  rates  upon  the 
land,  was  never  in  contemplation  of  the  legislature;  but  as  the  43d 
of  Elizabeth,  whatever  it  may  enact  with  respect  to  the  persons  who 
shall  pay,  furnishes  no  means  of  obtaining  payment  in  proportion  to 
the  profits  of  trade  and  professions,  the  law,  if  unaltered,  must  con- 
tinue to  throw  the  whole  burthen  upon  the  land-owner.  In  addition 
to  this  he  has  to  support  almost  all  the  public  works,  as  roads, 
bridges,  and  churches,  in  which  he  is  no  more  interested  than  the 
other  members  of  the  community.  They  are  made  originally  at  his 
expense,  and  kept  in  repair  by  him;  and,  although  the  rest  of  the 
country  refunds  a  part  of  the  money  originally  advanced,  yet  every 
one  knows,  how  seldom  this  is  adequate  to  his  repayment — while 
the  repairs,  constantly  required,  are  a  certain  loss  to  him.  At  present, 
however,  I  am  speaking  chiefly  of  the  poor  rates.  The  deviation, 
in  some  measure  necessary,  from  the  intent  of  the  statute  of  Eliza- 
beth, as  to  the  class  who  shall  pay  them,  is  not  more  fatal  to  the 
interest  of  the  land-owner,  than  the  perversion  of  that  law,  without 
any  such  excuse,  to  the  support  of  all  poor  persons,  whether  capable 
or  incapable  of  work,  and  the  supply  of  money  to  those  who  earn 
what  are  deemed  inadequate  gains.  I  confess  that  I  see  but  one 
radical  cure  for  the  state  into  which  this  last  abuse  has  thrown  the 
country,  and  which  is  daily  growing  worse,  deranging  its  whole 
economy,  debasing  its  national  character.  The  inequality  of  the  sys- 
tem may  be  remedied;  at  least  I  would  fain  hope  that  some  method 
might  be  devised,  without  having  recourse  to  the  odious  machinery 
of  the  income  tax,  for  making  the  other  property  bear  its  share  with 
the  land  in  defraying  the  expense  which  should  fall  equally  on  all 
income,  if  it  is  to  be  compulsory  upon  any.  But  though  great  relief 
may  thus  be  obtained,  the  worst  vices  of  the  system  are  deeper  seated, 
and  admit,  I  fear,  but  of  one  cure.  As  the  law  is  now  administered, 
under  the  influence  of  the  habits  which  have  unfortunately  grown  up 
with  the  abuse  of  it,  the  lower  orders  look  to  parish  relief  no  longer 
with  dread  or  shame;  but  they  regard  it  as  a  fund  out  of  which  their 
wants  may  at  all  times  be  supplied.  To  say  nothing  of  the  effects  of 
this  feeling  upon  their  habits  of  industry  and  economy;  to  pass  over 
its  fatal  influence  on  their  character,  and  especially  on  their  spirit  of 
independence;  only  observe  how  it  removes  all  check  upon  imprudent 
marriages,  and  tends  to  multiply  the  number  of  the  people  beyond 
the  means  of  subsistence — that  is,  to  multiply  the  numbers  of  the 
poor.  A  young  couple  who  feel  inclined  to  marry,  never  think  now- 
a-days,  of  waiting  until  they  can  afford  it,  until  they  have  a  prospect 
of  being  able  to  support  a  family.  They  hardly  consider  whether 
they  are  able  to  support  themselves.  They  know  that  whatever  defi- 
cit may  arise  in  their  means,  the  parish  must  make  up;  and  they  take 
into  their  account  the  relief  derivable  from  this  source,  as  confidently 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  287 

and  with  as  little  repugnance  as  if  it  were  a  part  of  their  inheritance. 
It  is  truly  painful  to  reflect,  that  our  peasantry  who,  some  time  ago, 
used  to  regard  such  a  supply  with  dread — used  to  couple  every  notion 
of  ruin,  misery,  and  even  degradation  with  the  thought  of  coming 
upon  the  parish — should  now  he  accustoming  themselves  to  receive 
relief  almost  as  if  it  were  a  regular  part  of  their  wages.  1  can  see 
but  one  effectual  remedy  for  this  great  and  growing  evil;  it  is  the 
one  which  follows  so  immediately  from  the  principles  unfolded  in 
Mr.  Malthus's  celehratcd  work.  It  might  be  objectionable,  on  many 
grounds,  to  withhold  relief  from  the  future  issue  of  mitrriagrs  already 
contracted;  but  why  not  such  relief  be  refused  to  the  children  bora 
of  marriages  to  be  coniracted  after  a  certain  period?  An  exception 
might  perhaps  be  made  in  favour  of  those  who  are  incapable  of 
working  from  age,  or  other  infirmity,  though  1  know  not  that  it 
would  be  better  to  make  their  claims  a  matter  of  right  than  an  ap- 
peal to  charitable  assistance.  But  persons  able  to  work,  and  the 
issue  of  marriages  had  after  the  law  is  changed,  should  certainly  be 
excluded.  This  change  would  not  operate  an  immediate  reform  of 
the  system,  but  the  reform  would  be  a  perfectly  sure  one,  and  it 
would  commence  almost  as  soon  as  the  law  passed.  If  any  gentle- 
man is  scared  at  so  great  an  innovation,  I  will  only  ask  him  to 
survey  the  enormous  amount  and  odious  nature  of  the  evil  com- 
plained of,  and  to  make  his  choice  between  the  expedient  suggested, 
and  the  mischief  so  severely  felt,  not,  indeed,  as  it  at  present  exists, 
but  in  the  still  greater  extent  towards  which  it  is  daily  hastening. 

The  next  point  to  which  I  shall  beg  the  attention  of  the  committee, 
is  the  means  of  relieving  the  land,  and  indeed  the  country  in  general, 
from  the  pressure  of  taxation,  which  I  have  shown  to  have  so  great 
a  share  in  the  present  distresses.  That  such  relief  is  within  our  reach, 
to  a  very  great  extent,  I  hold  to  be  perfectly  manifest.  The  whole 
sums  applicable  to  the  sinking  fund  for  the  last  year  amount  to 
£15,627,000,  and  including  the  Irish  debt,  £16,928,000.  Of  this  the 
financial  operations  of  IbOS  and  1813,  have  appropriated  £4,302,- 
000;  there  remains  undisposed  of  £12,626,000,  and  the  sinking  fund 
on  the  Austrian  and  Portuguese  loans  is  £124,000,  which  makes 
the  whole  unapplied  fund  £12,750,000.  Now,  of  this  large  revenue, 
£6,479,000  arises  from  the  one  per  cent,  upon  all  loans  contracted 
since  1793.  It  may  be  thought  consistent  with  good  faith  to  pre- 
serve this  portion  of  the  fund  entire;  and  before  such  a  plan  as  I 
am  now  suggesting  could  begin  to  operate,  it  would  amount  to  about 
six  millions  and  a  half.  The  remaining  part  of  the  fund,  including 
the  annual  grants  and  the  interest  of  the  other  redeemed  stock, 
amounting  to  £6,271,000,  or  at  the  period  in  question,  to  about 
£6,300,000,  might  I  will  venture  to  say,  not  only  without  detriment, 
but  with  advantage  to  the  credit  of  the  country,  be  applied  to  its  re- 
lief in  the  remission  of  the  most  oppressive  taxes.  If  a  sinking  fund 
of  six  millions  and  a  half  is  left  operating  ut  a  time  when  there 
are  no  new  loans,  it  will  produce  a  fur  greater  effect  in  the  stock 


288  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

market  than  the  whole  fund  has  ever  done  during  war,  when  much 
more  stock  was  constantly  poured  in  than  the  commissioners  could 
redeem.  Indeed,  this  is  too  large  a  fund  to  remain  so  applied  in 
time  of  peace,  and  could  only  be  justified  by  the  notion  prevailing 
in  some  most  respectable  quarters,  that  good  faith  towards  the  lend- 
ers, since  1792,  requires  the  one  per  cent,  to  be  left  untouched.  But 
for  preserving  the  other  six  millions  and  a  quarter,  no  pretext  can 
be  urged,  especially  after  the  inroads  already  made  upon  the  fund 
during  war,  which  have  destroyed  all  idea  of  its  inviolability,  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  held  it  sacred.  The  prospect  of  the  vast  bene- 
fits which  might  be  conferred  on  the  country  by  such  an  arrange- 
ment, is  so  dazzling  that  I  am  afraid  to  trust  myself  with  painting 
it.  Only  let  the  committee  reflect  for  a  moment  upon  the  taxes 
which  might  be  instantly  repealed,  supposing  always  that  our  expen- 
ses have  been  by  retrenchment  brought  within  our  present  revenue. 
The  taxes  that  press  most  upon  agriculture — those  on  leather,  hus- 
bandry-horses, and  malt,  might  at  once  be  done  away.  The  most 
oppressive  of  the  assessed  taxes  might  also  be  repealed.  The  bad 
gains  of  the  lottery,  by  which  money  is  raised  directly  at  the  expense 
of  public  morals,  might  be  abandoned.  In  short,  we  should  have  the 
pleasing  task,  during  the  remainder  of  this  session,  of  inquiring  what 
taxes  pressed  most  severely  upon  the  people,  or  were  most  pernicious 
in  their  effects;  and  of  lightening  the  burthen  to  the  extent  of  between 
six  and  seven  millions.  As  the  remaining  part  of  the  sinking  fund 
increased,  further  relief  might  from  time  to  time  be  afforded;  for 
surely  it  never  could  be  in  the  contemplation  of  any  one  who  under- 
stood the  public  economy  of  the  country,  in  its  trading  as  well  as  finan- 
cial concerns,  that  the  whole  amount  of  the  taxes  required  by  the 
existing  debt  should  be  repealed  at  once,  and  the  transition  made 
suddenly  from  a  levy  of  forty-two  millions  a-year  to  no  levy  at  all. 
Nor  could  any  friend  to  the  stability  of  the  constitution  wish  to  see 
the  executive  government  for  any  period,  how  short  soever,  possessed 
of  that  enormous  income  unappropriated  to  any  service.  But  they 
who  tell  us  that  the  sinking  fund  is  sacred,  or  rather  that  it  has  since 
1813,  become  sacred — who  will  not  hear  of  any  proposition  for 
gradually  reducing  it — whom  nothing  will  satisfy  but  a  rise  of  stocks 
in  a  few  months  to  par,  the  repayment  of  £100  for  every  ^C50  or 
£55  that  we  have  borrowed,  and  the  continuance  of  all  our  heavy 
burthens  until  the  moment  when  they  may  all  cease  together — those 
persons  must  surely  be  prepared  either  to  show  that  the  taxes  now 
paying  for  the  benefit  of  their  posterity,  are  unconnected  with  the 
distresses  of  the  present  age,  or  to  produce  some  other  means  of 
relieving  their  country.  The  question  is  now  at  issue  between  the 
stockholder  arid  all  the  rest  of  the  community,  and  it  is  for  the  com- 
mittee to  say  whether  they  will,  at  all  hazards  and  costs,  take  his 
part,  or  listen  to  the  only  imaginable  means  of  effectually  remedying 
the  most  crying  of  the  evils  we  are  labouring  under. 

Before  I  sit  down,  sir,  I  must  advert  to  the  great  importance  of 


AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS.  289 

keeping  a  most  watchful  eye  over  the  mercantile  and  manufacturing 
interests  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  an  inexcusable  ignorance  or  thought- 
lessness alone,  which  can  ever  overlook  the  intimate  connection  be- 
tween our  trading  and  our  agricultural  concerns;  nor  can  anything  be 
more  preposterous  than  the  clamour  frequently  raised  on  the  one  or 
the  other  side,  as  if  those  two  great  branches  of  public  industry  could 
have  interests  incompatible  with  each  other.  The  sufferings  of  the 
merchants  and  manufacturers  are  hardly  less  severe  in  these  times, 
than  the  distresses  which  immediately  occupy  our  attention  in  this 
Committee.  It  well  becomes  us  to  see  that  they  do  not  increase  under 
the  pressure  of  foreign  competition,  since  the  restoration  of  peace  on 
the  Continent.  Whatever  measures  may  tend  to  open  new  markets 
to  our  industry,  the  government  is  most  imperiously  called  upon  to 
entertain.  A  more  effectual  relief  can  hardly  be  given  to  agriculture 
than  such  a  support  extended  to  the  other  parts  of  the  community. 
Let  me.  in  this  light,  entreat  the  attention  of  the  Committee,  and  more 
especially  of  His  Majesty's  ministers,  to  the  trade  with  South  America. 
Connected  as  we  are  with  the  governments  of  Portugal  and  Spain, 
by  every  tie  that  can  give  one  power  a  claim  to  favour  from  another, 
surely  we  may  hope  to  see  some  arrangements  made  which  shall 
facilitate  our  intercourse  with  the  rich  markets  of  Mexico,  Brazil,  and 
Peru.  At  present,  if  I  am  rightly  informed,  a  considerable  traffic  is 
driven  with  those  fertile  countries,  but  under  trammels  that  render  it 
irksome  and  precarious.  It  is  known  that  no  consuls  or  residents, 
either  commercial  or  political,  are  established  in  Spanish  America; 
and,  indeed,  the  whole  trade  is  liitle  better  than  a  contraband  carried 
on  under  a  certain  degree  of  connivance.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
anything  more  beneficial  to  our  mercantile  interests,  than  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  regular  and  authorized  connection  with  those  parts  of  the 
world.  The  subject  is  not  free  from  delicacy,  in  consequence  of  the 
efforts  making  by  the  Spanish  colonies  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the 
mother  country — efforts  for  the  success  of  which  every  enlightened, 
indeed,  every  honest  man,  must  devoutly  pray.  But  wherever  the 
authority  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  governments  extends,  it  may 
be  hoped  that  some  footing  will  be  obtained  for  our  merchants  by 
negotiation,  while,  with  respect  to  the  revolted  colonies,  I  trust  his 
Majesty's  ministers  will  beware  how  they  carry  their  delicacy  towards 
the  mother  country  too  far,  and  allow  other  nations  to  preoccupy  the 
ground  which  our  own  countrymen  ought  to  have  their  share  of.  The 
Americans  are  in  the  neighbourhood;  we  know  their  indefatigable 
activity  and  vast  commercial  resources;  let  us  take  care,  not  that  we 
press  forward  to  exclude  them  from  the  markets  in  question — that  is 
impossible;  but  that  we  obtain  access  to  those  marts  for  ourselves.  It 
is  a  subject  of  vast  extent  and  importance;  I  abstain  from  entering 
further  into  it;  but  this  I  will  venture  to  assert,  that  the  minister  who 
shall  signalize  his  official  life  by  establishing,  whether  in  the  old  or  the 
new  world,  such  a  system  as  may  open  to  his  country  the  commerce 
of  South  America,  will  lender  a  greater  service  to  the  state,  and  leave 
VOL.  L — 25 


290  AGRICULTURAL  DISTRESS. 

to  posterity  a  more  enviable  fame,  than  it  is  in  the  power  of  conquest 
to  bestow. 

Sir,  I  have  to  thank  the  Committee  for  the  patient  attention  with 
which  they  have  honoured  me.  I  am  conscious  that  I  owe  it  to  the 
singular  importance  of  the  subjects  I  have  been  handling;  and  that, 
too,  is  the  only  apology  I  can  offer  for  having  so  long  trespassed  upon 
your  indulgence. 


SPEECH 


MANUFACTURING     DISTRESS, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
MARCH  13,  1817. 


SIR — When  I  consider  that  the  period  of  the  session  is  well  nigh 
passed,  in  which  it  has  been  the  custom  of  this  House,  at  periods  of 
great  public  distress,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  nation,  and  yet 
that  nothing  has  been  done  to  bring  the  subject  before  us,  or  to  tes- 
tify, on  our  part,  a  becoming  anxiety  concerning  the  sufferings  of  the 
people,  I  feel  myself  supported  by  this  reflection  under  the  magni- 
tude of  the  vast  question  which  I  have  presumed  to  handle.  We 
have,  in  truth,  allowed  the  accustomed  season  of  investigation  to 
elapse,  without  doing  anything  except  what,  with  all  possible  respect 
for  the  proceedings  of  Parliament,  I  conceive  to  have  been  beginning 
at  the  wrong  end.  Mistaking  the  symptom  for  the  malady,  we  have 
attempted  to  stifle  the  cries  of  the  people  in  their  extreme  distress, 
instead  of  seeking  the  cause  of  their  sufferings,  and  endeavouring  to 
apply  a  cure.  I  am,  indeed,  aware  that  there  are  many  who  differ 
with  me  upon  this  subject,  who  deemed  the  late  measures  of  legisla- 
tion salutary  and  wise.  But  whatever  variety  of  opinion  might  exist 
upon  their  merits,  I  may  now  appeal  to  all  who  hear  me,  to  those 
who  joined  me  in  deprecating  and  resisting  the  suspension  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  to  those  who  viewed  this  frightful  step  as  justified  by 
the  necessities  of  the  times,  and  call  upon  all  parties  alike  to  say, 
whether  the  moment  is  not  at  length  come,  when  it  behoves  us  to 
monnt  from  the  effect  to  the  cause  of  the  mischief;  and,  having  done 
so  much  to  preserve  the  public  peace,  whether  it  is  not  our  duty  to 
search  for  the  means  of  alleviating  the  general  misery  by  which  alone 
that  peace  has  been  endangered.  My  very  sincere  anxiety  to  give 
the  Parliament  an  opportunity  of  discharging  this  duty,  has  made  me 
bold  to  bring  forward  the  present  question;  too  late,  I  admit,  for  attain- 
ing all  the  objects  that  might  once  have  been  within  our  reach,  but 
early  enough,  I  would  fain  hope,  to  cllect  some  good  purposes. 


292  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  nothing  so  injudicious  as  to  begin  a  discus- 
sion like  this,  by  hazarding  any  large  and  sanguine  predictions  of 
its  probable  result.  Nevertheless,  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  what- 
ever difference  of  opinion  may  exist  upon  particular  topics,  a  con- 
siderable majority  of  the  House  will  agree  in  holding,  that  the  period 
is  now  arrived  when,  the  war  being  closed,  and  prodigious  changes 
have  taken  place  almost  all  over  the  world,  it  becomes  absolutely 
necessary  to  enter  upon  a  careful  but  fearless  revision  of  our  whole 
commercial  system,  that  we  may  be  enabled  safely,  yet  promptly,  to 
eradicate  those  vices  which  the  lapse  of  time  has  occasioned  or  dis- 
played: to  retrace  our  steps,  where  we  shall  find  that  they  have 
deviated  from  the  line  of  true  policy;  to  adjust  and  accommodate  our 
laws  to  the  alteration  of  circumstances;  to  abandon  many  prejudices, 
alike  antiquated  and  senseless,  unsuitcd  to  the  advanced  age  in 
which  we  live,  and  unworthy  of  the  sound  judgment  of  the  nation. 

I  shall  begin,  sir,  by  entering  upon  the  fundamental  branch  of  the 
inquiry,  which  I  am  solicitous  the  House  should  institute — I  mean 
the  present  aspect  of  our  affairs.  Every  one  is  aware  that  there 
exists  in  the  country  a  great  and  universal  distress — a  distress  wholly 
without  parallel  in  any  former  period  of  its  history.  This,  indeed,  is 
unhappily  matter  of  so  much  notoriety,  that  I  should  hardly  think 
it  required  any  particular  proof  or  illustration,  were  it  not  that  accord- 
ing to  my  view  of  the  subject,  the  extent  to  which  the  evil  has  spread 
and  the  peculiar  shapes  which  it  has  assumed,  must  be  examined, 
before  we  can  probe  its  sources  or  find  a  remedy.  The  House  will 
speedily  perceive  in  what  way  this  examination  of  the  fact  conduces 
to  the  object  we  all  have  in  view,  and  will,  I  am  persuaded,  give 
me  credit  in  the  meantime,  for  not  leading  them  into  superfluous 
details. 

To  demonstrate  the  general  proposition,  indeed,  I  might  bid  you 
cast  your  eyes  upon  the  petitions  that  load  the  table,  from  all  parts 
of  the  empire,  from  every  description  of  its  inhabitants,  from  numbers 
infinitely  exceeding  those  that  ever  before  approached  us  in  the  lan- 
guage of  complaint.  It  is  in  vain  to  remind  us  of  the  manner  in 
which  some  of  them  have  been  prepared  for  signature.  Does  any 
man  believe,  that  a  treasury  manufactory  of  petitions,  distributing  the 
article  through  the  country  with  all  the  influence  of  government, 
could  procure  one  column  of  names  to  a  statement  of  national  pros- 
perity, or  a  prayer  for  liberal  taxation?  Nor  does  the  ineptness  of 
the  remedies  which  many  of  the  petitioners  suggest,  impeach  the  cor- 
rectness of  their  tale  of  distress:  they  may  be  very  incapable  of  devising 
the  means  of  relief — they  are  abundantly  qualified  to  give  evidence  of 
the  grievance. 

I  might  next  appeal  to  the  returns  from  the  custom-house,  to  show 
the  declension  of  trade.  I  am  aware  that  these  documents  give  no 
information  respecting  the  internal  commerce  of  the  country,  by  far 
its  most  important  branch;  and  that  even  with  respect  to  foreign  traf- 
fic, nothing  can  be  more  fallacious  than  arguments  wholly  withdrawn 
from  such  sources.  When  taken,  however,  in  conjunction  with  other 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  293 

evidence,  they  are  not  altogether  to  be  disregarded.  Now,  it  is  shown 
by  a  comparison  of  the  years  1815  and  1816,  that  there  was  a  falling 
otf,  in  the  shipping  employed  during  the  latter  year,  of  826,000  tons, 
or  nearly  5000  vessels.  This  fact  is  the  more  remarkable,  that  we 
were  at  war  during  a  quarter  of  1815,  whereas  1816  was  the  first 
whole  year  of  peace.  These  returns  speak  of  the  tonnage  outwards 
and  inwards;  but  they  tell  nothing  of  the  difference  between  the 
exports  and  imports  of  either  year.  I  will  venture  to  assert,  that  a 
much  more  considerable  defalcation  will  be  found  in  the  importation 
of  last  year  than  the  mere  falling  off  in  the  tonnage  indicates.  I  am 
well  aware  that  many  millions  of  goods  have  been  sent  abroad,  for 
which  no  returns  have  been  received,  and  which  never  will  produce 
sixpence  to  the  exporters.  Upon  this  point  no  custom-house  papers 
can  give  any  information.  They  cannot  show  what  proportion  of 
the  cargoes  shipped  have  found  a  market — what  parts  have  been 
sold  under  prime  cost — what  parts  remain  upon  hand  unsaleable  at 
any  price — and  what  parts  of  the  goods  imported  are  in  a  similar 
situation. 

We  have  known  former  times  of  great  national  suffering — most 
of  us  are  old  enough  to  remember  more  than  one  period  of  severe 
public  calamity — but  no  man  can  find  an  example  of  anything  like 
the  present.  In  1800  there  was  a  scarcity  much  greater  than  is  now 
felt,  but  no  distress  ensued  beyond  the  reach  of  private  charity,  and 
the  affliction  ended  with  the  bad  season;  for, though  provisions  were 
dear,  work  was  abundant,  and  the  bulk  of  the  poor  were  enabled 
to  sustain  the  pressure  of  the  evil.  In  1812  there  was  a  much  greater 
distress — the  dearth  was  less,  indeed,  but  the  rate  of  wages  was  far 
lower.  The  House  well  remembers  the  painful  inquiries  in  which 
it  was  then  my  fortune  to  bear  a  considerable  part.  We  were  accus- 
tomed to  describe  the  circumstances  in  which  we  found  the  manufac- 
turing population  of  the  country  as  wretched  beyond  all  former 
example;  and  the  expression  was  strictly  justified  by  the  fact.  Yet, 
compared  with  the  wide-spread  misery  under  which  the  same  classes 
now  labour,  the  year  1812  rises  into  a  period  of  actual  prosperity.  It 
will  be  necessary  for  me,  and  I  hope  the  House  will  grant  me  their 
indulgence,  to  go  shortly  into  some  particulars  touching  the  great 
staple  manufactures  of  the  kingdom,  in  order  to.  show  how  unparal- 
leled in  its  amount,  and  how  various  in  its  kinds,  the  distress  is,  which 
now  everywhere  prevails. 

I  shall  begin  with  the  clothing,  a  branch  of  trade  which,  from  acci- 
dental circumstances,  is  not  so  depressed  as  our  other  great  staples; 
and  for  this,  among  other  reasons,  that  the  foreign  markets  do  not 
happen  to  be  overstocked  with  this  manufacture,  while  some  consi- 
derable foreign  government  contracts  have  given  great  assistance  to 
several  of  the  clothing  districts.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  result  of  state- 
ments which  I  have  received  from  the  principal  clothing  counties  of 
Yorkshire — Leeds,  Huddcrsfield,  Wakefield,  and  Halifax.  Taking 
the  number  of  men  engaged  in  the  branch  which  suffers  most,  the 
cloth  dressing,  at  3,360  in  August  last,  there  were  then  927  in  full, 

25" 


294  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

1385  in  partial  employment,  and  1048  wholly  out  of  work.  Calculat- 
ing upon  the  same  number,  there  are  now  only  757  in  full,  and  1439 
in  partial  work,  while  1164  are  entirely  idle;  that  is  to  say,  a  third  of 
the  whole  are  idle,  and  of  those  who  have  any  work,  only  one-third, 
that  is,  two-ninths  of  the  whole,  or  two  men  in  nine  have  full  employ- 
ment. The  distress  of  the  other  clothiers  in  this  county  is  far  from 
being  so  considerable;  but  in  the  West  of  England,  I  am  informed  by 
the  most  unexceptionable  evidence,  that  it  exceeds  anything  which 
can  easily  be  conceived. 

If  we  now  carry  our  view  towards  the  iron  trade,  a  most  gloomy 
picture  is  presented;  and  I  may  take  the  state  of  Birmingham  as  a  fair 
symptom  of  this  commerce  in  general,  intimately  connected  as  that 
great  town  is  with  the  neighbouring  counties  in  all  the  branches  of 
their  industry  and  commerce.  In  a  population  of  84,000  souls,  about 
27,500  receive  parish  relief  Of  the  work  people,  one-third  are  wholly 
out  of  employ,  and  the  rest  are  at  half  work.  The  poor-rates  have 
risen  to  between  fifty  and  sixty  thousand  pounds  a-year,  a  sum 
exceeding,  as  I  am  informed,  what  the  inhabitants  paid  to  the  income- 
tax.  In  1812,  when  the  House  was  so  greatly  touched  by  the  state  of 
this  place,  only  a  ninth  part  of  the  population  were  paupers,  and  the 
rates  did  not  exceed  £27,000,  yet  we  then  thought  the  public  distresses 
had  reached  their  utmost  pitch. 

The  people  engaged  in  the  iron  trade  may  be  divided  into  four  great 
classes,  with  reference  to  my  present  purpose — the  miners  and  others 
employed  in  obtaining  the  raw  material — the  persons  employed  in 
manufacturing  arms — the  nailers — and  the  common  artificers.  The 
first  of  these  classes,  who  in  1810  received  from  ISs.  upwards,  as  far 
as  (wo  guineas  a-week,  get  now  from  10s.  to  ISs. — the  second,  who  re- 
ceived still  higher,  I  might  say  even  exorbitant  wages,  from  the  demand 
occasioned  by  the  war,  now  get  only  Is.  6d.  when  they  are  employed 
at  all — the  nailers,  who  are  better  off  than  most  classes,  yet  earn  no 
more  than  S#,  or  9s.,  instead  of  12s.  or  15s. — while  the  common  arti- 
ficers are  working  at  a  shilling  a-day.  But  in  all  these  classes  the 
women  and  children,  who  used  to  earn  so  much  as  nearly  to  double 
the  gains  of  the  able  workmen,  are  not  wholly  unemployed.  Sir,  I 
do  not  wish  to  mingle  any  allusions  of  a  political  nature  with  the  de- 
scription of  these  sad  scenes;  but  I  feel  it  due  to  the  character  and  the 
sufferings  of  those  unhappy  persons,  to  assert  (and  I  do  so  upon  the 
authority  of  men  who  differ  with  me  in  political  sentiments)  that  a 
more  loyal,  peaceful,  tranquil  set  of  people  are  not  to  be  found  within 
the  limits  of  his  Majesty's  dominions. 

It  is  truly  painful  to  think,  that,  severe  as  the  distress  is  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  which  I  have  been  describing,  a  yet  more  melan- 
choly picture  presents  itself  when  we  turn  to  the  great  staple  of  the 
country,  the  cotton  manufacture.  This,  as  the  House  is  well  aware, 
consists  of  two  branches,  the  spinning  and  weaving;  but,  from  the 
introduction  of  machinery,  the  numbers  employed  in  weaving  are  be- 
yond all  comparison  greater  than  those  employed  in  spinning.  In 
Lancashire  alone,  and  the  borders  of  the  adjoining  counties,  there  are 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  295 

above  half  a  million  of  persons  who  derive  their  support  from  the 
former.  Taking  the  average  gains  of  a  thousand  weavers,  of  all  ages 
and  classes,  their  rate  of  wages  was  13*-.  3d.  a-week  in  May  1SGO. 
In  ISQ2  the  s>ame  persons  received  the  still  higher  sum  of  13s.  lOd. 
In  1806  it  had  fallen  to  10*.  6d.;  and  in  1S08,  alter  it  had  pleased  the 
wisdom  of  government  to  "retaliate,"  as  they  phrased  it,  u  upon  the 
enemy  the  evils  of  his  own  injustice,"  and  to  inllict  upon  ourselves 
(as  the  event  proved  to  such  as  had  not  the  sense  to  perceive  it)  the 
evils  of  our  own  impolicy — when  we  had  succeeded  in  quarrelling 
with  our  best  customers — those  wages  fell  as  low  as  Gs.  Id.  In  1S12, 
when  the  whole  virtues  of  our  system  had  been  called  into  action,  and 
had  bestowed  the  full  measure  of  its  beneficence  upon  our  trade,  the 
wages  fell  to  6.y.  4d.  In  IS  16,  the  third  year  of  peace,  and  while  we 
were  slowly  moving  through  that  transition  of  which  we  have  heard 
(though  it  seems  something  of  rather  a  permanent  than  a  passing 
nature)  wages  were  as  low  as  5s.  2d.  This  was  in  the  month  of  May; 
and  in  January  last,  they  had  reached  the  fearful  point  of  depression 
at  which  they  now  stand,  of  4s.  3\d.;  from  which,  when  the  usual 
expenses  paid  by  the  work  people  for  the  loom  are  deducted,  there 
remains  no  more  than  3*.  3d.  to  support  human  life  for  seven  days. 
13y  another  calculation  it  appears,  that  437  persons  have  to  provide 
for  themselves  and  as  many  more  out  of  5.9.  a-week;  making,  for  the 
whole  subsistence  and  expenditure  of  each  individual,  less  than  4\d.  a 
day. 

When  I  paused  over  this  scene  of  misery,  unequalled  in  the  history 
of  civilized  times,  I  felt  naturally  impelled  to  demand,  how  it  was  pos- 
sible to  sustain  existence  in  such  circumstances,  and  whether  it  were 
not  practicable  to  administer  charitable  aid?  To  the  first  question  I 
received  for  answer  the  painful  intelligence,  that  those  miserable 
beings  could  barely  purchase,  with  their  hard  and  scanty  earnings, 
half  a  pound  of  oatmeal  daily,  which,  mixed  with  a  little  salt  and 
water,  constituted  their  whole  food.  My  other  inquiry  had  been  an- 
ticipated by  that  well  known  spirit  of  kindness,  not  more  humane 
than  politic,  by  which  the  demeanour  of  the  master  manufacturers  in 
this  country  has  ever  been  regulated  towards  their  workmen  in  the 
seasons  of  their  common  distress.  Projects  for  alfording  them  relief 
had  been  canvassed;  but  it  was  found,  that  to  distribute  only  a  slen- 
der increase  of  nourishment,  an  addition  of  a  little  milk,  or  beer,  or  a 
morsel  of  meat  to  the  oatmeal  and  water,  no  less  a  sum  than  £^0,000 
a-week  was  required,  and  at  a  time  when  the  masters  were  hardly 
receiving  any  profits  from  their  trade.  To  talk  of  charity,  then,  is  en- 
tirely out  of  the  question;  the  case  lies  far  beyond  the  reach  of  private 
beneficence;  and,  if  it  admits  of  a  remedy  at  all,  must  look  to  other 
sources  of  relief. 

Now,  what  is  the  consequence  of  all  this,  and  whither  does  it  in- 
evitably lead?  These  wretched  creatures  arc  compelled  first  to  part 
for  their  sustenance  with  all  their  trifling  property,  piecemeal,  from 
the  little  furniture  of  their  cottages  to  the  very  bedding  and  clothes 
that  usefl  to  cover  them  from  the  weather.  They  struggle  on  with 


296  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

hunger,  and  go  to  sleep  at  nightfall,  upon  the  calculation,  that,  if  they 
worked  an  hour  or  two  later,  they  might  indeed  earn  three-halfpence 
more,  one  of  which  must  be  paid  for  a  candle,  but  then  the  clear  gain 
of  a  penny  would  be  too  dearly  bought,  and  leave  them  less  able  to 
work  the  next  day.  To  such  a  frightful  nicety  of  reckoning  are  hu- 
man beings  reduced,  treating  themselves  like  mere  machines,  and 
balancing  the  produce  against  the  tear  and  wear,  so  as  to  obtain  the 
maximum  that  their  physical  powers  can  be  made  to  yield!  At 
length,  however,  they  must  succumb;  the  workhouse  closes  their  dis- 
mal prospect;  or,  with  a  reluctance  that  makes  their  lot  a  thousand 
times  more  pitiable,  they  submit  to  take  parish  relief;  and,  to  sustain 
life,  part  with  the  independent  spirit,  the  best  birthright  of  an  English 
peasant. 

If  from  these  details  we  ascend  to  considerations  of  a  more  general 
nature,  and  observe  certain  symptoms,  which,  though  less  striking  in 
themselves,  are  perhaps  the  safest  guides  in  such  an  inquiry,  we  shall 
find,  that  nothing  is  happening  around  us  on  any  side,  which  is  not 
indicated  by  these  signs  of  the  times.  The  first  of  the  symptoms  to 
which  Lshall  refer  is  the  great  diminution  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
consumption  of  luxuries  all  over  the  country.  This  is  attested  by  the 
undeniable  fact,  that  there  has  been  a  material  and  increasing  defalca- 
tion in  the  produce  of  the  customs  and  excise,  especially  of  the  latter, 
during  the  last  twelve  months.  It  is  well  known,  too,  that  those  dis- 
tricts suffered  first,  and  most  severely,  which  depended  upon  the  man- 
ufacture of  luxurious  articles.  Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  case  of 
Spitalfields.  The  poor  of  that  neighbourhood,  after  having  exhausted 
the  whole  rates,  have  received  from  voluntary  contributions,  reflecting 
the  highest  honour  upon  the  charitable  and  liberal  character  of  the 
metropolis  at  large,  sums,  which,  added  to  the  rates,  exceed  the  whole 
income  of  the  parish  at  rack  rent.  In  like  manner  the  levies  of  Co- 
ventry and  its  neighbourhood  have  increased  beyond  all  former  exam- 
ple. It  appeared,  when  the  petition  from  thence  was  presented,  that 
one  estate  of  200  acres  paid  ^6400  in  rates.  A  singular  instance,  illus- 
trative of  the  same  position,  with  respect  to  the  country  generally, 
was  stated  by  my  honourable  friend  the  member  for  that  city,*  and, 
through  his  courtesy,  I  have  this  evening  seen  a  more  minute  account 
of  it  than  he  then  gave.  A  person  belonging  to  the  place  has  been 
accustomed  for  many  years  to  travel  over  a  great  part  of  England, 
selling  watches.  He  visits,  in  his  circuits,  283  cities  and  towns,  and 
he  used  commonly  to  dispose  of  about  000  watches.  Last  year, 
making  precisely  the  same  round  as  usual,  he  only  found  purchasers 
for  forty-three.  Perhaps,  when  we  consider  the  variety  of  classes  who 
use  watches,  and  the  extent  of  the  space  over  which  this  diminution 
operated,  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  stronger  symptom  of  the 
decrease  in  demand  for  luxuries.  The  watch  trade  in  London  has 
suffered  in  an  equal  degree.  The  statements  recently  published  show, 
that  there  are  3,000  journeymen  out  of  employment;  that  those  who 

•  Mr.  P.  Moore. 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  297 

are  in  work  have  been  earning  for  the  last  three  months  one-fourth 
of  (heir  usual  gains;  and  during  the  last  month  only  one-sixth;  while 
their  property  has  heen  pledged  to  the  amount  of  £1,600,  in  three- 
quarters  of  a  year.  If  I  am  not  misinformed,  other  trades  in  the  me- 
tropolis suffer  in  a  like  proportion.  It  is  said  that  2,000  of  the  18,000 
journeymen  tailors  in  Westminster  are  wholly  destitute  of  work. 

I  lake  the  great  discontent  excited  throughout  the  country  by  the 
introduction  of  new  machinery  to  be  another  symptom,  and  a  most 
unerring  one,  of  the  present  distress.  Formerly  when  the  invention 
of  any  piece  of  mechanism  for  abridging  manual  labour  occasioned 
an  alarm  among  the  working  people,  it  was  partial  and  transient. 
Those  who  were  thrown  out  of  employment  speedily  found  other 
channels  of  profitable  occupation,  the  population  disengaged  by  the 
new  machine  were  absorbed,  with  their  industry;  and  in  a  short  time 
the  traces  of  the  change  disappeared,  except  that  its  beneficial  effects 
upon  the  capital  of  the  country  soon  created  a  greater  demand  for 
labour  than  existed  before  the  invention,  lint  now  the  case  is  widely 
different.  The  petitions,  which  night  after  night  are  presented  to  us 
by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  complaining  of  machinery, 
testify,  that  when  workmen  are  flung  out  of  one  employment  they 
can  no  longer  find  others  ready  to  receive  them;  and  that  the  capital 
saved  by  the  abridgement  of  labour  can  no  longer  produce  its  healing 
effect.  When  Sir  R.  Arkright  invented  the  apparatus  which  lias 
proved  of  such  benefit  to  this  country,  though  it  deprived  many 
thousands  of  their  livelihood  for  the  moment,  yet  no  particular  discon- 
tent was  excited.  I  have  obtained  from  two  of  the  greatest  cotton- 
spinners,  in  both  parts  of  this  island,  an  estimate  of  the  saving  in 
manual  labour  effected  by  that  machinery;  and  as  both  concurred  in 
stating,  unknown  to  each  other,  that  by  means  of  it  one  man  could  do 
the  work  of  a  hundred,  I  may  assume  the  calculation  as  pretty  near 
the  truth.  So  considerable  a  shock  to  the  labouring  population  pro- 
duced scarcely  any  discontent.  The  case  is  so  different  now,  when 
the  smallest  improvement  is  made  in  the  means  of  economizing  hu- 
man power,  that  I  hardly  know  whether  to  rejoice  or  be  sorry  at  any 
such  change.  There  has  of  late  been  a  considerable  accession  of 
mechanical  power  in  the  weaving  trade;  and  though  it  cannot  operate 
like  the  spinning  mills,  yet  it  bids  fair  to  throw  numbers  out  of  work, 
and  destroy  even  the  scanty  pittance  at  present  gained  by  a  great 
number  of  those  wretched  individuals,  whose  hardships  I  have  been 
describing  to-night — I  allude  to  what  is  called  the  Power  Loom,  by 
which  one  child  is  enabled  to  do  the  work  of  two  or  three  men.  Hut 
the  House  will  hear  with  surprise  and  vexation,  that  mechanical  im- 
provement has,  as  it  were,  reached  its  limit;  an  unexpected  impedi- 
ment has  started  up  to  check  its  further  progress.  It  is  now  found, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  mankind,  so  low  arc  wages  fallen, 
so  great  is  the  pressure  of  distress,  that  manual  labour  is  making  re- 
prisals on  machinery,  standing  a  successful  competition  with  it,  boat- 
ing it  out  of  the  market,  and  precluding  the  use  of  an  engine,  far  from 
costly  in  itself,  which  saves  three  labourers  in  four.  The  farther  imro- 


298  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

duction  of  the  power  loom  is  actually  stopped  by  the  low  rate  of 
weaver's  wages!  There  are,  however,  other  branches  of  industry,  as 
the  printing  and  lace  trades,  which  have  been  lately  threatened,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  with  the  competition  of  new  mechanism,  and  of  such 
powers  as  not  even  the  miserable  wages  of  the  day  can  be  expected 
to  resist. 

The  last  symptom  of  distress  which  I  shall  mention,  is  the  state  of 
the  money  market.  I  am  aware  that  there  are  some  who  view  this 
subject  in  a  very  different  light.  1  know  not  if  the  right  honourable 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  concurs  in  the  opinion  recently  de- 
livered from  high  authority  in  another  place,  no  less  than  that  of  the 
first  minister  of  the  country,  and  the  person  at  the  head  of  its  finances. 
That  noble  lord  is  reported  to  have  drawn  the  most  favourable  augury 
from  the  late  rise  of  the  funds,  which  he  ascribed,  by  some  process  of 
reasoning  not  very  easily  followed,  to  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act.  However  injurious  this  measure  may  prove  to  the  con- 
stitution, it  seems  we  are  to  regard  it  as  highly  favourable  to  trade. 
Now,  suppose  I  were  minded  to  turn  the  tables  upon  the  noble  lord, 
and  bid  him  look  at  the  still  greater  rise  of  the  stocks  after  the  report 
of  the  committee  appointed  to  examine  the  contents  of  the  Green 
Bag.  That  famous  document  first  unfolded  the  existence  of  the  Spen- 
cean  plan,  and  was  calculated  directly  to  bear  upon  the  funds;  be- 
cause, according  to  the  true  faith  of  that  great  sect,  though  the  land- 
holder is  bad,  and  fit  to  be  despoiled,  the  fundholder  is  "  a  monster, 
and  must  be  hunted  down."  So  says  the  report,  yet  the  funds  arose 
upon  its  appearance;  from  whence  I  might  argue,  if  I  chose  to  adopt 
the  ground  of  the  first  minister  of  finance,  that  the  fundholders  one 
and  all  disbelieved  in  the  existence  of  the  plot.  I  will  not,  however, 
take  this  advantage  of  the  noble  lord,  by  following  his  own  example. 
I  am  satisfied  with  drawing,  from  the  state  of  the  stocks  and  the 
money  market  generally,  inferences  more  naturally  connected  with 
the  subject,  and  in  favour  of  the  view  I  have  already  of  public  affairs. 
It  is  well  known,  that  there  exists  at  present  a  facility  of  obtaining 
discounts  at  4  and  4£  per  cent,  on  bills  of  short  dates,  which  even  a 
year  ago  were  not  to  be  procured  at  a  much  higher  premium.  Stocks, 
too,  have  risen;  they  are  10  per  cent,  higher  on  the  nominal  capital 
than  they  were  a  few  months  since.  Exchequer  bills,  after  two  seve- 
ral reductions  of  interest,  leaving  the  income  upon  them  at  only  83 
per  cent.,  still  bear  a  premium.  What  does  all  this  prove?  If  I  saw 
that  there  was  any  proportionate  facility  in  obtaining  loans  upon  land 
at  5  per  cent.,  that  is,  upon  the  best  security  our  law  affords,  I  might 
be  inclined  to  pause  before  1  ascribed  the  state  of  the  money  market 
to  a  glut  of  unemployed  capital.  But  hitherto  none  of  this  capital  has 
overflowed  upon  the  land;  and  the  fact  is  unquestionable,  that  there  is 
much  money  in  the  market  of  stocks,  floating  debt,  and  discounts,  only 
because  there  is  little  or  no  employment  for  it  in  trade,  and  because  no 
capitalist  chooses  to  put  his  money  beyond  his  reach  for  more  than 
a  few  months,  in  the  expectation  that  commerce  will  revive.  The 
want  of  employment  at  home  has  a  tendency  to  drive  capital  abroad; 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  299 

and  signs  of  this  emigration  have  already  manifested  themselves  in 
the  negotiation  of  loans  with  foreign  powers.  One  transaction  of 
this  nature  has  already  been  concluded  with  France;  and  undoubtedly 
the  greater  part  of  the  money  to  be  advanced  in  the  course  of  it  will 
come  from  the  capitalists  of  this  country.  America  is  said  to  have 
two  speculations  of  a  similar  description  going  on  at  the  present  mo- 
ment in  the  city.  Respecting  one  of  them  I  have  heard  some  particu- 
lars; and  it  resolves  itself  into  a  stock  operation,  the  object  of  which, 
is  the  application  of  British  capital  to  the  support  of  the  American 
funds.  How  indeed  is  it  to  be  supposed,  that  capital  should  not  find 
its  way  abroad,  when,  on  the  other  side  of  the  channel,  it  fetches  in 
the  public  stocks  nearly  double  the  interest  given  by  our  funds,  and 
much  more  than  double  the  interest  paid  by  our  floating  debt?  The 
state  of  foreign  exchanges  with  this  country  I  shall  at  present  only 
glance  at  cursorily,  because  I  venture  to  assure  the  House,  that,  be- 
fore I  sit  down,  if  I  do  not  altogether  fail  in  stating  the  views  I  enter- 
tain of  another  branch  of  the  subject,  I  shall  be  able  to  demonstrate 
the  necessary  connection  between  what  is  called  a  favourable  rate  of 
exchange  and  the  depression  of  foreign  commerce.  That  rate  is  in 
fact  only  another  proof  of  the  unnatural  state  of  our  trade;  it  is  the 
immediate  result  of  forced  exportations,  with  scarcely  any  importa- 
tion in  return.  Thus  it  happens,  that  when  goods  have  been  sent  to 
any  part  of  the  continent,  from  whence  nothing  can  be  brought  back, 
in  order  to  remit  the  produce  of  the  sales,  there  is  a  demand  for  bills; 
but  there  being  no  transactions  ending  in  this  country,  and  no  real 
bills,  fictitious  drawing  is  resorted  to,  until  the  pound  sterling  is  raised 
to  a  height  above  par,  very  favourable  indeed  to  those  who  spend 
money  abroad,  but  wholly  useless  to  traders,  who  can  buy  nothing 
there  to  sell  again  in  this  country;  a  height,  too,  which  it  cannot  re- 
tain as  long  as  there  is  bullion  to  send  over,  and  which,  when  pro- 
perly understood,  indicates  the  existence  of  a  traffic  unnatural  and 
necessarily  short-lived — exportation  without  imports. 

Sir,  when  such  is  the  unparalleled  state  of  embarrassment  under 
which  two  of  the  great  branches  of  national  industry,  commerce  and 
manufactures,  labour,  it  would  be  in  vain  to  expect  that  any  material 
or  permanent  improvement  should  take  place  in  that  which  is  the 
ultimate  source  of  all  wealth  and  prosperity,  and  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  every  other  employment — I  mecin  our  agricultural.  If 
we  hear  less  at  the  present  moment  of  the  distresses  of  the  landed 
interest,  it  can  only  be  because  the  consumption  of  the  foreign  grain, 
which  last  year  oppressed  the  markets,  and  the  measures  adopted  by 
the  legislature  to  shut  out  this  competition,  have  been  aided  by  a 
scanty  crop,  and  have  raised  the  price  of  corn.  Those  districts  where 
the  harvest  has  been  tolerable  are  therefore  comparatively  well  oil'; 
whereas  last  year  the  sulfering  was  universal;  but  wherever  the  crop 
has  been  a  failing  one,  that  is,  in  the  grenier  part  of  the  country,  the 
high  price  is  by  no  means  a  compensation  for  the  deficiency  and  the 
poor-rates.  I  have  therefore  no  manner  of  doubt,  that  the  land  is, 
generally  speaking,  worse  oft'  than  before.  It  is  indeed  a  vain  and 


300  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

idle  thing  to  take  distinctions  between  the  different  orders  of  the 
country,  and  to  speak  of  the  agricultural  and  mercantile  classes  as  if 
they  had  opposite  or  even  independent  interests.  They  are  all  inti- 
mately and  inseparably  connected  by  the  eternal  nature  of  things; 
they  must  for  ever  run  together  the  same  course,  whether  of  progress 
or  decline.  I  will  give  you,  on  this  matter,  the  words  of  a  man  who, 
having  by  his  honest  industry  become  the  greatest  ornament  of  the 
one  order,  made  himself,  by  the  fruits  of  his  honourable  gains,  a  dis- 
tinguished member  of  the  other,  and  afterwards  rose,  by  his  sagacity 
and  experience,  to  adorn  also  the  literature  of  his  age.  "  Trade  and 
land,"  says  Mr.  Child,  "are  knit  each  to  other,  and  must  wax  and 
wane  together;  so  that  it  shall  never  be  well  with  land  but  trade 
must  feel  it,  nor  ill  with  trade  but  land  must  fall." 

The  House  will  feel  how  much  less  difficult  it  is  to  describe  the 
extent  and  intensity  of  the  prevailing  distresses,  than  to  trace  the 
various  causes  which  have  concurred  in  producing  them,  and  to  sepa- 
rate those  portions  of  the  evil,  which  arise  out. of  temporary  circum- 
stances, from  those  which  have  gone  on  increasing  with  a  slower 
growth,  deeply  rooted  in  the  system  of  policy  that  has  been  established 
amongst  us,  or  at  the  least  closely  interwoven  with  it.  But  I  should 
not  deal  fairly  with  the  House,  if  I  did  not  thus  early  state  my  opi- 
nion as  to  the  nature  of  those  causes  generally:  it  is  founded  upon 
the  universal  extent  and  the  great  variety  of  the  distresses  which  I 
have  been  describing;  and  my  principal  reason  for  entering  so  largely 
into  that  description  was,  not  certainly  because  it  required  any  such 
evidence  to  prove  the  miserable  condition  of  the  country,  but  because, 
from  the  universality  in  which  the  pressure  prevails,  I  deemed  the 
inference  to  be  unavoidable,  that  it  springs  from  causes  of  no  tempo- 
rary nature.  It  is  quite  true  that  a  transition  from  war  to  peace  must 
always  affect  several  branches  of  public  wealth,  some  connected  with 
foreign,  but  a  greater  proportion  with  domestic  trade.  Thus  two 
departments  of  industry  have  suffered  severely  by  the  cessation  of 
hostilities;  the  provision  trade  of  Ireland,  through  it  also,  the  cattle 
market  of  this  country;  and  the  manufacture  of  arms  at  Birmingham. 
The  distress  arising  from  the  peace  in  those  branches  of  commerce 
may  be  temporary;  if  all  the  other  channels  of  trade  unconnected 
with  the  war  were  open,  it  certainly  would  be  temporary.  But  when 
we  find  the  depression  general  in  all  lines  of  employment,  as  well  in 
those  uninfluenced  by  the  war  demand,  as  in  those  wholly  dependent 
upon  it;  when  we  see  that  hands  thrown  out  of  work  in  one  quarter 
can  no  longer  be  absorbed  into  the  other  parts  of  the  system:  when 
there  plainly  appears  to  be  a  choking  up  of  all  the  channels  of  in- 
dustry, and  an  equal  exhaustion  in  all  the  sources  of  wealth — we  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  return  of  peace  accounts  at  the 
utmost  only  for  a  portion  of  the  sad  change  we  everywhere  witness, 
and  that  even  that  portion  may  become  permanent  from  the  preva- 
lence of  the  evil  in  quarters  not  liable  to  be  affected  by  the  termina- 
tion of  the  war.  I  have  shown  you,  that  the  cotton  trade,  wholly 
unconnected  with  the  war,  is  more  depressed  than  the  iron  trade  in 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  301 

general,  and  to  the  full  as  much  depressed  as  the  very  gun  manufac- 
tory at  Birmingham.  I  am  entitled  to  conclude,  first,  that  the  tran- 
sition from  war  to  peace  has  not  produced  all  the  mischief;  and  next, 
that  the  mischief  which  it  has  produced  might  have  been  got  over, 
as  in  former  times,  if  it  had  been  the  only  one  which  oppressed  us. 
Sir,  we  must  once  for  all  look  our  situation  in  the  face,  and  firmly 
take  a  view  of  the  extent  of  our  disease.  It  is  not  of  a  partial  de- 
scription; it  is  of  general  prevalence;  it  is  of  a  searching  nature;  there 
is  no  channel  of  our  whole  circulation  into  which  it  has  not  worked 
its  way;  no  fibre  or  filament  of  our  whole  economical  system  that 
does  not  feel  its  deadening  influence;  not  one  limb  has  been  hurt,  but 
the  whole  body  is  impaired  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  functions.  Can 
we  expect  it  all  to  heal  and  revive  of  itself,  and  in  a  short  time?  I 
need  hardly  remind  you,  that  we  are  now  approaching  the  fourth 
year  of  "  transition,"  and  still  no  relief,  no  mitigation;  on  the  con- 
trary, we  experience  an  increase  of  our  calamity;  whilst  every  one 
knows,  that  in  less  than  half  the  time,  from  the  end  of  all  former 
wars,  a  complete  recovery  was  effected.  I  shall  therefore  endeavour 
to  describe  what,  after  all  the  attention  that  I  have  been  able  to  give 
the  subject,  appear  to  me  the  real  causes  of  the  unnatural  state  in 
which  every  man  must  admit  the  country  is  placed. 

I  must  entreat  the  House  impartially  to  fix  their  eye  upon  the  line 
of  policy,  which  for  many  years  past  has  been  adopted  by  the  public 
councils  of  the  country.  In  referring  to  it,  I  shall  as  much  as  possible 
avoid  the  more  debateable  grounds  of  the  commencement  and  conti- 
nuance of  war,  and  keep  to  points  upon  which  I  believe  a  very  little 
explanation  will  preclude  the  possibility  of  any  considerable  differ- 
ence in  opinion.  It  should  seem  that  those  who  style  themselves  the 
practical  politicians  of  this  country  (because  they  are  the  dupes  of  a 
theory  as  visionary  as  it  is  absurd)  have  long  been  surrounded  by  a 
class  of  men,  who,  blending  with  what  is  termed  true  mercantile 
knowledge,  much  narrow-minded,  violent,  national  prejudice,  or,  as 
they  call  it,  genuine  British  feeling,  assume  to  themselves  the  style  and 
title  of  the  "sound  statesmen,"  and  certainly  do  in  good  earnest  exert 
a  real  and  practical  influence  over  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  With 
these  sage  instructors  of  almost  every  administration  (and  they  are 
generally  found  united  in  place  with  their  pupils,  and  knit  to  them  by 
the  endearing  reciprocity  of  good  offices),  it  is  a  maxim  equally  sacred 
and  profound,  that  too  much  can  hardly  be  done  to  discourage  im- 
portations of  all  kinds  and  from  all  countries.  The  old  mercantile 
system  has  long  been  exploded;  but  these  wise  personages,  having 
been  born  and  bred  up  in  it,  seem  to  have  caught  hold  of  its  last 
plank,  to  which  they  slill  cling  with  all  their  might,  perpetually  con- 
ning over  its  grand  motto — "  All  trade,  and  no  barter,  all  selling,  and 
no  buying;  all  for  money,  and  nothing  for  goods."  To  support  the 
remnants  of  a  doctrine  universally  abandoned  in  every  enlightened 
country,  all  means  are  resorted  to,  fair  and  foul;  for  in  defence  of 
their  favourite  creed,  these  sound  advisers  betray  a  morality  far  from 
rigid  or  scrupulous.  The  theory  itself  is  repudiated,  and  its  very 
VOL.  i. — 2(i 


302  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

name  disowned  by  all  who  have  received  a  liberal  education.  No 
man  is  to  be  found  hardy  enough,  no  one  so  careless  of  his  reputation 
for  common  sense,  as  even  to  use  its  language.  How  long  is  it  since 
the  "soundest"  politician  among  us  has  ventured  to  speak,  in  public 
at  least,  the  jargon  of  the  balance  of  trade?  Yet,  marvellous  to  relate, 
the  practical  results  of  this  extirpated  heresy  are  interwoven  with 
our  whole  commercial  policy;  and,  though  the  nonsense,  and  even 
the  dialect  of  its  tenets  are  rejected  of  all  men,  <hey  are  disguised  in 
legal  phraseology,  embodied  in  efficient  regulations,  and  may  be 
traced  in  broad  characters  through  every  volume  of  the  statute  book 
down  to  the  last.  Year  after  year  we  have  proceeded  under  the 
auspices  of  our  wholesome,  practical,  sound,  national  statesmen,  until 
Ave  now  find  ourselves,  as  might  naturally  be  expected,  deprived  of 
most  of  the  great  staples  of  foreign  commerce. 

In  mentioning  a  few  instances  of  our  obligations  to  these  sagacious 
councillors,  I  must  say  a  single  word  upon  the  corn  bill,  which,  strictly 
speaking,  comes  within  the  class  of  measures  I  am  alluding  to.  To 
the  opinion,  which  I  originally  entertained  upon  that  law,  I  still  adhere. 
I  feel  now,  as  I  did  then,  that  its  first  effects  are  injurious,  by  cutting 
off  a  great  article  of  foreign  trade;  but  I  look  for  an  ample  compensa- 
tion of  that  injury  in  advantages  of  a  higher  nature;  the  ensuring  a 
regular,  a  safe,  and  ultimately  a  cheap  supply  of  the  great  necessary 
of  life,  which  no  change  of  foreign  policy,  no  caprice  of  hostile  govern- 
ments, can  impede  or  disturb.  It  may  also  be  admitted  by  those 
who  disapproved  of  the  measure  as  a  permanent  branch  of  our  policy, 
that  the  circumstances  of  the  times  justified  its  adoption  as  a  tem- 
porary resource.  At  any  rate,  we  resorted  to  it,  not  as  the  only  pro- 
hibitory law  in  our  commercial  code,  but  while  almost  every  branch 
of  trade  was  struggling  in  the  fetters  of  the  restrictive  system.  We 
approved  of  it  for  special  reasons,  many  of  them  temporary  in  their 
nature;  and  regarded  it  as  an  exception  justified  by  those  reasons,  and 
by  the  unnatural  state  of  our  whole  polity.  The  doctors  of  the  mer- 
cantile school  jumped  at  it  as  a  part  of  their  scheme,  and  as  coincid- 
ing with  the  numberless  trammels  which  they  had  devised  for  com- 
merce in  all  its  departments,  and  the  removal  of  which  might  very 
possibly  alter  our  whole  opinion  upon  the  corn  bill.  Let  us  only  cast 
our  eye  over  a  few  of  those  regulations. 

I  shall  first  request  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  exploits  of 
these  sages  in  the  Baltic  trade.  That  branch  of  commerce  has  always 
been  deemed  highly  important,  both  to  our  shipping  and  our  mercan- 
tile interest;  both  with  a  view  to  defence  and  to  gain.  Its  short 
voyages  make  it  an  excellent  nursery  for  seamen;  its  quick  returns 
are  highly  favourable  to  profit.  Circumstances,  which  I  need  not 
enumerate,  render  it  a  peculiarly  secure  and  steady  kind  of  traffic. 
Yet,  of  the  four  great  staples  of  the  Baltic  trade,  two,  including  the 
greatest  of  the  whole,  have  been  cut  off.  We  still  receive  hernp  and 
tallow;  but  we  have  prohibited  the  importation  of  iron  and  timber. 
And  to  what  views  have  we  sacrificed  this  important  market  for  our 
own  goods?  To  encourage  ruinous  speculations  in  this  country,  we 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  303 

imposed  a  duty  upon  foreign  iron  amounting  to  a  prohibition;  while, 
to  force  the  importation  of  inferior  timber  from  our  North  American 
colonies,  that  is,  to  gratify  the  Canada  and  shipping  interests,  always 
highly  favoured  by  the  school  of  the  practical  and  right  honourable 
gentleman  opposite,*  we  excluded  the  greatest  staple  of  the  Baltic. 
Instead  of  leaving  the  adventurers  in  mines  to  their  fate,  suffering 
them  to  thrive  if  they  could  by  their  natural  resources,  we  encouraged 
them,  by  extraordinary  stimulants,  in  a  pursuit,  which  sound  policy 
would  rather  have  discouraged;  a  precarious,  gambling,  and  upon  the 
whole  a  losing  concern  to  the  country.  Mark  the  consequences  of 
this  system.  We  used  to  export  £400,000  or  £500,000  of  our  manu- 
factures annually  to  Norway:  that  vent,  I  understand,  has  now  ceased, 
Norway  having  no  other  means  of  making  payment  but  the  iron  and 
the  timber,  which  our  modern  practitioners  of  antiquated  wisdom  have 
seen  good  to  exclude  altogether.  Canada,  for  whose  sake  the  sacrifice 
was  partly  made,  no  doubt,  still  remains  ours,  in  spite  of  all  the  pains 
we  took  to  lose  it;  but  there  is  no  part  of  this  country  at  present  so  dis- 
tressed as  the  mining  districts  of  Wales.  A  similar  prohibition  of  foreign 
copper  has  cut  us  off  from  one  of  the  principal  articles  of  South  Ameri- 
can produce. 

It  is  not  many  days  since  some  conversation  took  place  respecting 
an  act  of  last  session,  which  imposed  protecting  duties  on  foreign 
butter  and  cheese.  I  then  expressed  my  repugnance  to  any  extension 
of  that  protection;  and  I  will  now  mention  a  fact  within  my  know- 
ledge, both  to  show  how  dangerous  this  sort  of  legislative  interference 
is  in  a  vast,  complicated,  and  delicate  commercial  system,  and  also  to 
demonstrate  how  little  a  high  rate  of  exchange  indicates  a  thriving 
trade.  The  instant  that  those  duties  were  imposed,  as  true  as  the 
pulse  keeps  time  with  the  stroke  of  the  heart,  foreign  exchange  rose, 
as  it  is  called,  in  our  favour  two  or  three  per  cent.  A  branch  of  our 
importation  was  lopped  off:  it  became  more  difficult  to  remit  from 
abroad,  in  the  first  instance, and  consequently  must  have  become  pro- 
porlionably  more  difficult  to  send  goods  thither  immediately  after;  our 
whole  foreign  trade  was  sensibly  diminished,  and  by  the  very  ope- 
ration which  raised  the  exchange,  and  in  exact  proportion  to  its 
rise.  So  much  for  the  quick  effects  of  the  operations  in  which  these 
sound  personages  delight;  so  much  for  the  accuracy  of  the  symptom 
which  they  consult  as  infallible  in  pronouncing  upon  the  state  of 
commerce! 

The  same  perverse  views  have  long  regulated  our  commercial  inter- 
course with  France.  Partly  from  mercantile  views,  partly  from  feelings 
of  a  political, and  almost  of  a  religious  nature,  there  are  many  amongst 
us,  who  have  laid  it  down  as  a  principle,  from  whence  they  hold  it 
nearly  impious  to  depart,  that  as  little  wine  as  possible  must  be  taken 
from  France.  Although  that  fine  country  is  our  nearest  market,  and 
ought  to  be  our  best  customer;  although  the  vine  is  its  chief  produce, 
and  its  wines  are  allowed  by  all  to  bo  the  best,  by  some  considered 

•  Mr.  Rose. 


304  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

as  the  only  ones  drinkable:  yet  their  importation  is  to  be  avoided  be- 
cause France  is  our  natural  enemy,  and  Portugal  our  dear,  and  indeed 
costly  friend.  In  the  true  spirit  of  this  creed,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  some  time  ago  laid  a  new  duty  upon  claret,  not  with  any 
view  to  revenue,  but,  as  he  himself  declared,  in  the  technical  lan- 
guage of  his  sect,  with  the  hope  of  discouraging  the  use  of  French 
wines,  upon  principles  of  a  political  nature.  It  may,  for  anything  I 
know,  be  in  the  contemplation  of  this  class  of  statesmen,  a  mark  of 
comprehensive  policy  in  a  manufacturing  country  to  refuse  those  arti- 
cles which  it  wants  the  most  and  likes  the  best,  and  which  alone 
enable  a  trade  with  its  best  customer  to  be  kept  up.  But  if  I  may 
be  allowed  to  speak  as  a  trader,  availing  myself  of  the  flattering 
compliment  bestowed  upon  me  last  night  by  the  worthy  alderman,* 
and  to  proceed  on  the  suggestions  of  common  sense,  I  should  regard 
such  conduct,  not  as  the  result  of  sound  policy,  or  of  any  policy  at 
all,  but  as  dictated  by  prejudices  bordering  on  insanity. 

But  it  is  somewhat  melancholy  to  think  that  worse  blunders  remain 
untold.  The  conduct  pursued  with  regard  to  the  linen  trade  very 
considerably  surpasses  all  that  I  have  mentioned;  for  it  has  been  as 
directly  in  hostility  to  the  favourite  principles  of  the  mercantile  school 
as  to  the  interests  of  the  country.  That  school  has  always  patronized 
the  carrying  trade  in  an  especial  manner;  and  I  believe  I  may  assert, 
that  no  branch  of  it  was  ever  more  productive  than  the  transit  of 
foreign  linens;  yet  upon  this  we  began,  and  never  stopped  until  we 
had  imposed  a  duty  of  fifteen  per  cent,  upon  all  linens  imported  and 
re-exported.  If  I  am  asked  to  explain  why  we  did  so,  I  cannot;  for 
here  the  wit  of  man  would  in  vain  search  for  anything  like  a  reason. 
But  I  can  tell  what  the  ministers  thought  they  were  doing  all  the 
while.  The  fact  is,  that  many  nations  prefer  foreign  linens  to  our 
own;  and  they  used  to  buy  those  linens  here.  We  saw  this,  and  said 
they  should  not  have  them;  so  to  legislate  we  went;  resolved,  that  an 
act  of  Parliament  should  pass  the  two  Houses,  and  should  then 
receive  the  royal  assent,  as  requisite  to  make  it  binding  upon  the  taste 
of  foreign  countries,  which  we  expected  would  be  changed  to  please 
us  the  instant  that  the  solemnities  of  legislation  were  completed,  and 
the  accustomed  words  from  the  crown  pronounced.  What  has  been 
the  consequence?  Those  nations  who  formerly  repaired  to  British 
markets,  laid  in  their  investments  of  foreign  linens,  and  at  the  same 
time  completed  their  assortment  in  British  goods,  (the  foreign  linen 
operating  as  a  kind  of  decoy,  from  the  convenience  of  finding  all 
their  cargo  in  the  same  place)  all  at  once  ceased  to  visit  our  ports. 
They  were  unmannerly  enough  to  disregard  our  law,  although  it  had 
been  passed  with  every  one  of  the  accustomed  formalities;  they  took 
their  course  to  Hamburgh,  Amsterdam,  and  Copenhagen,  where  they 
could  get  the  foreign  linens  somewhat  cheaper  than  we  ever  sold 
them.  This  latter  advantage  they  had  always  disregarded,  consider- 
ing the  opportunity  of  conveniently  completing  their  assortments  of 

*  Atkins. 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  305 

British  articles  as  a  compensation  for  it;  but  the  transit  duty  was 
much  greater  than  the  trade  could  bear;  it  proved,  as  indeed  it  was 
meant,  a  prohibition;  only  that  the  contrivers  of  it,  who  did  not  mean 
to  drive  the  purchaser  to  a  foreign  market,  forgot  that  they  had  no 
means  of  keeping  him  in  one  where  they  would  not  sell  him  what 
he  wanted.  They  forgot,  too,  that  his  departure  not  only  destroyed 
the  transit  trade,  but  the  trade  in  British  goods  connected  with  it  and 
now  transferred  to  foreign  countries.  The  House,  no  doubt,  must  be 
prepared  to  hear,  that  this  scheme  of  perverse  and  short-sighted  folly 
is  not  of  yesterday.  It  betokens  so  slow  a  state  of  information,  so  gross 
an  ignorance  of  the  subject,  so  senseless  a  disregard  of  the  most  obvi- 
ous principles,  that  every  one  will  readily  conjecture  its  origin  to  be 
lost  in  antiquity.  At  all  events,  it  must  have  been  invented  prior  to 
the  date  of  the  mercantile  system,  itself  now  exploded;  for  nothing 
can  more  clash  with  the  doctrine  of  promoting  the  carrying  trade. 
Then  what  will  the  House  say,  if  it  is  less  than  a  century  and  a  half 
since  this  notable  law  passed?  What  if,  after  ages  of  experience, 
after  the  full  knowledge  imparted  by  the  multiplicity  of  events  and 
changes  crowded  into  the  last  twenty  years — what  if  this  statute  was 
deliberately  passed  not  longer  ago  than  the  year  1S10, under  the  auspices 
of  the  present  ministers!  What  if,  no  farther  back  than  last  year,  Parlia- 
ment were  induced  by  them  to  decline  revising  this  piece  of  nonsense, 
and  expunging  it  from  the  book!  Sir,  these  are  indeed  things,  which 
it  requires  the  evidence  of  all  our  senses  to  make  us  believe.  But  if 
such  be  the  groundwork  of  our  commercial  system,  there  can  be  little 
difficulty  in  comprehending  the  mischiefs  that  must  sooner  or  later  flow 
from  it. 

There  are  numberless  other  instances  of  the  same  policy,  which  I 
might  detail  to  the  House.  I  might  speak  of  the  duty  upon  the  ex- 
portation of  coal,  amounting  at  ordinary  prices,  to  seventy  per  cent.; 
but  for  which,  that  article  might  find  a  ready  market  in  France,  pro- 
vided we  agreed  to  take  French  goods  in  return.  Here,  indeed,  we 
may  be  said  to  act  inconsistently;  for,  when  we  refuse  to  receive  the 
produce  of  a  country,  it  seems  natural  enough,  though  perhaps  it  is 
superfluous,  to  prevent  ours  from  going  thither.  We  are  not,  how- 
ever, so  consistent  in  all  the  branches  of  this  system.  While  we 
protect  agriculture  in  some  respects,  we  allow  the  importation  and 
prohibit  the  export  of  wool.  This  deviation  from  the  general  rule  is 
professedly  to  encourage  manufactures,  by  denying  to  foreigners  the 
use  of  the  raw  produce;  yet  cotton  twist  is  allowed  to  go  abroad, 
though  it  is  in  the  first  stage  of  manufacture:  and  one  should  think 
it  full  as  easy  for  the  continent  to  grow  long  wool  as  to  erect  spinning 
mills.  The  arrangement  of  the  silk  duties  affords  matter  of  similar 
observation;  but  I  abstain  from  leading  the  House  into  farther  details. 
I  think  I  may  venture  to  assert,  that,  taking  all  things  into  the  account, 
the  lime  is  now  arrived,  when  (Fie  circumstances  of  our  situation  im- 
periously demand  a  full  and  unsparing  review  of  the  whole  com- 
mercial policy  of  this  country;  and  not  only  the  branch  of  legislation 

26» 


306  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

which  bears  a  more  immediate  reference  to  trade,  but  the  navigation 
law  itself  requires  the  same  prompt  and  accurate  revision. 

Whether  I  consider  that  system  with  a  view  to  national  defence, 
or  to  commercial  wealth,  I  feel  persuaded,  that  no  time  should  be  lost 
in  at  least  relaxing  the  rigour  of  its  provisions.  Many  speculative 
writers  have  maintained,  that  it  was  from  the  first  a  sacrifice  of 
wealth  to  security;  but  I  am  disposed  to  admit,  that  it  was  originally 
calculated  to  promote  both  these  objects.  I  think  it  may  fairly  be 
allowed  to  have  hastened,  by  half  a  century,  an  event  which  must 
sooner  or  later  have  happened — the  transference  from  the  United 
Provinces  to  this  country  of  a  large  portion  of  trade,  which,  though 
naturally  belonging  to  us,  had  been  attracted  by  the  peculiar  advan- 
tages which  enabled  the  Hollanders  to  possess  themselves  of  the 
commerce  of  all  other  nations.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the 
good  policy  of  the  navigation  law,  I  am  quite  clear,  that  we  have 
adhered  to  its  strict  enactments  a  century  after  the  circumstances 
which  alone  justified  its  adoption  had  ceased  to  exist.  What  is  now 
passing  in  the  colonies  affords  a  striking  illustration  of  its  impolicy  in 
the  present  times.  Whether  in  consequence  of  orders  from  home,  or 
of  the  views  entertained  by  the  local  governments,  the  navigation 
law  is  enforced,  it  seems,  with  unusual  strictness,  a  stop  being  put  to 
the  licenses  granted  under  the  intercourse  act  for  importing  provisions 
in  foreign  bottoms.  What  course  does  America  pursue  to  meet  this 
protecting  measure?  She  says,  as  you  will  not  suffer  us  to  supply 
your  settlements,  in  any  vessels  but  your  own,  with  those  articles  of 
which  they  stand  so  much  in  need,  that  they  may  starve  for  want  of 
them;  we  "retaliating  on  your  head  the  mischiefs  of  your  own 
policy,"  forthwith  shut  our  ports  against  all  vessels  coming  from  ports 
from  whence  you  exclude  ours.  This  is  the  substance  of  a  bill  lately 
before  congress,  now  passed  into  a  law.  I  have  in  my  hand  a  copy 
of  it,  which  has  just  arrived;  and  I  know  that  the  greatest  alarm  has 
been  excited  by  it  in  our  West  India  colonies,  as  well  as  among 
all  who  are  connected  with  onr  North  American  fisheries.  Here  is  a 
striking  specimen  of  that  obstinate,  perverse  system,  that  refuses  to 
vary  with  the  alteration  of  circumstances;  that  will  not  accommodate 
itself  to  the  progress  of  events,  or  follow  the  course  of  times  and 
seasons,  but  clings  superstitiously  to  what  is  now  inapplicable,  though 
it  may  once  have  been  important;  as  if  time  were  standing  still,  and 
history  were  not  the  record  of  unceasing  change. 

Surveying,  then,  the  derangement  which  pervades  every  branch  of 
the  public  economy;  seeing  how  our  trade  is  cramped  by  the  short- 
sighted operations  of  an  unenlightened  and  senseless  policy;  finding 
what  trifling  relief,  and  that  little  accompanied  with  serious  obstruc- 
tions, it  has  derived  from  the  prosperous  condition  of  onr  foreign 
affairs;  we  may  assuredly  affirm,  that  there  never  was  a  period  in  the 
vicissitudes  of  our  fortunes,  when  British  commerce  might,  with  so 
much  truth,  be  said  to  labour  for  its  existence.  Casting  our  eye  over 
every  point  of  the  compass,  and  scarce  able  to  descry  any  from  which 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  307 

a  solitary  ray  of  comfort  or  of  hope  breaks  in,  it  is  natural  for  this 
House,  to  whose  hands  the  sum  of  affairs  is  committed — for  our  un- 
fortunate brethren,  suffering  under  distresses  that  baffle  description, 
after  bearing  us,  by  their  industry  and  their  patience,  through  the  late 
eventful  struggle — for  the  whole  population  of  the  empire,  exhausted 
by  the  drains  of  a  protracted  warfare,  weighed  down  by  the  pressure 
of  the  intolerable  public  burthens  which  it  has  accumulated,  and  now 
cut  off  from  the  temporary  relief  which  the  unnatural  monopoly  of 
that  war  afforded — it  is,  I  will  say,  but  natural  and  reasonable  for  us 
all  to  direct  our  expectations  towards  any  untried  resources,  any  new 
opening  that  may  present  itself  to  the  industry  of  the  community. 
There  can  be  no  field  of  enterprise  so  magnificent  in  promise,  so  well 
calculated  to  raise  sanguine  hopes,  so  congenial  to  the  most  generous 
sympathies,  so  consistent  with  the  best  and  the  highest  interests  of 
England,  as  the  vast  Continent  of  South  America.  He  must  indeed 
be  more  than  temperate,  he  must  be  a  cold  reasoner,  who  can  glance 
at  those  regions,  and  not  grow  warm.  The  illustrious  historian*  who 
has  described  the  course  of  their  rude  itivaders,  relates,  if  I  mistake 
not,  that  when,  after  unparalleled  dangers,  amid  privations  almost 
insupportable,  through  a  struggle  with  sufferings  beyond  endurance — 
weary,  hungry,  exhausted  with  the  toil,  scared  at  the  perils  of  their 
march,  they  reached  at  length  the  lofty  summits  so  long  the  object  of 
their  anxious  enterprise,  they  stood  at  once  motionless,  in  gratitude 
for  their  success,  in  silent  amazement  at  the  boundless  ocean  stretched 
out  before  them,  and  the  immeasurable  dominion  spread  beneath  their 
feet,  the  scene  of  all  their  fond  expectations. — And  now  the  people  of 
this  country,  after  their  long  and  dreary  pilgrimage,  after  all  the  dan- 
gers they  have  braved,  the  difficulties  they  have  overcome,  the  hard- 
ships they  have  survived,  in  something  like  the  same  state  of  suffering 
and  exhaustion,  have  that  very  prospect  opened  to  their  view!  If 
any  sense  of  justice  towards  them,  any  regard  for  the  dictates  of  sound 
policy,  any  reverence  for  the  real  wisdom  of  past  ages  has  influence 
over  our  councils,  they  must  bo  enabled  and  invited  to  approach  that 
hemisphere,  and  partake  in  the  numberless  benefits  which  flow  from 
such  an  intercourse.  Upon  our  good  pleasure  it  depends  to  command 
the  virgin  resources  of  that  mighty  expanse  of  territory — variegated 
with  every  species  of  soil — exposed  to  all  the  gradations  of  climate — 
rich  from  the  fallow  of  centuries — sufficiently  peopled  to  raise  every 
variety  of  the  produce  we  want,  yet  too  thinly  inhabited  to  threaten 
our  own  industry  with  any  rivalry  —  watered  in  all  directions  by  seas 
rather  than  rivers — studded  with  harbours  through  which  to  distribute 
its  wealth  over  the  Old  World — and  the  native  country  of  thai  where- 
with the  sect  of  practical  politicians  are  best  pleased,  and  their  patron 
saint  propitiated,  gold  and  silver  mines,  already  fruitful,  but  capable  of 
yielding  infinitely  larger  returns  under  the  management  of  European 
skill.  Such  is  the  prospect  which  those  vast  regions  unfold;  a  prospect 
sufficient  to  compensate  every  los-s  you  have  sustained;  an  adequate 

*  Robertson. 


308  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

outlet  for  your  mercantile  enterprise,  though  Europe  were  once  more 
hermetically  sealed  against  you;  though  Buonaparte  were  restored, 
and  his  continental  system  (as  indeed  it  is)  revived:  even  though  Eu- 
rope itself  were,  for  commercial  purposes,  blotted  from  the  map  of  the 
world.  Nor  let  any  man  suppose,  that  all  this  is  the  indulgence  of  a 
heated  fancy:  I  rest  my  expectations  upon  a  careful  examination  of 
facts,  derived  from  authority  altogether  unquestionable.  Some  of 
these  I  shall  state,  for  the  guidance  of  the  honourable  gentlemen  op- 
posite; because  I  well  know,  that  some  folks  will  listen  to  nothing 
which  does  not  come  in  the  shape  of  a  detail. 

The  exports  of  Spanish  America  cannot  amount  to  less  than  eigh- 
teen millions  sterling  in  yearly  value.  Humboldt,  the  justly  celebrated 
traveller,  states  them  at  thirteen  and  a  half  millions,  from  the  custom- 
house returns  in  Old  Spain:  he  reckons  the  exports  of  Buenos  Ayres 
at  £800,000  of  that  sum,  whereas,  on  the  spot,  they  are  reckoned  at 
£1,150,000:  we  may  therefore  assume  that  there  is  a  similar  defi- 
ciency in  the  other  sums  indicated  by  those  documents,  which  would 
make  the  whole  exportation  worth  eighteen  millions,  and  one-third  of 
it  is  from  Mexico.  It  appears  from  official  returns,  indeed,  that  Cadiz 
imported  from  South  America,  in  the  year  1S02,  to  the  amount  of 
eighteen  and  a  quarter  millions,'of  which  twelve  and  a  quarter  mil- 
lions were  in  bullion,  a  trade  pleasing  even  to  the  gentlemen  opposite; 
though  I  must  confess  the  remaining  six  millions  were  only  composed 
of  goods,  and  I  therefore  ought  to  mention  this  sum  with  considerable 
diffidence.  Before  the  late  troubles,  the  annual  coinage  of  Spanish 
America  was  nine  and  a  half  millions  sterling,  and  it  had  trebled  in 
half  a  century.  The  population  of  the  country  is  about  seventeen 
millions,  including  all  classes;  and  it  is  estimated,  that  only  one  person 
in  three  wears  foreign  manufactures.  This  is  probably  considerably 
above  the  truth;  for  of  the  seven  millions  who  inhabit  Mexico,  only 
one  is  understood  to  wear  those  goods;  the  rest  using  a  wretched  stuff 
of  home  manufacture,  only  recommended  by  its  cheapness;  for,  ac- 
cording to  the  remark  of  a  native  writer,  England  is  there  held  to  have 
taught  them  by  her  wars  how  to  make  their  own  clothes.  What  an 
opening  does  such  a  country  afford  for  our  goods!  There  exists  no 
want  of  means  to  buy  them,  if  the  trade  is  so  far  facilitated  as  to  afford 
them  at  reasonable  prices;  and  if  any  proof  were  wanting  how  far  the 
taste  for  using  them  might  be  introduced  by  opening  the  ports,  the 
speculations  at  Buenos  Ayres  abundantly  supplies  it;  for,  though 
injurious  to  the  projectors,  that  traffic  has  certainly  had  the  effect  of 
diffusing  among  the  natives  an  inclination  to  use  British  manufac- 
tures. If  the  southern  continent  generally  were  opened,  it  would 
infallibly  take,  not  only  a  larger  quantity  of  them  than  has  ever 
yet  been  sent  thither,  but  a  swiftly  and  regularly  increasing  quantity, 
which  would  in  a  short  time  leave  the  imagination  behind  that  should 
try  to  calculate  it. 

With  scenes  such  as  these  inviting  our  approach;  with  all  the  pre- 
possessions of  the  natives  in  our  favour;  calling  upon  us  to  sacrifice  no 
principle  or  propriety  of  conduct,  but  only  to  bless  them  with  com- 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  309 

merce  and  with  the  light  of  our  superior  civilization,  in  return  for  the 
treasures  which  they  are  ready  to  pour  into  our  lap:  whence  comes  it 
to  pass,  that,  in  a  season  of  such  pressure  in  all  other  quarters,  this 
splendid  theatre  of  exertion  has  been  overlooked  or  avoided?  It  is  the 
new-fangled,  the  execrable  doctrine  of  legitimacy,  the  love  of  Ferdi- 
nand the  Seventh,  that  has  cut  England  off  from  her  natural  connec- 
tion with  South  America.  In  the  hour  of  our  greatest  need  we  have 
sacrificed  the  certainty  of  relief,  nay  the  brightest  prospects  of  new 
prosperity,  to  the  antiquated  prejudice  against  colonial  independence, 
the  political  caprice  of  making  common  cause  with  the  mother  country 
in  her  endeavours  to  extinguish  the  new-born  liberties  of  settlements, 
now,  thank  God,  in  spite  of  Old  Spain  and  of  ourselves,  almost  severed 
from  her  tyrannical  dominion.  But  for  these  humours,  so  senselessly 
gratified,  our  flag  might  have  floated  in  every  part  of  that  immense 
continent.  We  have  chosen  to  be  supplanted  by  a  nearer  power;  a 
power  as  active  and  skilful  in  speculation  as  ourselves,  and  wholly 
free  from  the  incumbrance  of  those  political  attachments  and  antipa- 
thies, which  so  lamentably  fetter  our  commercial  enterprise.  Only  see 
the  course  into  which  these  doctrines,  or  prejudices,  have  driven  us. 
In  1809,  we  concluded  what  is  commonly  termed  Admiral  Apodaca's 
Treaty,  acknowledging  the  dominion  of  Spain  over  the  Indies,  in 
terms  which  seem  even  to  imply  a  guarantee  of  her  dominion.  An 
article  was  added,  which  bound  the  parties,  as  speedily  as  possible,  to 
conclude  a  treaty  of  commerce;  but  nothing  whatever  has  since  been 
done  towards  the  fulfilment  of  this  stipulation.  In  1814,  after  the 
conduct  of  Ferdinand  had  called  forth,  not  certainly  the  applause  of 
all  enlightened  minds  in  all  countries,  it  pleased  our  government  to 
make  a  convention  with  him,  binding  this  country  to  everything  short 
of  guarantee,  and  expressive  of  deep  anxiety  for  the  subjugation  of 
those  whom  I  call  the  independents,  but  whom  the  treaty  stigmatized 
as  revolted  subjects  of  our  dear  ally.  In  vain  have  the  various  pro- 
vinces of  South  America,  successively,  as  they  threw  off  the  yoke  of 
Spain,  courted  our  notice,  and  offered  us  the  highest  commercial  ad- 
vantages in  return.  As  often  as  the  popular  party  obtained  the  ad- 
vantage in  any  place,  the  ports  were  thrown  open  to  our  trade,  the 
residence  of  Englishmen  protected,  all  intercourse  with  them  cherished. 
If  ever  the  patriots  were  unhappily  defeated,  if  the  "anxious  wishes" 
were  gratified,  which  the  convention  expresses,  on  the  part  of  this 
country,  for  the  restoration  of  the  legitimate  tyranny,  straightway  the 
ports  were  shut  against  us,  and  our  countrymen  would  no  longer 
trade,  or  remain  under  the  dominion  of  our  favourite  ally.  We  were 
offered  by  the  revolted,  as  we  call  them,  in  Venezuela  and  New  Gre- 
nada, an  exclusive  trade  for  twenty  years;  and  their  congress,  be- 
hoving (I  use  their  own  words)  "that  it  is  the  characteristic  disposi- 
tion of  Great  Britain  to  protect  and  assist  oppressed  people,  for  the 
sake  of  justice  and  humanity,"  vainly  fancied  their  cause  might  he 
favourably  viewed  by  us.  The  legitimate  lieutenant  of  the  cro\vn, 
Montalvo,  subdued  them  for  a  while,  and  instantly  proclaimed  what 
he  called  "  the  wise  and  salutary  regulations  of  the  Council  of  the 


310  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

Indies,"  recited  the  services  rendered  by  the  Phillippine  Company  to 
trade  (of  all  things),  and  restored  its  exclusive  monopoly,  to  be  en- 
forced with  additional  rigour.  In  1816,  General  Bolivar  made  offers 
of  the  most  advantageous  nature,  when  on  his  way  to  battle  for  the 
independence  of  the  Caraccas,  which  I  trust  in  God  he  has  before  this 
time  achieved.  All  such  propisitions  were  rejected — seldom  honoured 
with  an  answer — always  treated  with  contempt  or  aversion.  We 
were  for  the  party  of  the  oppressor — we  wished  ill  to  freedom  for  its 
own  sake,  and  out  of  the  love  we  bore  its  enemy,  notwithstanding 
the  advantages  we  might  reap  from  doing  our  duty,  and  helping  its 
struggles.  But  even  this  bad  policy  has  been  pursued  in  a  wavering, 
irresolute,  and  inconsistent  manner.  We  have  sent  a  consul  to 
Buenos  Ayres,  where  he  did  not  present  his  credentials  until  the  pa- 
triots had  succeeded;  he  now  resides  in  his  public  capacity,  transacting 
business  with  the  independent  government.  But  no  one  other  com- 
mercial or  diplomatic  agent  has  been  sent  to  any  part  of  Spanish 
America,  and  even  at  Buenos  Ayres,  the  blockade  imposed  by  the 
royalists  of  Monte  Video,  a  few  years  ago,  was  enforced  by  a  British 
man-of-war.  The  long-established  contraband  trade  with  the  Main 
is  still  encouraged,  at  least  protected,  in  Jamaica.  In  Trinidad  every 
impediment  is  thrown  in  its  way;  the  councils  of  the  government  are 
influenced  by  an  assessor,  who  retired  thither  after  the, massacre  of 
the  independents  in  Caraccas,  where  he  had  been  a  principal  adviser; 
proclamations  are  issued,  prohibiting,  under  the  highest  penalties,  the 
sending,  not  only  of  arms,  but  of  money,  to  the  continent;  and  severe 
measures  have  been  adopted  towards  the  refugees  of  the  independent 
party.  These  measures  have  produced  their  natural  effect;  and  I  un- 
derstand that  the  principal  articles  of  importation  from  the  Spanish 
Main  have  almost  doubled  in  price. 

I  entreat  the  House  farther  to  recollect,  that  the  same  treaty  which 
bound  our  government  to  prevent  all  succour  from  being  given  to  the 
patriots,  bound  Ferdinand  to  abolish  the  Slave  Trade.  We  have 
more  than  performed  our  part  of  the  compact — he  neither  has  taken, 
nor  has  the  slightest  intention  of  taking,  any  one  step  towards  fulfil- 
ling his  part.  I  do  not  contend  that  we  ought  to  make  war  upon  hirn 
for  the  failure;  but  I  think  we  have  some  right  to  have  it  explained; 
and  I  am  clear,  that,  if  he  persists  in  his  departure  from  the  stipulation, 
we  are  set  free  from  our  part  of  the  contract.  That  we  should  ever 
desire  to  recede  from  it  is  more  than  I  can  expect;  for  hitherto  we 
have  done  much  more  than  we  bargained  in  his  behalf  and  against 
the  patriots.  So  bigotted  are  we  to  his  cause,  that  I  have  read  a  me- 
morial, presented  to  His  Majesty's  government  by  three  respectable 
merchants,  who,  having  come  to  this  country  from  Buenos  Ayres 
upon  commercial  business,  and  having  finished  their  arrangements, 
were  ready  to  sail  on  their  return  homeward,  when  they  were  stopped 
by  an  order  from  one  of  the  under  Secretaries  of  State,  refusing  them 
leave  to  proceed,  until  they  should  also  obtain  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor's leave!  Here  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  that  blessed  measure  the 
Alien  Act;  and  a  striking  proof  how  soundly  those  reasoned  against 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  311 

it,  who  urged  that  it  would  be  used  as  a  political  engine  for  gratifying 
the  caprices  of  foreign  courts.  The  treaty,  you  will  observe,  only 
binds  us  to  give  no  assistance  to  the  patriots  in  warlike  stores.  The 
Trinidad  proclamation  threatens  with  banishment,  confiscation,  and 
imprisonment,  all  who  shall  send  money.  The  direct  stipulations 
only  engage  for  neutrality;  the  preamble  expresses  the  warmest  good 
wishes  for  the  success  of  the  tyrant,  while  it  insults  the  patriots  with 
the  name  of  revolters.  lint,  as  if  we  were  resolved  to  go  beyond  both 
the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  this  convention,  to  testify,  by  every  possible 
means,  our  hostility  to  the  cause  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  onr  anx- 
iety to  extinguish  their  rising  liberties,  the  British  Minister  to  the  Uni- 
ted States  has  been  charged,  in  Congress,  with  a  formal  interference 
to  prevent  American  citizens  from  sending  arms  and  ammunition  to 
the  patriots;  and  no  denial  whatever  has  been  given  to  the  statement. 
I  ask  the  Commons  of  England,  if  they  are  prepared  to  patronize 
councils  so  repugnant  at  once  to  the  character  and  the  interests  of 
their  country  as  those  which,  having  excluded  our  trade  from  the 
marts  of  the  Old  World,  deny  it  a  vent  in  the  New,  for  fear  such  an 
intercourse  might  aid  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  and  give  umbrage 
to  the  contemptible  tyrant  of  Spain? 

It  has  often  been  said,  and  I  have  hitherto  assumed  it  as  unques- 
tionable, that  the  excessive  load  of  taxation  is  one  chief  cause  of  the 
depression  under  which  our  commerce  now  labours.  The  House,  I 
am  persuaded,  will  give  me  credit  for  entertaining  no  disposition  to 
mix  this  question  with  popular  clamour  against  burthens  which  must 
be  borne.  But  I  wish  to  remove  some  misconceptions  of  an  opposite 
nature,  which  have  too  frequently  influenced  such  discussions;  and  to 
show  in  what  manner  relief  might  be  given  to  the  public  without  ma- 
terial injury  to  the  revenue.  Some  persons,  whose  general  opinions  I 
profess  to  hold  in  great  respect,  have  lately  supported  a  position  which 
I  take  leave  to  think  a  mere  fallacy;  they  have  maintained,  that  the 
amount  of  the  imposts  laid  upon  goods,  or  upon  whatever  affects  the 
price  of  goods  destined  for  the  foreign  market,  can  be  no  obstacle  to 
their  sale;  and  they  attempt  to  prove  this  strange  paradox  by  the  con- 
sideration, that,  as  we  are  enabled  to  give  a  proportionally  higher 
price  for  those  commodities  which  we  take  in  return,  it  comes  to  the 
same  thing,  whether  the  foreigner  buys  cheap  or  dear  of  us.  A  single 
word  overthrows  this  reasoning  at  once.  Admitting,  for  a  moment, 
that  prices  are  thus  regulated;  the  foreigner  who  has  goods  to  buy, 
will  go  to  those  who  sell  cheaper  than  we  can  do;  and  the  foreigner 
who  has  goods  to  sell  will  come  to  us,  who  can  give  the  best  prices. 
To  suppose  that  those  who  cannot  afford  to  sell  as  cheap  as  others,  will 
have  the  power  of  regulating  the  market  for  their  own  commodities, 
is  as  absurd  as  to  suppose,  that  those  who  can  afford  to  buy  dearer 
than  others,  will  pay  higher  than  is  necessary.  There  is  another  fal- 
lacy, much  more  prevalent,  as  to  the  effects  of  taxation  within  the 
country.  The  money  thus  raised,  we  are  told,  is  spent  by  the  govern- 
ment; and  the  same  consumption  is  maintained  as  if  it  were  expended 
by  the  individuals  who  paid  it.  Thus,  to  take  the  principal  example, 


312  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

it  is  contended,  that  if  we  raise  forty-four  millions  to  pay  the  interest 
and  charges  of  the  debt,  that  sum  is  spent  in  the  country  by  the  stock- 
holders, instead  of  being  spent  by  the  payers  of  taxes.  But  first  of 
all,  it  should  be  recollected,  that  those  sums  are  levied  in  one  part  of 
the  system,  and  generally  expended  in  another,  so  that  the  expenditure 
affords  no  relief  in  the  quarter  where  the  levy  of  the  impost  was  prin- 
cipally felt.  Thus,  when  the  duty  on  sugar  was  raised,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  from  14s.  to  21s.  a  cwt.,  that  sum  was  neither  returned 
to  the  planter  nor  the  consumer;  it  neither  went  to  create  a  new  de- 
mand for  the  article  enhanced,  nor  to  aid  those  who  paid  dearer  for 
it;  it  went  to  support  other  industry  than  that  of  the  grower,  and 
other  resources  than  those  of  the  consumer.  Next  we  must  bear  in 
mind,  that  the  revenue  paid  to  the  stockholder  represents  capital, 
which  has  been  sunk  and  in  great  part  destroyed  by  war— capital 
which  has  been  taken  away  from  profitable  to  unprofitable  employ- 
ment. Nor  is  there  any  fairness  in  the  argument,  that  the  community 
is  not  injured  by  a  mere  transference  of  wealth,  though  none  should 
disappear;  for  the  taking  from  one  class  to  bestow  upon  another,  in- 
jures the  one  more  than  it  benefits  the  other,  even  if  we  had  any  right 
to  strike  such  unjust  balances;  and  how  much  more  does  this  apply 
to  the  case  of  taking  from  an  existing  class,  to  supply  one  which  we 
create,  or  at  least  augment,  for  the  purpose  of  impoverishing  the  other ! 
But  the  truth  is,  that  all  taxes  go  to  support,  either  those  whose  labour 
is  so  much  dead  loss  to  the  community,  or  much  less  productive  than 
it  might  have  been;  whose  numbers  therefore  ought  never  to  exceed 
the  lowest  possible  amount.  The  immense  sums  now  raised,  either 
feed  those  employed  thus  unproductively,  or  pay  those  whose  capital 
has  been  spent  in  the  same  way;  they  are  a  constant  drain  upon  the 
fund  destined  to  support  productive  labour;  they  not  only  prevent  ac- 
cumulation, but  create  a  destruction  of  capital;  they  necessarily  di- 
minish, in  exact  proportion  to  their  enormous  amount,  the  fund  which 
creates  the  effective  demand  for  all  articles  of  consumption.  The  ope- 
ration, too,  of  taxes,  in  driving  abroad  various  branches  of  industry, 
is  unquestionable.  They  give  advantages  to  foreigners  in  many  points 
of  view.  Take,  for  instance,  our  duties  on  silk.  The  raw  pays  5s. 
6cl.,  the  organized  155.  the  pound;  while  in  France  there  is  but  one 
duty  on  both,  and  that  only  2s.  Gd.  The  French  silk  weaver,  then, 
gets  the  article,  in  the  first  stage  of  manufacture,  for  less  than  half 
what  our's  pays  for  the  raw  material,  as  far  as  duty  is  concerned. 
Sometimes  foreigners  are  discontented  by  a  tax  beyond  its  mere 
amount;  the  increase  of,  I  think,  only  half  a  crown  upon  the  policy 
stamp,  drove  them  away  from  Lloyd's,  and  created  several  insurance 
offices  at  Hamburgh  and  in  America.  Sometimes  a  branch  of  trade  is 
irretrievably  destroyed  by  an  injudicious  tax,  or  receives  a  shock  from 
which,  even  after  the  repeal  of  the  duty,  it  never  recovers.  I  am  in- 
formed that  this  has  been  the  case  with  the  watch  trade;  and  the  pre- 
sent appearances  are  quite  consistent  with  this  supposition. 

I  purpose  now  to  illustrate  what  I  have  said  of  the  effects  which 
taxation  produces  upon  consumption,  by  a  reference  to  facts;  and  I 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  313 

shall,  at  the  same  time,  have  an  opportunity  of  showing  that  the  re- 
venue does  not  gain  all  the  trade  loses.  On  the  contrary,  I  suspect 
we  have  been,  in  many  instances,  killing  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden 
eggs;  and  I  greatly  deceive  myself  if  the  right  honourable  gentle- 
man opposite,*  will  not  soon  be  aware,  how  much  truth  there  is  in 
Dean  Swift's  remark,  that  "  in  the  arithmetic  of  the  customs  two  and 
two  do  not  always  make  four." 

I  shall  begin  with  the  duties  on  sugar,  one  of  the  widest  fields  of 
modern  finance.  They  were  in  a  short  time  raised  from  14s.  to  27s.; 
and  if  the  price  reaches  40s.  then  to  30s.  the  cwt.  In  three  years, 
from  1S03  to  1S06,  the  former  duties  were  increased  about  50  per 
cent.  Now  the  average  produce  of  the  old  duties,  for  three  years 
before  that  rise,  was  £2,778,000.  The  produce  of  1804.  after  they 
had  been  raised  20  per  cent.,  was  not  £3,330,000,  as  they  ought  to 
have  been,  had  the  consumption  remained  the  same,  but  only 
£2,537,000;. and  the  average  produce  of  1806  and  1807,  after  the 
whole  50  per  cent,  was  added,  only  gave  £3,133,000  instead  of 
£4,167.000,  which  they  should  have  yielded,  had  the  consumption 
not  fallen  off  since  the  first  rise  of  duty  began;  or  £3,805,000,  which 
they  should  have  yielded,  had  there  been  no  falling  off  since  1804. 
Thus  both  trade  and  revenue  suffered  by  the  great  increase  of  duty 
in  1S03;  and  trade  suffered  severely  by  the  subsequent  augmentations, 
while  revenue  gained  in  a  very  small  proportion.  The  duties  on 
glass  were  nearly  doubled  in  ten  years;  the  produce  of  those  duties 
has  not  sensibly  increased  at  ail.  Here  then  is  a  destruction  of  the 
glass  trade,  to  the  amount  of  one-half  its  whole  bulk,  without  any 
direct  gain  to  the  revenue,  and  with  a  very  certain  loss  to  it  in  other 
branches  connected  with  the  diminished  consumption.  In  this  case 
two  and  two  were  not  found  to  make  four. 

We  have  recently  had  before  us  the  history  of  the  wine  trade,  in  a 
very  excellent  petition  presented  by  my  honourable  friend  below  me,t 
and  well  illustrated  in  the  course  of  his  remarks.  The  duties  on  wine 
have  been  trebled  since  1792;  the  deficiency  in  the  port  of  London 
alone  was  £338,329  last  year,  as  compared  with  1S15.  The  average 
consumption  of  three  years,  ending  1814,  was  above  3,000  pipes  less 
than  the  average  of  three  years,  ending  1808.  In  1804  the  duty  on 
port  wine  was  increased  one-ninth;  the  produce  of  the  duty  that  year 
fell  off  nearly  one-fourth,  instead  of  increasing  a  ninth;  and  in  1805 
it  had  by  no  means  increased  a  ninth  above  its  amount  before  the  rise. 
Here  then  was  a  diminution  of  trade,  an  abridgment  of  the  comforts  of 
the  people,  and  an  injury  to  the  revenue,  first  directly  and  afterwards 
indirectly. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  illustrate  by  example  the  converse  of  the  pro- 
position; for,  unhappily,  the  instances  are  rare  in  which  taxes  have 
been  taken  off  or  diminished:  yet  all  the  cases  where  this  policy  lias 
been  pursued  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  for  which  I  con- 
tend. When  Mr.  Pitt,  by  a  wise  and  politic  measure,  in  the  year 

*  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  f  Mr.  Sharpr. 

VOL.  I. — 27 


314  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

1784,  lowered  the  duty  on  tea  from  56  to  12  per  cent.,  the  revenue 
rose  considerably.  The  consumption  could  hardly  have  been  increased 
six-fold,  but  smuggling  was  prevented  to  an  extent  which,  with  the 
increased  consumption,  made  the  revenue  upon  the  whole  a  gainer. 
When  in  1787,  the  duty  on  wine  and  spirits  was  lowered  50  percent., 
the  revenue  was  improved;  the  trade  must  therefore  have  doubled, 
the  comforts  of  the  people  been  materially  increased,  and  the  other 
sources  of  revenue  have  benefitted  in  the  same  proportion.  But  the 
progress  of  the  duties  and  revenue  upon  coffee  illustrates  every  part 
of  the  question  in  a  manner  peculiarly  striking.  In  1805  they  were 
raised  one-third,  and  that  year  their  produce  fell  off  an  eighth,  instead 
of  increasing  a  third;  in  1S06  they  had  increased  but  only  a  sixteenth; 
so  that  the  consumption  had  diminished  above  a  fourth.  But  it  was 
at  length  found,  that  this  tax  had  been  overdone,  and  it  was  lowered 
from  2s.  to  7d.  the  cwt.  Mark  the  immediate  effects  of  this  step.  The 
average  produce  of  the  high  duty,  for  the  three  years  before  it  was 
altered,  was  £166,000;  the  average  of  the  low  duty,  for  three  years 
after  the  alteration,  was  £195,000;  so  that,  as  addition  has  the  effect 
sometimes  of  diminishing,  subtraction  seems  to  increase  the  sum, 
in  the  arithmetic  of  finance.  The  augmentation  here  showed  an 
increase  of  consumption  between  four  and  fivefold;  and,  in  Scot- 
land, 1  find,  that  it  increased  tenfold.  It  is  not,  then,  on  mere  specu- 
lative grounds  that  I  recommend  the  finance  ministers  to  retrace  their 
steps,  and  to  turn  their  attention  from  devising  ways  of  augmenting 
the  taxes  (an  object,  by  the  by,  which  they  may  pore  over  as  long  as 
they  please,  and  will  never  be  able  to  accomplish)  to  discover  the  best 
means  of  lessening  the  public  burthens.  I  have  shown  from  facts, 
that  taxes  may  be  repealed  with  positive  and  immediate  benefit  to  the 
revenue;  I  think  no  man  hardy  enough  to  deny,  that  the  diminution 
would  contribute  mainly  towards  restoring  our  commerce  to  its  healthy 
state,  and  re-establishing  general  comfort  and  prosperity. 

The  very  collection  of  our  present  enormous  revenue  occasions 
evils  of  a  serious  nature  to  every  class  of  the  people.  All  of  us  are 
acquainted  with  the  inconveniences  of  ordinary  occurrence;  but  few 
are  aware  how  severely  they  press  upon  trade.  To  the  difficulties  of 
collecting  such  a  revenue  are  principally  owing  the  monopolies  of  the 
dock  companies,  by  which  the  whole  of  the  West  Indian  commerce, 
arid  several  of  the  other  great  branches  of  trade,  are  subjected  to 
heavy  duties,  and  irksome  delays.  Our  merchants  complain  of  much 
dilatory  and  troublesome  proceeding  at  the  custom-house;  they  must 
wait  for  a  person  who  has  more  to  do  than  he  can  manage;  they 
must,  on  every  trifling  difference,  apply  to  the  board;  a  variety  of 
annoying  steps  must  be  gone  through;  bonds,  with  all  the  costs  inci- 
dent to  them,  are  needlessly  multiplied;  and,  in  short,  everything 
begins  in  phigue,  and  ends  in  expense.  It  is  very  true,  that  better 
arrangement  might  remove  some  portion  of  these  hardships,  but  the 
greater  part  of  them  are  essential  to  the  system.  You  cannot  mul- 
tiply indefinitely  officers  and  boards,  in  whom  so  large  a  confidence 
is  of  necessity  reposed;  you  cannot,  in  a  word,  collect  such  a  revenue 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  315 

as  ours,  without  infinite  vexation  and  delay,  beyond  the  actual  bur- 
then of  the  impost.  Such  prodigious  levies,  with  their  direct  effects, 
hamper  and  distress  our  trade  in  various  ways,  which  it  would  be 
impossible  to  estimate  in  money. 

Sir,  I  have  trespassed  beyond  all  bounds,  1  fear,  upon  the  patience 
of  the  House;  but  I  cannot  prevail  on  myself  to  sit  down  without 
soliciting  your  attention  to  that  part  of  the  subject  which  I  have  as 
yet  only  glanced  at  slightly.  The  House,  I  doubt  not,  have  already 
perceived  that  I  refer  to  the  entire  abandonment  of  all  care  for  the 
commercial  interests  of  this  country  in  the  administration  of  our 
foreign  affairs.  After  a  war  of  unexampled  suffering  and  exertion 
has  been  crowned  with  success  far  beyond  the  most  sanguine  expec- 
tation, and  lifted  the  name  and  the  influence  of  the  nation  to  a  height 
without  any  parallel  in  the  proudest  eras  of  its  past  history,  we  na- 
turally ask,  how  it  comes  to  pass,  that  the  glorious  peace  which  our 
efforts  have  purchased  comes  without  restoring  our  foreign  trade; 
that  we  are  still  shut  out  from  most  parts  of  the  continent,  as  if  war 
was  still  waged  against  our  commerce;  and  that  day  after  day,  fresh 
obstacles  spring  up  to  it  in  the  quarters  where  it  ought  to  meet  the 
kindest  encouragement?  It  is  not  in  France  merely,  where  we  have 
long  been  accustomed  to  expect  a  return  of  jealousy,  that  our  inter- 
course enjoys  no  facilities.  In  what  corner  of  Europe  does  it  possess 
them?  Is  it  not  plain,  that  wilh  those  very  allies  for  whom  we  have 
fought  and  conquered — for  whose  cause  we  have  been  lavish  of  our 
treasure  and  prodigal  of  our  best  blood — from  whom  neither  domi- 
nion nor  indemnity  has  ever  been  asked  in  return — even  with  those 
allies  we  have  never  had  influence  enough  to  obtain  the  advantage 
or  the  convenience  of  one  single  custom-house  regulation  in  our 
favour?  Has  anything  been  done  by  these  men,  with  all  their  influ- 
ence over  the  councils  of  Europe?  Has  anything  been  attempted  by 
them?  I  am  aware  that  Russia  has  reduced  her  tariff  in  many  arti- 
cles since  the  termination  of  the  war;  but  I  also  know,  that,  generally 
speaking,  our  commerce  labours  under  duties  so  nearly  amounting  to 
a  prohibition,  as  to  throw  it  into  the  hands  of  contraband  traders,  and 
exclude  the  fair  and  honourable  dealing  of  the  British  merchant.  I 
know,  that,  from  Memel  to  the  southernmost  part  of  Poland,  along 
the  whole  line  of  the  Russian  frontier,  the  traffic  is  driven  by  means 
of  Jews  and  other  smugglers,  as  it  used  to  be  under  Buonaparte's  con- 
tinental system:  that  now,  as  formerly,  they  have  their  great  entrepot 
at  Brody,  and  were  the  purchasers  of  almost  all  the  bills  drawn  last 
summer  for  the  sales  of  wheat  exported  through  Odessa  to  the  Medi- 
terranean. Russia,  however,  is  more  favourable  to  our  commerce  than 
any  of  our  other  allies,  and  some  improvement  might  be  hoped  for  in 
that  quarter,  were  we  not,  exactly  in  that  quarter,  met  most  adversely 
by  the  other  branch  of  our  policy,  of  which  I  have  already  said  so  much, 
the  prohibitory  scheme  of  our  own  laws,  by  which  we  are  prevented 
from  taking  in  exchange  most  of  the  articles  of  Russian  produce.  But 
Prussia,  with  whom  we  made  common  cause — who  owes  to  our  efforts, 
next  to  those  of  her  gallant  people,  the  restoration  of  her  independence 


316  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

— almost  directly  excludes  ns  from  all  intercourse  with  her  dominions. 
Duties  amounting  to  a  prohibition  are  laid  upon  the  importation  of  our 
goods:  and  for  such  as  are  carried  through  the  territory  to  be  sold  else- 
where, there  are  only  two  ports  of  landing  assigned,  and  a  transit  pay- 
ment of  8|  per  cent,  imposed.  How  then  does  the  matter  stand  in  Spain 
— in  that  country  which  our  gigantic  exertions  have  saved — whose  de- 
fence, in  money  alone,  beside  subsidies,  and  beside  expenses  incurred 
elsewhere,  has  left  a  sum  of  accounts  still  unaudited,  amounting,  as  we 
heard  the  other  day,  to  above  fifty  millions?  Why,  in  return  for  this 
it  appears,  that  with  the  cabinet  of  Madrid  we  possess  just  no  inte- 
rest whatsoever,  either  commercial  or  political!  This  is  a  picture  of 
ingratitude  on  the  one  hand,  and  imbecility  on  the  other,  disgusting  as 
regards  Spain — humiliating  to  our  own  government — provoking  to 
the  country. 

The  sense  of  the  Spanish  nation  was,  with  more  or  less  correctness, 
represented  by  the  Corles;  while  its  authority  continued,  a  free  inter- 
course with  us  was  studiously  promoted.  The  Cortes  was  put  down, 
freedom  extinguished,  and  the  beloved  usurper  restored.  Instantly 
old  monopolies  were  revived  and  enforced,  and  enlarged  with  new 
powers,  all  strictly  hostile  to  British  interests.  Additional  obstruction 
was  given  to  our  trade,  notwithstanding  Apodaca's  treaty  had,  on  our 
part,  almost  guaranteed  the  integrity  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  and, 
on  theirs,  promised  a  speedy  commercial  arrangement.  Nay,  after 
our  ministers  had,  in  support  of  Ferdinand,  gone  farther  than  was 
lawful  for  the  rulers  of  a  free  and  honourable  nation  like  England; 
after  they  had  been  guilty  of  the  most  indecent  subserviency  to  his 
criminal  views,  abondoned  the  high  tone  they  used  to  assume  with 
France  while  fighting  his  battle,  looked  on  with  perfect  indifference 
at  his  iniquities,  stooped  to  become  the  parasites  of  his  caprices,  and 
pander  for  him  the  degradation  of  his  country  and  the  slavery  of  his 
unfortunate  subjects,  our  own  gallant  companions  in  arms — how  were 
they  requited  for  those  labours  in  the  humiliation  of  the  English 
name?  In  a  "little  month"  after  the  signature  of  the  second  treaty, 
an  edict  was  issued  extending  the  monopoly  of  the  Philippine  Com- 
pany, so  as  to  exclude  all  British  cottons;  and  we  had  hardly  sent  out 
the  Order  of  the  Garter  to  our  ally,  when,  in  return  of  the  courtesy, 
this  decree  was  backed  and  enforced  by  new  regulations;  and  the 
commercial  privileges  of  Biscay,  so  favourable  to  all  foreign  trade, 
were,  by  an  act  of  mere  violence  upon  its  ancient  constitution,  annul- 
led! Beside  the  rigorous  prohibition  of  cottons,  woollens  pay  26  and 
43  per  cent,  for  the  two  finer  qualities,  and  as  high  as  130  for  the 
second,  a  burthen  which  the  fair-trader  cannot  bear.  It  thus  happens, 
that  our  commerce  with  Spain  is  in  a  worse  condition  than  with  al- 
most any  other  foreign  state,  and  consigned,  in  a  very  great  measure, 
to  contraband  traders.  Not  fifteen  parts  in  the  hundred  of  our  goods 
consumed  in  that  country  are  calculated  to  pay  the  duties  imposed; 
the  remaining  seventy-five  parts  are  smuggled;  and  about  £200,000 
are  paid  yearly  to  Portugal  for  duties  upon  the  goods  sent  thither  in 
order  to  be  covertly  introduced  into  Spain. 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  317 

• 

If  we  turn  our  attention  to  Austria,  again  we  meet  with  nothing 
but  prohibition.  Since  the  peace,  for  which  we  fought  side  by  side 
with  her,  and  conquered  more  for  her  than  ourselves,  she  has  either 
excluded,  or  loaded  almost  to  the  point  of  exclusion,  all  the  articles 
in  which  we  can  trade  with  her  fine  dominions.  Our  manufactures 
generally  are  forbidden;  so  are  cotton  yarns  below  a  certain  fineness; 
and  it  is  not  much  above  half  a  year  since  the  duties  upon  all  finer 
yarns  were  suddenly  doubled.  It  should  seem  as  if,  from  all  our  exer- 
tions to  serve  the  Continental  powers,  whether  looking  after  honour 
or  profit,  we  were  fated  to  reap  nothing  but  loss  and  disgrace. 

I  would  now  call  the  attention  of  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon,* 
to  some  things  which,  though  within  his  department,  it  is  very 
possible  he  may  not  be  aware  of:  because  it  is  quite  possible,  that 
those  military  gentlemen,  whom  he  has  planted  as  ministers  and  con- 
suls in  different  places,  how  skilled  soever  in  their  own  profession, 
may  have  failed  to  make  any  reports  upon  commercial  arrangements, 
as  things  very  much  out  of  their  line,  if  not  below  their  notice.  Does 
the  noble  lord  now  hear,  for  the  first  time,  and  if  he  does,  I  am  sure 
it  should  make  a  deep  impression  on  his  mind,  that  punishment  has 
so  swiftly  followed  guilt?  Does  he  for  the  first  time  hear,  that  the 
fruits  have  already  been  gathered  of  the  two  worst  acts  in  that  sys- 
tem of  wicked  policy,  of  which  the  noble  lord  is  the  advocate  in  this 
House,  as  he  was  the  adviser  elsewhere — that  the  very  persons,  in 
whose  behalf  those  deeds  were  done,  have  even  now  set  themselves 
in  direct  hostility  to  the  interests  of  this  country.  If  he  lias  not  be- 
fore heard  this,  it  may  prove  a  useful  lesson  to  him,  and,  at  all  events, 
I  trust  it  will  not  be  thrown  away  upon  public  men  generally,  if  I 
make  known  how  those  very  individuals,  for  whose  sake  the  noble 
lord  sacrificed  the  honour  of  his  country,  and  abandoned  its  sound- 
est policy  towards  foreign  states;  those  with  whom,  after  pulling 
down  the  usurper,  lie  plunged  into  the  deepest  of  all  the  public 
crimes  that  stained  his  course,  and  gave  the  ground  for  resisting 
him — that  they  now  execrate  or  contemn  the  man  who  made  himself 
the  accomplice  of  their  infamous  projects.  I  suspect  the  noble  lord's 
conscience  already  whispers  to  what  I  allude.  I  guess  he  is  aware, 
that  I  am  going  to  name  Ragusa  and  Genoa — Rugusa  and  Genoa! 
where  the  name  of  England  received  a  stain  that  all  the  victories  of 
Lord  Wellington  cannot  wipe  away,  nor  the  services  of  the  longest 
life  of  the  greatest  minister  that  ever  lived  could  alone  for.  I  will 
speak  of  Ragusa  first:  it  is  the  smaller  state,  and  for  that  reason  I 
dwell  upon  it  the  most;  because,  if  there  be  such  a  thing  as  political 
morality,  and  political  justice — if  those  words  have  any  sense — they 
can  only  mean,  that  the  rights  and  the  liberties  of  the  weaker  states 
are  to  be  protected  by  the  more  powerful;  because,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  public  crime,  the  olfeiice  of  one  nation  against  another,  must 
always  consist  of  the  strong  trampling  down  the  feeble.  Therefore, 
if  the  spot  in  question  were  San  Marino,  instead  of  Ragusa,  I  should 

•  Lord  C'astlercagh. 
27* 


318  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

the  rather  cite  the  example,  and  deem  the  oppression  of  that  smaller 
community  a  still  more  flagrant  outrage  upon  justice — a  baser  dere- 
liction of  public  principle.  Ragusa  had  flourished  for  centuries  under 
the  protection  of  the  Ottoman  Porte,  and  nominally,  under  its  do- 
minion. The  Porte  was  the  ally  of  England.  Often  had  we  blazon- 
ed Buonaparte's  attack  upon  Egypt  as  among  the  worst  of  his  atro- 
cities, because  France  was  in  amity  with  the  Turk,  and  there  could 
be  no  motive  for  the  enterprise  but  the  love  of  gain,  or  the  lust  of 
power.  Nay,  his  sending  Sebastiani  to  Egypt  after  the  peace  of 
Amiens,  was  one  of  the  principal  grounds  alleged  by  us  for  so  sud- 
denly renewing  the  war.  Then,  I  demand,  were  we  at  war  with  the 
Ottoman  Porte  during  the  black  transactions  of  Vienna?  Were  we 
not  in  friendship  and  alliance  with  it?  Did  we  once  consult  it  about 
the  cession  of  Ragusa  to  Austria?  What  is  more  important,  did  we 
ever  consult  the  Ragusans  upon  that  cession?  Have  we  not,  without 
the  least  regard  to  the  rights  of  a  free  people,  parcelled  out  their  coun- 
try at  our  own  discretion;  and  from  the  liberty  they  were  enjoying 
and  the  independence  they  were  proud  of,  delivered  them  over  to 
what  they  deemed  subjugation  and  tyranny?  Had  they,  the  Ragu- 
sans, the  people  of  Ragusa,  the  smallest  share  in  the  deliberations  of 
the  famous  Congress?  They  had  no  minister  there — they  had  made 
no  communication  to  the  assembled  negotiators — they  had  received 
none  from  thence.  Their  existence  was  hardly  known,  except  by  the 
gallant  example  they  had  set,  of  shaking  off,  without  any  aid,  the  hated 
empire  of  France.  And  how  did  we  requite  them  for  this  noble  effort, 
nay,  this  brilliant  service  in  what  we  cantingly  termed  "the  common 
cause  of  nations?"  We,  who  had  sounded  to  the  uttermost  corners 
of  the  earth  the  alarum  of  Buonaparte's  ambition — we  who,  in  the 
name  of  freedom  and  independence,  had  called  on  the  people  of  the 
whole  globe,  and  on  the  Ragusans  among  the  rest,  (and  they  at  least 
had  answered  the  summons,)  to  rise  up  against  him  and  overthrow 
his  usurped  dominion — we  requited  them  by  handing  them  over,  in 
the  way  of  barter,  as  slaves  to  a  power  of  which  they  detested  the 
yoke!  But  let  the  noble  lord,  and  let  this  House,  and  let  the  world, 
mark  the  retribution  which  has  followed  this  flagitious  act.  Austria, 
extending  her  commercial  regulations  to  all  her  new  acquisitions,  has 
absolutely  shut  our  trade  out  of  that  very  Ragusa  which  we  had  be- 
trayed into  her  hands!  and  thus  has  the  noble  lord  received  his  pun- 
ishment upon  the  spot  on  which  he  had  so  shamefully  sacrificed  the 
honour  of  his  country! 

Sir.  if  any  page  in  the  history  of  the  late  Congress  be  blacker  than 
another,  it  is  that  which  records  the  deeds  of  the  noble  lord  against 
Genoa.  When  I  approach  this  subject,  and  reflect  on  the  powerful 
oratory,  the  force  of  argument  as  well  as  of  language,  backed  by  the 
high  authority  of  virtue,  a  sanction  ever  deeply  felt  in  this  Mouse, 
once  displayed  in  the  cause  of  that  ill-fated  republic,  by  tongues  now 
silent,  but  which  used  to  be  ever  eloquent  where  public  justice  was 
to  be  asserted,  or  useful  truth  fearlessly  inculcated,  I  feel  hardly  capa- 
ble of  going  on.  My  lasting  sorrow  for  the  loss  we  have  sustained  is 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  319 

made  deeper  by  the  regret,  that  those  lamented  friends*  lived  not  to 
witness  the  punishment  ef  that  foul  conduct  which  they  solemnly  de- 
nounced. The  petty  tyrant  to  whom  the  noble  lord  delivered  over 
that  ancient  and  gallant  people  almost  as  soon  as  they  had,  at  his  call, 
joined  the  standard  of  national  independence,  has  since  subjected  them 
to  the  most  rigorous  provisions  of  his  absurd  code — a  code  directed 
especially  against  the  commerce  of  this  country,  and  actually  less  un- 
favourable to  France. 

Thus  then,  it  appears,  that  after  all,  in  public  as  well  as  in  private 
— in  state  affairs  as  in  the  concerns  of  the  most  humble  individuals, 
the  old  maxim  cannot  safely  be  forgotten,  that  "honesty  is  the  best 
policy."  In  vain  did  the  noble  lord  flatter  himself,  that  his  subser- 
viency to  the  unrighteous  system  of  the  Congress  would  secure  him 
the  adherence  of  the  courts  whom  he  made  his  idols.  If  lie  had 
abandoned  that  false,. foreign  system — if  he  had  acted  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  nation  whom  he  represented,  and  stood  forward  as  the 
advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  people — the  people  would  have  been 
grateful.  He  preferred  the  interests  and  the  wishes  of  the  courts,  and 
by  the  courts  he  is  treated  with  their  wonted  neglect.  To  his  crimes 
against  the  people  all  over  Europe — to  his  invariable  surrender  of 
their  cause — to  his  steady  refusal  of  the  protection  which  they  had  a 
right  to  expect,  and  which  they  did  expect,  from  the  manly  and  gene- 
rous character  of  England — it  is  owing,  that  if,  at  this  moment,  you 
traverse  the  Continent  in  any  direction  whatever,  you  may  trace  tho 
noble  lord's  career,  in  the  curses  of  the  nations  whom  he  has  betrayed, 
and  the  mockery  of  the  courts  who  have  inveigled  him  to  be  their 
dupe.  It  is  in  vain  we  attempt  to  deceive  ourselves.  No  truth  can 
be  more  evident  than  this,  that  if  instead  of  patronizing  abuse,  tyran- 
ny and  plunder,  we  had  exhibited  a  noble,  gallant,  English  spirit  in 
behalf  of  popular  rights  and  national  independence — if  instead  of 
chiming  in  with. and  aping  their  narrow,  wretched  principles,  we  had 
done  our  utmost  to  enlighten  the  policy  of  foreign  courts — we  should 
have  had  to  treat  with  a  number  of  constitutional  governments,  di- 
rected by  sound  views  of  policy,  atid  disposed  to  adopt  arrangements 
generally  beneficial,  instead  of  the  capricious  and  spiteful  regulations 
which  now  annoy  us  in  every  quarter. 

Only  compare  the  conduct  of  America  towards  us  with  that  of  the 
King  of  Sardinia,  of  the  Austrian  Emperor,  of  Ferdinand  of  Spain. 
From  America  we  had  no  right  to  expect  peculiar  favour.  Her 
struggle  for  independence  we  had  treated  as  a  rebellion.  It  was 
successful;  and  we  never  altogether  forgave  it,  but  entertained  towards 
her  feelings  approaching  sometimes  to  contempt,  sometimes  to  hatred. 
I  am  very  far  from  thinking  the  Americans  untainted  by  similar  preju- 
dices. They  have  perhaps  been  foolish  enough  to  cherish  a  little 
spite  in  return  for  ours.  Nor  do  I  give  their  government  credit  for 
being  wholly  above  tho  influence  of  this  animosity;  but  experience 
has  shown,  that,  in  all  popular  governments,  the  true  interests  of  the 

*  Messrs.  \Vbilbrcad  and  Horncr,  in  the  debate  upon  Mr.  Lambton'a  motion. 


320  MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS. 

community  must  in  the  main  be  consulted,  and  in  the  great  bulk  of 
cases  supersede  every  lesser  consideration.  Now,  we  can  never,  as 
a  trading  nation,  desire  more  than  that  all  other  countries  should  adopt 
the  line  of  commercial  policy  best  suited  to  the  interests  of  the  body 
of  the  people  in  each.  The  American  government  has,  not  from 
regard  for  us,  but  for  the  sake  of  its  own.  subjects,  pursued  a  course 
favourable  to  the  mutual  intercourse  of  the  two  states.  It  is  allowing 
the  manufactories  created  by  our  absurd  system  gradually  to  decline, 
because  industry  can  there  be  more  beneficially  employed  in  other 
pursuits.  With  a  few  very  trifling  exceptions,  the  market  of  the 
United  States  will,  in  a  few  months,  again  be  completely  restored  to 
us,  as  far  as  the  competition  of  the  American  manufacture  is  con- 
cerned, and  it  is  plainly  the  only  considerable  relief  which  we  can 
expect  for  a  long  time  to  come.  In  France  we  might  have  obtained 
something  like  the  same  advantages.  There  was  a  time  when  the 
feelings  of  the  people  ran  strongly  in  our  favour;  but,  instead  of  culti- 
vating such  dispositions,  we  have  adopted  a  policy  destructive  of  every 
kindly  impression,  and  calculated  to  alienate  the  affections  of  all  who 
retain  the  slightest  regard  for  national  honour.  I  may  appeal  to  any 
one  who  has  been  in  France  since  the  war,  I  will  even  ask  the  gen- 
tlemen opposite,  if  they  have  not  observed  a  most  intimate  connection 
between  the  commercial  and  the  political  prejudices  which  now  pre- 
vail against  us  ?  Talk  to  them  of  a  commercial  treaty,  or  generally  of 
trade  with  us,  and  their  answer  is,  nor  can  we  marvel  at  it,  "  while 
you  keep  130,000  men  in  arms  quartered  upon  our  territory,  we  will 
not  treat  with  you  at  all.  While  you  rule  us  with  a  rod  of  iron,  you 
shall  get  no  gold  from  us  by  trading.  While  you  exact  tribute  directly 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  you  must  not  hope  to  obtain  it  circuitously 
through  the  channels  of  traffic."  These  feelings  are  not  peculiar  to 
France;  depend  upon  it,  as  long  as  the  same  fatal  policy  is  pursued, 
British  commerce  will  be  excluded  from  the  Continent — excluded 
more  effectually  than  by  Buonaparte's  decrees  and  his  armies,  because 
now,  for  the  first  time,  its  ports  are  sealed  against  us  by  the  govern- 
ments, with  the  cordial  assent  of  the  people. 

I  hope  and  trust  that  this  country  may,  before  it  is  too  late,  retrace 
the  steps  which  it  has  been  taking  towards  destruction,  under  the  gui- 
dance of  the  noble  lord.  I  pray  that  we  may  live  to  see  England  once 
more  holding  her  steady  course  in  the  direction  of  a  liberal,  a  manly, 
an  honest,  an  English  policy.  May  the  salutary  change  be  wrought, 
because  our  honour  and  fame  demand  it;  but  if  no  higher  consid- 
erations can  influence  our  councils — if  all  worthier  motives  have  lost 
their  force — may  we  at  the  least  consult  our  safety;  adhere  to  that 
which  is  right,  because  it  is  shown  to  be  beneficial;  and  abandon  the 
path  of  dishonour,  because  it  is  leading  us  to  ruin.  I  move  you,  sir, 
to  resolve — 

"  1.  That  the  Trade  and  Manufactures  of  the  country  are  reduced 
to  a  state  of  such  unexampled  difficulty  as  demands  the  most  serious 
attention  of  this  House. 

"2.  That  those  difficulties  are  materially  increased  by  the  policy 


MANUFACTURING  DISTRESS.  321 

pursued  with  respect  to  our  foreign  commerce,  and  that  a  revision  of 
this  system  ought  forthwith  to  be  undertaken  by  the  House. 

"  3.  That  the  continuance  of  these  diiliculties  is  in  a  great  degree 
owing  to  the  severe  pressure  of  taxation  under  which  the  country 
labours,  and  which  ought,  by  every  practicable  means,  to  be  lightened. 

"  4.  That  the  system  of  foreign  policy  pursued  by  his  Majesty's 
Ministers  has  not  been  such  as  to  obtain  lor  the  people  of  this  country 
those  commercial  advantages  which  the  influence  of  Great  Britain  in 
foreign  courts  fairly  entitled  them  to  expect." 


SPEECH 


OJi 


INTRODUCTION. 

IMPORTANCE  ATTACHED  TO  DEBATES  ON  THE  ARMY  ESTIMATES. 

THE  subject  of  the  Army  estimates  used  at  all  periods  of  the  war  to  bring  on  one 
of  the  most  important,  if  not  the  most  important,  debates  of  the  session.  It  was  in 
fact  like  a  State  of  the  Nation,  and  some  of  the  most  interesting,  if  not  the  greatest, 
speeches  that  have  ever  been  delivered  in  Parliament,  were  made  upon  those  occa- 
sions. The  conduct  of  the  war  formed  of  course  the  main  topic  of  such  debates, 
although  whatever  else  in  the  state  of  public  affairs  bore  upon  the  existing  hostili- 
ties, naturally  came  into  the  discussion. 

In  1810  the  war  was  at  an  end;  but  the  Army  estimates  continued  to  afford  a 
subject  of  much  animated  debate,  because  they  raised  the  whole  question  of  the 
Peace  Establishment,  and  were  in  fact  a  State  of  the  Nation.  The  following  speech, 
delivered  on  that  occasion,  was  most  imperfectly  reported,  as  in  those  days  gene- 
rally happened  to  speeches  made  in  Committees  of  the  whole  Mouse.  It  has  been 
revised  from  notes  made  at  the  time;  but  the  passage  respecting  the  punishment  of 
Jacobinism  is  given  from  memory,  and  is  believed  to  be  much  less  full  than  the 
original  was.  The  speecli  had  a  greater  success  than  any  other  made  by  Mr. 
Brougham  in  parliament;  of  which  a  memorial  is  preserved  in  the  accounts  of  the 
Parliamentary  debates,  which  mention  that  it  was  "loudly  cheered  from  all  sides 
of  the  House"  at  its  conclusion — a  thing  of  very  ordinary  occurrence,  indeed  of 
daily  occurrence  now-a-days,  but  which  hardly  ever  happened  in  former  times. 


SPEECH 

IN  SUPPORT  OF 

MR.    CALCRAFT'S   AMENDMENT, 

To  substitute  £192,638,  4s.  9(7.  for  £385,276,  9s.  Gd.,  the  Estimate  for 
the  Household  Troops. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
MARCH  11,  1816. 


MR.  BROGDEN, — Although  I  on  a  former  occasion  delivered  my  opi- 
nion generally  upon  these  Estimates,  yet  I  am  anxious  now  to  state 
my  sentiments  in  more  detail  upon  a  subject  of  such  great  importance, 
and  the  rather  because  of  the  defiances  flung  out  from  the  other  side 
to  all  of  us,  to  go  into  the  examination  of  it.  I  stand  forward  to  take 
up  the  gauntlet  which  has  thus  been  thrown  down;  and  I  affirm  that 
the  more  minutely  you  scrutinize  the  several  items  of  this  bill  brought 
in  against  the  country,  the  more  objectionable  you  will  find  them.  I 
object,  in  the  first  place,  altogether  to  the  large  force  of  guards  which 
it  is  intended  to  keep  up;  and  I  even  protest,  though  that  is  a  trifle  in 
comparison,  but  I  do  protest  against  the  new-fangled  French  name  of 
Household  Troops,  under  which  they  are  designated, — a  name  borrow- 
ed from  countries  where  this  portion  of  the  national  force  is  exclusive- 
ly allotted  to  protect  the  Prince  against  a  people  in  whom  he  cannot 
trust — is  the  appointed  means  given  him  to  maintain  his  arbitrary  pow- 
er—  is  the  very  weapon  put  into  his  hands  to  arm  him  against  the 
liberties  of  his  country.  However  appropriate  the  appellation  may 
be  there,  it  cannot  be  endured  in  this  nation,  where  the  Sovereign 
ought  never  to  have  any  reason  for  distrusting  his  subjects,  and  never 
can  be  entrusted  with  any  force  except  that  which  the  defence  of  his 
people  requires.  But  the  name  is  of  far  less  importance  than  the  thing. 
Has  the  noble  lord*  made  out  anything  like  a  case  for  raising  the 

*  Lord  Castlereagh 


ARMY  ESTIMATES.  325 

amount  of  this  force  to  more  than  double  of  what  it  was  in  1791?  If 
any  such  proof  had  boon  given,  I  should  not  have  been  found  among 
the  opposers  of  the  proposition.  But  the  truth  is,  that,  with  all  the 
professed  anxiety  of  the  noble  lord  and  his  friends  to  go  through  the 
estimates,  item  by  item;  with  all  their  pretended  readiness  and  even 
desire  to  court  full  investigation;  with  all  the  bluster  of  their  defiance 
to  us, and  the  bravado  more  than  once  used,  that  we  durst  not  grapple 
with  the  question  in  detail;  they  have  themselves  wholly  shrunk  from 
the  inquiry,  tied  from  all  particulars,  and  abandoned  all  attempts  at 
showing,  in  any  one  instance,  from  any  one  conclusion,  with  a  view 
to  any  single  circumstance  in  the  present  situation  of  the  country, 
that  there  is  the  shadow  of  a  ground  for  this  increase  of  force.  We 
had  the  subject  debated  generally  indeed,  but  at  great  length,  a  few 
days  ago,  on  bringing  up  the  report;  and  it  had  been  repeatedly  be- 
fore the  House  on  former  occasions.  We  have  now  renewed  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  motion  for  going  into  this  committee.  We  have  been 
in  the  committee  for  some  hours.  At  this  very  advanced  stage  of  the 
debate  have  we  arrived,  and  though  all  the  members  of  the  govern- 
ment have  addressed  tbemselves  to  the  question,  many  of  them  once 
and  again,  yet  I  defy  any  one  to  point  out  a  single  fact  that  has  been 
stated,  a  single  argument  urged,  a  single  topic  used,  to  prove  the 
necessity  which  alone  can  justify  the  scale  these  estimates  are  framed 
upon.  It  has  indeed  been  said  that  2400  of  the  guards  are  destined 
for  France,  where  I  suppose  the  army  of  occupation  is  requited  in 
order  to  demonstrate  how  tranquil  our  famous  negotiators  have  left 
the  whole  Continent — how  perfectly  successful — how  absolutely  final 
— the  grand  settlement  of  all  Europe  is,  upon  which  we  so  greatly  plume 
ourselves,  and  upon  which,  above  all,  the  political  reputation  of  the 
noble  lord  is  built.  But  suppose  I  pass  over  this,  and  do  not  stop 
to  ask  what  reason  there  can  be  for  these  2400  men  being  guards, 
and  not  simply  troops  of  the  line — those  troops  required  to  maintain 
our  final  and  conclusive  settlement,  and  enforce  the  profound  tranquil- 
lity in  which  Europe  is  everywhere  en  wrapt;  suppose  I  admit,  lor 
argument  sake,  and  in  my  haste  to  get  at  the  main  question,  that  these 
2400  guards  may  be  necessary — what  is  to  be  said  of  all  the  rest? 
There  remain  no  less  than  7600  to  account  for.  What  reason  has 
been  assigned,  what  attempt  ever  made  by  the  noble  lord  to  assign 
a  reason  why  .'3600  more;  guards  should  be  wanted  more  than  in  Mr. 
Pitt's  celebrated  establishment  of  1792?  I  desire,  however,  to  have 
this  explained — I  demand  the  ground  for  this  enormous  augmentation 
of  what  you  call  your  "  household  force"  —  I  have  a  right  to  know 
why  this  increase  is  called  for  —  I  call  for  the  reason  of  it,  and  the  rea- 
son I  will  have.  Deduct  all  you  require,  or  say  you  require,  for  France; 
what  has  happened  since  Mr.  Pitt's  time  to  justify  you  in  nearly 
doubling  the  number  of  the  guards?  That  is  the  question,  and  it 
must  be  answered  to  Parliament  and  to  the  country — answered,  not 
by  vague  generalities — by  affected  anxiety  for  discussion, —  by  shallow 
pretences  of  desire  to  have  the  fullest  investigation, — by  hhiMerini? 
defiances  to  w.v — and  swaggering  taunts  that  we  dare  not  investigate. 
VOL.  i. — 28 


326  ARMY  ESTIMATES. 

We  do  investigate — we  do  advance  to  the  conflict — we  do  go  into  the 
details — we  do  enter  upon  the  items  one  by  one;  and  the  first  that 
meets  us  on  the  very  threshold,  and  as  soon  as  we  have  planted  a  foot 
upon  it,  is  this  doubling  of  the  guards.  Then  how  do  you  defend  that? 
Where  is  the  ground  for  it?  What  is  there  to  excuse  it  or  to  explain? 
Mr.  Pitt  found  4000  enough  in  1792 — then  what  is  there  to  make 
7600  wanting  now?  Look  at  home — Is  the  country  less  peaceable 
now  than  it  was  then?  Quite  the  contrary.  It  was  then  disturbed;  it 
is  now  profoundly  quiet.  Then,  although  there  was  no  insurrection, 
nor  anything  that  could  be  called  by  such  a  name,  unless  by  those 
who  sought  a  pretext  for  violating  the  constitution,  and  by  suspend- 
ing its  powers  securing  their  own,  yet  still  no  man  could  call  the  state 
of  the  country  tranquil — universal  discontent  prevailed,  here  and  there 
amounting  to  disaffection,  and  even  breaking  out  into  local  disorders; 
— rumours  of  plots  floated  everywhere  about; — whilst  meetings  were 
held; — unmeasured  language  was  used; — wild  schemes  were  broach- 
ed;— dangerous  associations  were  formed.  Though  no  man  had  a  right 
to  say  that  the  government  was  entitled  to  pursue  unconstitutional 
courses  for  meeting  those  evils,  every  man  felt  obliged  to  admit  that 
there  was  reason  for  much  anxiety — that  the  aspect  of  things  was 
lowering — the  alarm  was  a  natural  feeling — that  the  duty  of  the 
executive  was  to  be  vigilant  and  to  be  prepared.  The  fears  of  men 
whose  loyalty  was  unquestioned,  though  their  wisdom  might  be  doubt- 
ed, led  them  a  good  deal  farther  than  this.  Meetings  were  encouraged 
to  address  the  crown,  and  testify  the  resolution  to  support  its  preroga- 
tives. Bonds  were  entered  into  for  defending  the  constitution,  be- 
lieved to  be  threatened.  Pledges  of  life  and  fortune  were  given  to 
stand  by  the  established  order  of  things,  and  resist  to  the  death. all 
violence  that  might  be  directed  against  it.  Parliament  was  not  alone 
in  countenancing  these  measures,  proceeding  from  alarm.  Both 
Houses  addressed  the  throne;  both  joined  in  asserting  the  existence 
of  great  peril  to  the  constitution;  both  declared  that  the  public  peace 
•was  in  danger  from  the  designs  of  the  evil-disposed.  To  rend  the 
language  of  those  times,  both  in  public  meetings  and  their  addresses, 
and  in  Parliamentary  debates,  arid  resolutions  of  the  two  Houses,  any 
one  would  have  thought  that  a  wide-spreading  disaffection  had  shot 
through  the  land;  that  the  materials  of  a  vast  rebellion  were  every 
where  collected;  and  that  the  moment  was  tremblingly  expected  when 
some  spark  lighting  on  the  mass,  should  kindle  the  whole  into  a  flame, 
and  wrap  the  country  in  destruction.  Yet  in  that  state  of  things,  and 
with  these  testimonies  to  its  menacing  aspect,  Mr.  Pitt,  at  the  very 
time  when  he  was  patronizing  the  doctrines  of  the  alarmists,  encou- 
raging their  movements,  and  doing  all  he  could  to  increase  rather  than 
allay  their  fears;  when  he  was  grounding  on  the  panic  that  prevailed, 
those  measures  out  of  which  his  junction  with  a  part  of  the  Whigs 
arose,  whereby  he  succeeded  in  splitting  that  formidable  party — yet 
never  dreamt  of  such  a  force  as  we  are  now  told  is  necessary  for  pre- 
serving the  public  peace.  He  proposed  no  more  than  4000  guards; 
and  held  that  amount  to  be  sufficient. 


ARMY  ESTIMATES.  327 

We  are  challenged  to  go  into  particulars;  we  are  defied  to  grapple 
with  the  question  in  detail.  Then  I  come  to  particulars  and  details 
with  the  noble  lord.  The  main  duty  of  the  guards  is  the  London 
service:  that  is  the  district  to  which  their  force  is  peculiarly  applicable. 
To  keep  the  peace  of  this  great  metropolis  is  their  especial  province; 
and  I  grant  the  high  importance  of  such  functions.  Then  I  ask  when 
London  was  ever  more  quiet  than  at  this  moment?  When  were  its 
numerous  inhabitants  ever  more  contented,  more  obedient  to  the 
laws,  more  disinclined  to  anything  like  resistance?  At  what  period 
of  our  history  was  the  vast  mass  of  the  people  by  whom  we  are  sur- 
rounded, over  more  peaceably  disposed,  more  unlikely  to  engage  in 
anything  approaching  to  tumult,  than  now?  Why,  they  have  even 
given  over  going  to  public  meetings;  the  very  trade  of  the  libeller 
languishes,  if  it  be  not  at  end,  in  the  general  tranquillity  and  stagna- 
tion of  these  quiet  times.  All  is  silence,  and  indifference,  and  dulness, 
and  inertness,  and  assuredly  inaction.  To  the  unnatural  and  costly 
excitement  of  war,  has  succeeded  a  state  of  collapse,  perhaps  from  ex- 
haustion, but  possibly  from  contrast  alone.  The  mighty  events  of  the 
latter  days,  when  the  materials  for  the  history  of  a  country  were 
crowded  into  the  space  of  a  few  months,  have  left  the  public  mind 
listless  and  vacant.  The  stimulus  is  withdrawn,  and  change  has  had 
its  accustomed  sedative  influence.  They  who  had  been  gazing  till 
their  eyes  ached,  and  they  doubted  if  they  were  awake,  upon  the 
most  prodigious  sights  ever  presented  in  the  political  and  the  moral 
world— upon  empires  broken  up  and  formed  anew — dynasties  extin- 
guished or  springing  up — the  chains  cast  off  by  not  merely  a  people, 
but  a  hemisphere — and  half  the  globe  suddenly  covered  with  free  and 
independent  states — wars  waged,  battles  fought,  compared  to  which 
the  heroes  of  old  had  only  been  engaged  in  skirmishes  and  sallies — 
treaties  made  which  disposed  of  whole  continents,  and  span  the  fate  of 
millions  of  men — could  hardly  fail  to  find  the  contemplation  of  peace 
flat,  stale,  and  unprofitable.  The  eye  that  had  been  in  vain  attempt- 
ing to  follow  the  swift  march  of  such  gigantic  events,  could  not  dwell 
with  much  interest  upon  the  natural  course  of  affairs,  so  slow  in  its 
motion  as  to  appear  at  rest.  And  hence,  if  ever  there  was  a  lime  of 
utter  inaction,  of  absolute  rest  to  the  public  mind,  it  is  the  hour  now 
chosen  for  supposing  that  there  exists  some  danger  which  requires  de- 
fensive preparation,  and  the  increase  of  the  garrison  with  which  the 
listless  and  motionless  mass  of  the  London  population  may  be  over- 
awed. Why,  my  honourable  and  learned  friend*  has  had  nobody 
to  prosecute  for  some  years  past.  It  is  above  two  years  since  he 
has  filed  an  ex-offieio  information,  unless  in  the  exchequer  against 
smugglers.  Jacobinism,  the  bugbear  of  1 792,  has  for  the  past  six  years 
and  more  never  been  even  named.  I  doubt  if  allusion  to  it  has  been 
made  in  this  House,  even  in  a  debate  upon  a  King's  speech,  since 
Mr.  Pitt's  death.  And  to  produce  a  Jacobin,  or  a  specimen  of  any 
other  kindred  tribe,  would,  I  verily  believe,  at  this  time  of  day,  balllo 

• 

*  The  Attorney  General. 


328  ARMY  ESTIMATES. 

the  skill  and  the  perseverance  of  the  most  industrious  and  most  zea- 
lous collector  of  political  curiosities,  to  be  found  in  the  whole  kingdom. 
What,  then,  is  the  danger — what  the  speculation  upon  some  possible 
and  expected,  but  non-existing  risk — which  makes  it  necessary  at  this 
time  to  augment  the  force  applied  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  metrop- 
olis? But  I  fear  there  are  far  other  designs  in  this  measure,  than 
merely  to  preserve  a  peace  which  no  man  living  can  have  the  bold- 
ness to  contend  is  in  any  danger  of  being  broken,  and  no  man  living 
can  have  the  weakness  really  to  be  apprehensive  about.  Empty 
show,  vain  parade,  will  account  for  the  array  being  acceptable  in 
some  high  quarters;  in  others,  the  force  may  be  recommended  by  its 
tending  to  increase  the  powers  of  the  executive  government,  and  ex- 
tend the  influence  of  the  prerogative.  In  either  light,  it  is  most  dis- 
gustful, most  hateful  to  the  eye  of  every  friend  of  his  country,  and 
every  one  who  loves  the  constitution — all  who  have  any  regard  for 
public  liberty,  and  all  who  reflect  on  the  burthens  imposed  upon  the 
people. 

But  if  the  internal  state  of  the  country  offers  not  the  shadow  of  jus- 
tification for  this  increase  of  force,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  state  of 
foreign  affairs?  Above  all,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  comparison  be- 
tween the  face  of  those  affairs  now,  and  its  aspect  in  1792?  That 
was  really  a  period  of  external  danger.  Never  was  there  greater 
room  for  anxiety;  never  had  the  statesmen,  not  of  England  only,  but 
of  all  Europe,  more  cause  for  apprehension  and  alarm — more  occasion 
for  wakefulness  to  passing  events — more  ground  for  being  prepared 
at  every  point.  A  prodigious  revolution  had  unchained  twenty-six 
millions  of  men  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  gallant,  inventive,  enterpri- 
sing, passionately  fond  of  military  glory,  blindly  following  the  phan- 
tom of  national  renown.  Unchained  from  the  fetters  that  had  for 
ages  bound  them  to  their  monarchs,  they  were  speedily  found  to  be 
alike  disentangled  from  the  obligations  of  peaceful  conduct  towards 
their  neighbours.  But  they  stopped  not  here.  Confounding  the  abuses 
in  their  political  institutions  with  the  benefits,  they  had  swept  away 
every  vestige  of  their  former  polity;  and,  disgusted  with  the  rank 
growth  of  corruption  to  which  religion  had  afforded  a  shelter,  they 
tore  up  the  sacred  tree  itself,  under  whose  shade  France  had  so  long 
adored  and  slept.  To  the  fierceness  of  their  warfare  against  all  au- 
thority civil  and  religious  at  home,  was  added  the  fiery  zeal  of  prose- 
lytism  abroad,  and  they  had  rushed  into  a  crusade  against  all  existing 
governments,  and  on  behalf  of  all  nations  throughout  Europe,  pro- 
claiming themselves  the  redressers  of  every  grievance,  and  the  allies 
of  each  people  that  chose  to  rebel  against  their  rulers.  The  uniform 
triumph  of  these  principles  at  home,  in  each  successive  struggle  for 
supremacy,  had  been  followed  by  success  almost  as  signal  against  the 
first  attempts  to  overpower  them  from  without — and  all  the  thrones 
of  the  Continent  shook  before  the  blast  which  had  breathed  life  and 
spirit  into  all  the  discontented  subjects  of  each  of  their  trembling  pos- 
sessors. This  was  the  state  of  things  in  1792,  when  Mr.  Pitt  admin- 
istered the  affairs  of  a  nation,  certainly  far  less  exposed  either  to  the 


ARMY  ESTIMATES.  329 

force  or  to  the  blandishments  of  the  revolutionary  people,  but  still  very 
far  from  being  removed  above  the  danger  of  either  their  arls  or  their 
arms;  and  the  existence  of  peril  in  both  kinds,  the  fear  of  France  me- 
nacing the  independence  of  her  neighbours,  the  risk  to  our  domestic 
tranquillity  from  a  party  at  home  strongly  sympathizing  with  her 
sentiments,  were  the  topics  upon  which  both  lie  and  his  adherents 
were  most  prone  to  dwell  in  all  their  discourses  of  state  affairs — Yet 
in  these  circumstances,  the  country  thus  beset  with  danger,  and  the 
peace  thus  menaced,  both  from  within  and  from  without,  Mr.  Pitt 
was  content  with  half  the  establishment  we  are  now  required  to 
vote!  But  see  only  how  vast  the  difference  between  the  present 
aspect  of  affairs  and  that  which  I  have  been  feebly  attempting  to 
sketch  from  the  records  of  recent  history,  no  page  of  which  any  of  us 
can  have  forgotten!  The  ground  and  cause  of  all  peril  is  exhausted — 
the  object  of  all  the  alarms  that  beset  us  in  1792  is  no  more — France 
no  longer  menaces  the  independence  of  the  world,  or  troubles  its 
repose.  By  a  memorable  reverse,  not  of  fortune,  but  of  divine  judg- 
ments, meting  out  punishment  to  aggression,  France,  overrun,  reduced, 
humbled,  has  become  a  subject  of  care  and  protection,  instead  of  alarm 
and  dismay.  Jacobinism  itself,  arrested  by  the  Directory,  punished 
by  the  Consuls,  reclaimed  by  the  Emperor,  has  become  attached  to  the 
cause  of  good  order,  and  made  to  serve  it  with  the  zeal,  the  resources, 
and  the  address  of  a  malefactor  engaged  by  the  police  after  the  term 
of  his  sentence  had  expired.  All  is  now,  universally  over  the  face  of 
the  world,  wrapt  in  profound  repose.  Exhausted  with  such  gigantic 
exertions  as  man  never  made  before,  either  on  the  same  scale  or  with 
the  like  energy,  nations  and  their  rulers  have  all  sunk  to  rest.  The 
general  slumber  of  the  times  is  every  where  unbroken;  and  if  ever 
a  striking  contrast  was  offered  to  the  eye  of  the  observer  by  the  aspect 
of  the  world  at  two  different  ages,  it  is  that  which  the  present  posture 
of  Europe  presents  to  its  attitude  in  Mr.  Pitt's  time,  when,  in  the 
midst  of  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  foreign  enemies  and  domestic 
treason  vying  together  for  the  mastery,  and  all  pointed  against  the 
public  peace,  he  considered  a  military  establishment  of  half  the 
amount  now  demanded,  to  be  suflicient  for  keeping  the  country  quiet, 
and  repelling  foreign  aggression,  as  well  as  subduing  domestic  revolt. 
Driven  from  the  argument  of  necessity,  as  the  noble  lord  seemed 
to  feel  assured  he  should  be  the  moment  any  one  examined  the  case, 
he  skilfully  prepared  for  his  retreat  to  another  position,  somewhat  less 
exposed,  perhaps,  but  far  enough  from  being  impregnable.  You  can- 
not,  he  said,  disband  troops  who  have  so  distinguished  themselves  in 
the  late  glorious  campaigns.  This  topic  he  urged  for  keeping  up  the 
guards.  But,  I  ask,  which  of  our  troops  did  not  equally  distinguish 
themselves?  What  regiment  engaged  in  the  wars  failed  to  cover 
itself  with  their  glories?  This  argument,  if  it  lias  any  force  at  all, 
may  be  used  against  disbanding  a  single  regiment,  or  discharging  a. 
single  soldier.  Nay,  even  those  who  by  the  chances  of  war  had  no 
opportunity  of  displaying  their  courage,  their  discipline,  and  their  /eal, 
would  be  extremely  ill  treated,  if  they  were  now  to  be  dismissed  the 

28* 


330  ARMY  ESTIMATES. 

service,  merely  because  it  was  their  misfortune  not  to  have  enjoyed 
the  same  opportunity  with  others  in  happier  circumstances,  of  sharing 
in  the  renown  of  our  victories.  It  is  enough  to  have  been  deprived 
of  the  laurels  which  no  one  doubts  they  would  equally  have  won  had 
they  been  called  into  the  field.  Surely,  surely,  they  might  justly 
complain  if  to  the  disappointment  were  added  the  being  turned  out 
of  the  service,  which  no  act  of  theirs  had  dishonoured.  I  am  now 
speaking  the  language  of  the  noble  lord's  argument,  and  not  of  my 
own.  He  holds  it  to  be  unfair  towards  the  guards  that  they  should 
be  reduced,  after  eminently  meritorious  service — he  connects  merit 
with  the  military  state — disgrace,  or  at  least  slight,  with  the  loss  of 
this  station.  He  holds  the  soldier  to  be  preferred,  rewarded,  and  dis- 
tinguished, who  is  retained  in  the  army — him  to  be  neglected  or  ill- 
used,  if  not  stigmatized,  who  is  discharged.  His  view  of  the  consti- 
tution is,  that  the  capacity  of  the  soldier  is  more  honourable,  and 
more  excellent  than  that  of  the  citizen.  According  to  his  view,  there- 
fore, the  whole  army  has  the  same  right  to  complain  with  the  guards. 
But  his  view  is  not  my  view;  it  is  not  the  view  of  the  constitution; 
it  is  not  the  view  which  I  can  ever  consent  to  assume  as  just,  and  to 
inculcate  into  the  army  by  acting  as  if  it  were  just.  I  never  will 
suffer  it  to  be  held  out  as  the  principle  of  our  free  and  popular 
government,  that  a  man  is  exalted  by  being  made  a  soldier,  and 
degraded  by  being  restored  to  the  rank  of  a  citizen.  I  never  will  allow 
it  to  be  said,  that  in  a  country  blessed  by  having  a  civil  and  not  a 
military  government,  by  enjoying  the  exalted  station  of  a  constitu- 
tional monarchy,  and  not  being  degraded  to  that  of  a  military  despot- 
ism, there  is  any  pre-eminence  whatever  in  the  class  of  citizens  which 
bears  arms,  over  the  class  which  cultivates  the  arts  of  peace.  When 
it  suits  the  purpose  of  some  argument  in  behalf  of  a  soldiery  who  have 
exceeded  the  bounds  of  the  law  in  attacking  some  assembled  force  of 
the  people,  how  often  are  we  told  from  that  bench  of  office,  from  the 
Crown  side  of  the  bar,  nay,  from  the  bench  of  justice  itself,  that  by 
becoming  soldiers,  men  cease  not  to  be  citizens,  and  that  this  is  a  glo- 
rious peculiarity  of  our  free  constitution?  Then  what  right  can  the 
noble  lord  have  to  consider  that  the  retaining  men  under  arms  and  in 
the  pay  of  the  state,  is  an  exaltation  and  a  distinction,  which  they 
cease  to  enjoy  if  restored  to  the  status  of  ordinary  citizen??  I  read 
the  constitution  in  the  very  opposite  sense  to  the  noble  lord's  glos5. 
I  have  not  sojourned  in  congresses  with  the  military  representatives 
of  military  powers — I  have  not  frequented  the  courts,  any  more  than 
I  have  followed  the  camps  of  these  potentates — I  have  not  lived  in 
the  company  of  crowned  soldiers,  all  whose  ideas  are  fashioned  upon 
the  rules  of  the  drill  and  the  articles  of  the  fifteen  manoeuvres — all 
whose  estimates  of  a  country's  value  are  framed  on  the  number  of 
troops  it  will  raise — and  who  can  no  more  sever  the  idea  of  a  subject 
from  that  of  a  soldier,  than  if  men  were  born  into  this  world  in  com- 
plete armour,  as  Minerva  started  from  Jupiter's  head.  My  ideas  are 
more  humble  and  more  civic,  and  the  only  language  I  know,  or  can 
speak,  or  can  understand  in  this  House,  is  the  mother  tongue  of  the 


ARMY  ESTIMATES.  331 

old  English  constitution.  I  will  speak  none  other — I  will  suffer  none 
other  to  be  spoken  in  my  presence.  Addressing  the  soldier  in  that 
language — which  alone  above  all  other  men  in  the  country  he  ought 
to  know — to  which  alone  it  peculiarly  behoves  us  that  he,  the  armed 
inan,  should  be  accustomed — I  tell  him,  "  You  have  distinguished 
yourself — all  that  the  noble  lord  says  of  you  is  true — nay,  under  the 
truth — you  have  crowned  yourself  with  the  glories  of  war.  But 
chiefly  you,  the  guards,  you  have  outshone  all  others,  and  won  for 
yourselves  a  deathless  fame.  Now,  then,  advance  and  receive  your 
reward.  Partake  of  the  benefits  you  have  secured  for  your  grateful 
country.  None  are  better  than  you  entitled  to  share  in  the  blessings, 
the  inestimable  blessings  of  peace — than  you  whose  valour  has  con- 
quered it  for  us.  Go  back  then  to  the  rank  of  citizens,  which,  for  a 
season,  you  quitted  at  the  call  of  your  country.  Exalt  her  glory  in 
peace,  whom  you  served  in  war;  and  enjoy  the  rich  recompense  of 
all  your  toils  in  the  tranquil  retreat  from  dangers,  which  her  gratitude 
bestows  upon  you." — 1  know  this  to  be  the  language  of  the  consti- 
tution, and  time  was  when  none  other  could  be  spoken,  or  would 
have  been  understood  in  this  House.  I  still  hope  that  no  one  will 
dare  use  any  other  in  the  country;  and  least  of  all  can  any  other  be 
endured  as  addressed  to  the  soldiery  in  arms,  treating  them  as  if  they 
were  the  hired  partisans  of  the  Prince,  a  caste  set  apart  for  his  service, 
and  distinguished  from  all  the  rest  of  their  countrymen,  not  a  class  of 
the  people  devoting  themselves  for  a  season  to  carry  arms  in  defence 
of  tlie  nation,  and  when  their  services  are  wanted  no  more,  retiring 
naturally  to  mix  with  and  be  lost  in  the  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

But  it  has  been  said  that  there  is  injustice  and  ingratitude  in  the 
country  turning  adrift  her  defenders  as  soon  as  the  war  is  ended,  and 
we  are  tauntingly  asked,  "Is  this  the  return  you  make  to  the  men 
who  have  fought  your  battles?  When  the  peace  comes  which  they 
have  conquered,  do  you  wish  to  starve  them  or  send  them  oil'  to 
sweep  the  streets?"  I  wish  no  such  thing;  I  do  not  desire  that  they 
should  go  unrequited  for  their  services.  But  I  cannot  allow  that  the 
only,  or  the  best,  or  even  a  lawful  mode  of  recompensing  them,  is  to 
keep  on  foot  during  peace  the  army  which  they  compose,  still  less 
that  it  is  any  hardship  whatever  for  a  soldier  to  return  into  the  rank 
of  citizens  when  the  necessity  is  at  an  end,  which  alone  justified  his 
leaving  those  ranks.  Nor  can  I  believe  that  it  is  a  rational  way  of 
showing  our  gratitude  towards  the  army,  whose  only  valuable  service 
has  been  to  gain  us  an  honourable  peace,  to  maintain  an  establish- 
ment for  their  behoof,  which  must  deprive  the  peace  of  all  its  value, 
and  neutralize  the  benefits  which  they  have  conferred  upon  us. 

See,  too,  the  gross  inconsistency  of  this  argument  with  your  whole 
conduct.  How  do  you  treat  the  common  sailors  who  compose  our 
invincible  navy?  All  are  at  once  dismissed.  The  Victory,  which 
carried  Nelson's  flag  to  his  invariable  and  undying  triumphs,  is  actu- 
ally laid  up  in  ordinary,  and  her  crew  disbanded  to  seek  a  precarious 
subsistence  where  some  hard  fortune  may  drive  them.  Who  will 
have  the  front  to  contend  that  the  followers  of  Nelson  are  loss  the 


332  ARMY  ESTIMATES. 

glory  and  the  saviours  of  their  country  than  the  soldiers  of  the  guards? 
Yet  who  is  there  candid  enough  to  say  one  word  in  their  behalf,  when 
•we  hear  so  much  of  the  injustice  of  disbanding  our  army  after  its 
victories?  Who  has  ever  complained  of  that  being  done  to  the  sea- 
men, which  is  said  to  be  impossible  in  the  soldier's  case?  But  where 
is  the  difference?  Simply  this:  That  the  maintenance  of  the  navy  in 
time  of  peace,  never  can  be  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the  country, 
like  the  keeping  up  a  standing  army;  and  that  a  naval  force  gives  no 
gratification  to  the  miserable,  paltry  love  of  show  which  rages  in 
some  quarters,  and  is  to  be  consulted  in  all  the  arrangements  of  our 
affairs,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  higher  and  worthier  consideration. 

After  the  great  constitutional  question  to  which  I  have  been  direct- 
ing your  attention,  you  will  hardly  bear  with  me  while  I  examine 
these  estimates  in  any  detail.  This,  however,  I  must  say,  that  nothing 
can  be  more  scandalous  than  the  extravagance  of  maintaining  the 
establishment  of  the  guards  at  the  expense  of  troops  of  the  line, 
which  cost  the  country  so  much  less.  Compare  the  charge  of  2000 
guards  with  an  equal  number  of  the  line,  and  you  will  find  the  dif- 
ference of  the  two  amounts  to  above  £10,000  a  year.  It  is  true  that 
this  sum  is  not  very  large,  and,  compared  with  our  whole  expendi- 
ture, it  amounts  to  nothing.  But  in  a  state  burthened  as  ours  is, 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  small  saving;  the  people  had  far 
rather  see  millions  spent  upon  necessary  objects,  than  thousands 
squandered  unnecessarily,  and  upon  matters  of  mere  superfluity;  nor 
can  anything  be  more  insulting  to  their  feelings,  and  less  bearable  by 
them,  than  to  see  us  here  underrating  the  importance  even  of  the 
most  inconsiderable  sum  that  can  be  added  to,  or  taken  from  the  in- 
tolerable burthens  under  which  they  labour. 

As  for  the  pretext  set  up  to-night,  that  the  question  is  concluded  by 
the  vote  of  last  Friday,  nothing  can  be  more  ridiculous.  This  House 
never  can  be  so  bound.  If  it  could,  then  may  it  any  hour  be  made 
the  victim  of  surprise,  and  the  utmost  encouragement  is  held  out  to 
tricks  and  manoeuvres.  If  you  voted  too  many  men  before,  you  can 
now  make  that  vote  harmless  and  inoperative  by  withholding  the  sup- 
plies necessary  for  keeping  those  men  on  foot.  As  well  may  it  be 
contended  that  the  House  is  precluded  from  throwing  out  a  bill  on 
the  third  reading,  because  it  affirmed  the  principle  by  its  vote  on  the 
second,  and  sanctioned  the  details,  by  receiving  the  committee's 
report. 

The  estimate  before  you  is  £385,000,  for  the  support  of  S100 
guards.  Adopt  my  honourable  friend's  amendment,*  and  you  reduce 
them  to  about  4000,  which  i&  still  somewhat  above  their  number  in 
the  last  peace. 

Sir,  I  have  done.  I  have  discharged  my  duty  to  the  country — I 
have  accepted  the  challenge  of  the  ministers  to  discuss  the  question — 
I  have  rnet  them  fairly,  and  grappled  with  the  body  of  the  argument. 
I  may  very  possibly  have  failed  to  convince  the  House  that  this  estab- 

*  Mr.  Calcraft. 


ARMY  ESTIMATES.  333 

lisliment  is  enormous  and  unjustifiable,  whether  we  regard  the  bur- 
thcried  condition  of  the  country,  or  the  tranquil  state  of  its  affairs  at 
home,  or  the  universal  repose  in  which  the  world  is  lulled,  or  the 
experience  of  former  times,  or  the  mischievous  tendency  of  large 
standing  armies  in  a  constitutional  point  of  view,  or  the  dangerous 
nature  of  the  arguments  urged  in  their  support  upon  the  present 
occasion.  All  this  I  feel  very  deeply;  and  I  am  also  very  sensible 
how  likely  it  is  that  on  taking  another  view  you  should  come  to  an 
opposite  determination.  Be  it  so — I  have  done  my  duty — I  have 
entered  my  protest.  It  cannot  be  laid  to  my  charge  that  a  force  is  to 
be  maintained  in  profound  and  general  peace,  twice  as  great  as  was 
formerly  deemed  sufficient  when  all  Europe  was  involved  in  domestic 
troubles,  and  war  raged  in  some  parts  and  was  about  to  spread  over 
the  whole.  It  is  not  my  fault  that  peace  will  have  returned  without 
its  accustomed  blessings — that  our  burthens  are  to  remain  undimin- 
ished — that  our  liberties  are  to  be  menaced  by  a  standing  army  without 
the  pretence  of  necessity  in  any  quarter  to  justify  its  continuance. 
The  blame  is  not  mine  that  a  brilliant  and  costly  army  of  household 
troops,  of  unprecedented  numbers,  is  allowed  to  the  Crown,  without 
the  shadow  of  use,  unless  it  be  to  pamper  a  vicious  appetite  for  mili- 
tary show,  to  gratify  a  passion  for  parade,  childish  and  contemptible, 
unless,  indeed,  that  nothing  can  be  an  object  of  contempt  which  is  at 
once  dangerous  to  the  constitution  of  the  country,  and  burthensome 
to  the  resources  of  the  people.  I  shall  further  record  my  resistance  to 
this  system  by  my  vote;  and  never  did  I  give  my  voice  to  any  propo- 
sition with  more  hearty  satisfaction  than  I  now  do  to  the  amendment 
of  my  honourable  friend, 


HOLY     ALLIANCE. 


INTRODUCTION. 

HOLY  ALLIANCE — EMPEROR  ALEXANDER — LORD    CASTLEREAOH 

MR.  HORNER. 

SOON  after  the  settlement  of  affairs  subsequent  to  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  the 
three  sovereigns  who  had  borne  the  principal  part  in  the  military  operations  by 
which  the  war  was  closed,  entered  into  certain  engagements  with  each  other  by  a 
convention,  the  object  of  which  they  asserted  to  be  the  preservation  of  the  peace 
just  concluded.  They  named  this  the  "  Christian  Treaty,"  and  their  alliance  the 
"  Christian  Alliance ,-"  but  it  soon  came  to  be  called  by  the  world,  as  well  as  by  the 
parties  themselves,  the  "  Holy  Jllliance"  It  bore  date  at  Paris,  the  2Glh  Sep- 
tember 1815;  and  is  certainly  a  document  of  a  very  singular  description,  and  of  a 
most  suspicious  character.  The  contracting  parties,  the  two  Emperors,  and  the 
Prussian  King,  begin  by  acknowledging  their  obligations  to  Heaven  for  their  late 
deliverance,  and  stating  that  the  interence  drawn  by  them  from  thence,  is  the  ne- 
cessity of  rulers  forming  their  conduct  upon  the  "sublime  truths"  which  "the 
holy  religion  of  our  Saviour  teaches;"  and  they  further  declare,  that  they  have  no 
other  object  in  this  treaty  than  to  proclaim  before  the  world  their  resolution  to  take 
for  their  guide  the  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion — namely  justice,  charity,  and 
peace.  The  articles  of  the  Treaty  are  three.  In  the  first,  the  parties  bind  them- 
selves to  remain  united  as  brethren  in  the  "  bonds  of  true  and  indissoluble  fra- 
ternity," "  to  lend  each  other  aid  and  assistance  as  fellow-countrymen,  on  all  occa- 
sions and  in  all  places,  and  conducting  themselves  towards  their  armies  and 
subjects  as  fathers  of  families,  to  lead  them  in  the  same  spirit  of  fraternity  to 
protect  religion,  peace,  and  justice." — The  second  article  declares  the  only  principle 
in  force  between  the  throe  governments  to  be  doing  each  other  reciprocal  service 
and  testifying  mutual  good-will;  and  it  avows  that  they  all  form  branches  of  "one 
family,  one  Christian  nation,  having  in  reality  no  other  sovereign  than  Him  in  whom 
alone  are  found  all  the  treasures  of  love,  science,  and  infinite  wisdom;  that  is  to 
say,  God  our  Divine  Saviour,  the  word  of  the  Most  High,  the  word  of  life."  The 
article  concludes  with  earnestly  recommending  to  their  people  the  "  strengthening 
themselves  more  and  more  every  day  in  the  principles  and  the  exercise  of  the 
duties  which  the  Divine  Saviour  has  taught  mankind." — The  third  article  an- 
nounces, that  whatever  powers  shall  "  solemnly  avow  the  same  sacred  principles, 
and  acknowledge  the  importance  of  the  above  truths  being  suffered  to  exercise  full 
influence  over  the  destinies  of  mankind,  will  be  received  with  equal  ardour  and 
affection  into  this  Holy  Alliance."  Contrary  to  all  the  accustomed  forms  of  diplo- 
macy, the  treaty  was  only  signed  by  the  three  monnrchs  themselves,  without  any 
mention  whatever  bring1  made  of  ambassadors,  ministers,  or  other  representatives, 
as  engaged  in  the  negotiation. 

When  this  extraordinary  transaction  carno  to  be  known,  it  naturally  excited  groat 
attention,  and  gave  birth  to  many  suspicions.  That  these  powerful  monarchs 
should  make  a  great  treaty  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  avow  their  religious  fervour, 
and  preach  the  Christian  doctrine  for  tho  benefit  of  their  subjects,  and  should  form 
an  alliance,  having  no  other  object  than  to  profess  together  those  doctrines,  and  in 
concert  to  practice  them,  seemed  altogether  unaccountable.  This,  of  itself,  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  awaken  grave  suspicions  that  much  moro  was  meant  by 


336  INTRODUCTION. 

this  confederacy  than  met  the  eye.  But  to  this  was  to  be  added  the  previous  rela- 
tions of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  which  had  subsisted  between  the  same 
princes,  and  far  from  ending  in  sermons  upon  the  duties  of  a  Christian  man,  had 
brought  into  the  field  of  battle  above  half  a  million  of  Christian  men  in  full  armour. 
There  were  indeed  some  parts  of  this  curious  document  itself,  which  pointed 
pretty  plainly  at  operations  of  the  flesh  rather  than  the  spirit,  and  gave  indications 
sufficiently  manifest  of  the  designs  in  which  it  originated,  or  at  any  rate  of  the 
proceedings  to  which  it  might  lead.  The  first  and  fundamental  article  bound  the 
parties  to  lead  their  armies  in  the  spirit  of  fraternity,  for  the  protection  of  religion, 
peace,  and  justice.  Now,  under  a  description  so  very  vague  and  large  as  this, 
almost  any  objects  might  be  comprehended:  and  men  did  not  fail  to  remark,  that 
there  had  hardly  ever  been  a  war  of  the  most  unjust  aggression  begun  without  lavish 
professions  that  its  only  design  was  to  see  justice  done,  and  obtain  a  secure  and 
honourable  peace. 

Against  these  very  natural  suspicions,  nothing  could  be  set  except  the  pious 
language  of  the  treaty,  which  of  course  went  for  little,  and  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  Emperor  Alexander,  its  chief  promoter,  which  went  for  not  much  more.  This 
prince  was  said  to  have  lately  become  a  convert  to  some  sect  of  religious  enthu- 
siasts, a  distinguished  professor  among  whom  was  a  certain  Madame  Krudener, 
one  of  those  mystical  devotees,  half  evangelical,  half  metaphysical,  with  which 
Germany  abounds.  The  Alliance  was  represented  as  the  result  of  this  holy 
female's  inspirations,  and  the  first  fruits  of  her  influence  over  the  Autocratic  neo- 
phyte. The  phrase  was,  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  when  questioned  in  Parliament, 
gave  the  matter  this  turn,  that  the  whole  was  a  mere  innocent  act,  an  amiable 
fancy  of  his  Imperial  Majesty,  in  which  England  and  France  were  only  prevented 
from  joining,  by  the  forms  of  their  diplomacy  excluding  direct  negotiation  and  treat- 
ing by  the  sovereign,  but  which,  as  it  could  not  possibly  lead  to  any  practical  con- 
sequences, was  not  worth  objecting  to,  or  commenting  upon. 

The  Emperor  Alexander,  upon  whose  individual  nature,  habits,  or  caprices,  this 
explanation  and  defence  turned,  was,  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  by  far  the  most 
distinguished  prince  in  Europe,  whether,  we  regard  the  magnitude  of  the  affairs 
in  which  he  had  been  engaged,  the  extraordinary  fortune  that  had  attended  his 
arts  rather  than  his  arms,  or  the  vast  empire  over  which  he  despotically  ruled.  But 
although  by  no  means  an  ordinary  man,  and,  still  less  an  ordinary  monarch,  he 
owed  his  influence  and  his  name  very  much  more  to  the  accidental  circumstances 
of  his  position,  and  to  the  errors  committed  by  Napoleon,  first  in  Spain,  then  in  the 
North,  than  either  to  any  very  admirable  personal  qualities  received  from  nature,  or 
to  any  considerable  accomplishments  derived  from  education.  His  preceptor, 
Colonel  La  Harpe,  though  a  very  worthy  and  intelligent  man,  was  distinguished 
neither  by  profound  genius,  nor  great  scientific  acquirements;  and  from  his  instruc- 
tions the  Imperial  pupil  could  not  be  said  to  have  profited  greatly.  His  knowledge 
was  exceedingly  superficial;  and  never  relying  on  his  own  resources,  he  adopted 
the  royal  plan  of  previously  ascertaining  what  were  the  pursuits  of  those  he  would 
converse  with,  and  picking  up  at  second-hand  a  few  common-places  with  which 
to  regale  his  guests,  who,  expecting  little  from  an  Emperor,  and  interdicted  from 
anything  like  discussion  by  the  etiquette  of  a  court,  were  sure  to  leave  the  presence 
deeply  impressed  with  his  information  and  his  powers.  If  he  was  superficial  in 
general  knowledge,  he  could  not  be  said  to  have  any  great  capacity  either  for 
civil  or  military  affairs.  To  tell  that  he  constantly  pursued  the  Russian  policy,  of 
invariably  gaining  some  accession  of  territory,  be  it  ever  so  little,  in  whatever  war 
he  might  be  engaged,  and  that  his  treaties  of  peace  never  formed  any  exception  to 
this  Muscovite  rule,  is  only  to  say  that  he  followed  in  the  train  of  all  his  prede- 
cessors from  Peter  the  First  downwards.  Placed  in  circumstances  of  unprece- 
dented peril,  no  passage  of  his  life  can  be  referred  to  in  proof  of  any  resources  being 
displayed  by  him,  which  the  most  ordinary  of  princes  would  not  have  shown 
himself  possessed  of.  Stimulated  by  the  exigencies  of  so  many  great  emergencies, 
he  never  rose  with  the  occasion,  and  unlike  any  one  with  pretensions  to  eminence, 
was  generally  found  most  wanting  when  the  crisis  was  the  most  trying.  At  his 
accession,  he  found  the  armed  neutrality  of  the  North  discomfited  by  the  battle 
of  Copenhagen;  and  he  at  once  yielded  all  the  points  for  which  his  father,  a  far 


HOLY  ALLIANCE.  337 

superior  though  an  eccentric  man,  had  contended,  unawed  by  any  difficulties,  and 
unsubdued  by  any  reverses.  Joining  the  third  coalition  against  France,  but  pos- 
sessing no  general  who  like  Suwarrow  could  lead  his  armies  to  victory,  he  sus- 
tained one  of  the  most  memorable  overthrows  recorded  in  history,  and  was 
compelled  to  purchase  peace,  and  escape  invasion,  by  abandoning  the  alliance  into 
which  he  had  voluntarily  entered.  Stricken  to  the  heart  with  the  fear  of  France, 
and  hardly  knowing  whether  to  seek  for  safety  in  resistance  or  in  submission  to 
her  dictation,  he  again  had  recourse  to  war,  for  which  he  had  no  kind  of  genius. 
Again  defeated  in  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  decisive  battles  of  modern  times, 
he  formed  the  closest  alliance  with  his  victorious  enemy,  who  soon  found  it  easy 
to  mould  which  way  soever  he  pleased  a  person  quite  as  vain  and  as  shallow  as  he 
was  nimble  and  plausible.  At  length  came  the  great  crisis  both  of  Alexander's 
fate  and  of  the  world's.  Napoleon,  obstinately  bent  on  subduing  the  Peninsula, 
while  he  continued  to  make  war  in  the  North,  was  worsted  repeatedly  by  the 
English  arms;  pushed  his  forces  in  unexampled  numbers  through  Germany,  to 
attack  the  Russian  Empire;  and  penetrated  to  its  ancient  capital,  after  many  bloody 
engagements,  and  an  immense  loss  sustained  on  either  side.  The  savage  determi- 
nation of  Rostopschin  prevented,  by  burning  the  city,  a  renewal  on  the  Moskwa  of 
the  scenes  five  years  before  enacted  on  the  Niemen.  Alexander  was  prevented 
from  making  peace  and  tendering  submission,  by  the  enterprising  spirit  of  that  bar- 
barous chief,  and  the  prompt  decision  and  resolute  determination  of  Sir  Robert 
Wilson.  The  inclemency  of  an  unusually  early  and  severe  northern  winter  did  all 
the  rest,  and  Europe  was  saved  by  the  physical  powers  brought  happily  to  bear 
upon  and  to  destroy  the  greatest  army  ever  sent  into  the  field.*  No  trait  of  mili- 
tary genius — no  passage  of  civil  capacity — no  instance  of  shining  public  virtue — 
can  be  cited  as  displayed  by  him  during  a  struggle  so  singularly  calculated  to 
draw  forth  men's  powers,  to  fire  them  with  generous  ardour,  to  nerve  their  arms  with 
new  vigour,  to  kindle  the  sparks  of  latent  genius  until  it  blazed  out  to  enlighten  and 
to  save  a  world. 

When  the  struggle  was  over,  and  his  empire  restored  to  peace,  he  showed  no 
magnanimous  gratitude  to  the  brave  people  who  had  generously  made  such  unpa- 
ralleled sacrifices,  and  had  cheerfully  suffered  such  cruel  miseries  for  the  defence  of 
his  crown.  He  joined  his  royal  associates  in  breaking  all  the  promises  that  had 
been  made  during  the  perils  of  the  war;  and  in  imitating  the  very  worst  part  of  his 
conduct,  whom,  with  the  words  of  justice,  peace,  and  right  on  their  lips,  they  had, 
•with  the  aid  of  their  gallant  subjects,  overthrown.  His  shallow  vanity  was  dis- 
played during  the  visit  of  the  Princes  to  England.  When,  among,  other  party  lead- 
ers, Lord  Grenville  was  presented  to  him,  he  thought  it  was  hitting  on  an  excel- 
lent improvement  in  the  conduct  of  party  concerns,  to  recommend  that,  instead  of 
urging  objections  in  Parliament  to  the  ministerial  measures,  the  opposition  should 
seek  private  audiences  of  their  adversaries  from  time  to  time,  and  confidentially 
offer  their  objections,  or  propose  their  amendments.  Nor  was  this  vain  and  super- 
ficial prince  made  at  all  sensible  of  the  folly  he  had  committed,  by  the  somewhat 
peremptory  negative  which  a  few  characteristic  words  and  gestures  of  the  veteran 
party  man  suddenly  put  upon  his  shallow  and  ignorant  scheme.  Although  the 
emperor  repeatedly  testified  a  somewhat  marked  disrespect  for  our  regent,  he  yet 
suffered  himself  to  be  overpowered  by  the  Carlton  House  emissaries,  and  avoided 
the  ordinary  civility  of  visiting  the  Princess  of  Wales,  then,  as  always,  the  object 

*  There  arc  few  things  more  finely  imagined  than  a  passage  written  by  the  late  eloquent 
and  ingenious  Mr.  John  Scott  upon  this  great  event.  Alter  describing  the  vast  bustle  and 
painful  effects  of  the  military  preparations  and  exertion*,  which  left  the  whole  affair  un- 
decided, lie  notes  the  mighty  contrast  presented  by  the  ctill  and  MI  Mum  energies  of  nature 
—  Flakes  of  a  white  substance,  during  a  few  hours,  fall  through  the  air  in  deep  silence,  ami 
all  is  settled  for  ever. 

Hi  moliiH  animorum,  attjiie  hone  ccrtamina  tanta 
I'ulveris  exigui  jactu  compressa  quicxcunU 

This  ia  the  same  gentleman    who  wrote  the   paper  on  Military  Punishment?,  for  which 
the  Hunts  and  Mr.  Drikard  were  prosecuted. 
VOL.  J. — 29 


338  INTRODUCTION. 

of  her  royal  husband's  unceasing  persecutions.  The  English  people  drew  from 
thence  a  conclusion  highly  unfavourable  to  the  independence  of  his  character,  as 
well  as  to  the  kindliness  of  his  nature;  and  he  made  quite  as  little  impression  upon 
them  as  his  more  unpretending,  though  certainly  not  much  less  distinguished  bro- 
ther of  Prussia. 

His  reputation  for  honesty  stood  extremely  low,  even  among  persons  of  his  pre- 
eminent station.  Napoleon,  who  knew  his  imperial  brother  thoroughly,  applied  to 
him  the  uncourtly,  and  indeed  rather  unceremonious  description  of  "faux,  fin,  et 
fuurbe,  comme  un  Grec  du  bos  empire."  It  would  be  highly  unjust  to  tax  him  with 
any  participation  in  his  father's  murder;  nor  would  the  certainty,  if  it  existed,  of 
his  privity  to  it,  be  any  stain  upon  his  character,  unless  we  were  also  assured,  con- 
trary to  all  probability,  that  he  had  any  power  whatever  to  prevent  it.  But  he  was 
certainly  bound  in  common  decency  to  discountenance,  if  he  dared  not  punish,  the 
men  whose  daggers  had  opened  for  him  the  way  to  a  throne;  and  more  unthinking 
folly,  greater  indecorum,  worse  judgment  in  every  way,  can  hardly  be  imagined, 
than  his  referring  to  the  blood  shed  in  palaces,  when  he  issued,  with  his  confede- 
rates, the  manifesto  against  Spain,  alluded  to  in  the  following  speech.  His  course 
was  marked  by  no  displays  either  of  princely  or  of  private  virtues — of  munificence, 
of  magnanimity,  of  self-denial,  of  plain-dealing.  Nor  did  the  extraordinary  pre- 
tences to  religion,  which  marked  his  latter  years,  succeed  in  deceiving  anyone,  but 
such  as  were,  either  from  the  adulation  of  the  court,  or  the  enthusiasm  of  the  con- 
venticle, willing  and  even  anxious  to  be  deluded.  Among  such  dupes,  he  passed 
for  somewhat  more  pious  than  his  royal  compeers;  but  few  were,  even  in  that  class, 
found  so  charitable  as  to  believe  in  his  honesty,  or  to  suppose  that  under  the  pro- 
fessions of  the  Christian  treaty,  there  lurked  no  hidden  designs  of  a  purely  secular 
and  strictly  royal  description.* 

The  denial  first,  the  explanation  afterwards,  finally  the  defence  of  the  Holy  Alli- 
ance, devolved  upon  one  who  had  been  the  associate  of  the  three  Sovereigns  in 
that  distribution  of  European  dominion,  which  their  unlooked-for  good  fortune,  ari- 
sing principally  from  a  severe  winter  and  Napoleon's  obstinate  ambition,  had 
thrown  into  their  hands.  Lord  Castlereagh  seemed  still  less  intended  by  nature  to 
bear  the  part  which  fell  to  his  share  in  such  mighty  transactions,  than  the  allied 
princes  themselves.  That  we  should  have  lived  to  see,  twice  over,  the  march  to 
Paris,  which  for  so  many  years  had  been  the  bye-word  for  a  military  impossibility, 
an:1  long  after  events  seemed  to  have  rendered  the  idea  still  more  absurd  than  when 
its  first  promulgation  clothed  the  propounder  in  never-dying  ridicule,  was  indeed 
sufficiently  marvellons.  But  it  appeared,  if  possible,  yet  more  incredible,  that  we 
should  witness  Lord  Castlereagh  entering  the  House  of  Commons,  and  resuming 
amidst  universal  shouts  of  applause,  the  seat  which  he  had  quitted  for  a  season  to 
attend  as  a  chief  actor  in  the  new  arrangement  of  Continental  territory,  the  restora- 
tion of  old  monarchies  and  the  creation  of  new,  when  Mr.  Pitt,  and  Mr.  Fox,  and 
Mr.  Windham,  had  never  even  aspired  to  more  than  rescuing  their  own  country 
from  the  war  without  positive  disgrace,  and  even  Mr.  Burke  had  only  looked  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Bourbon  throne  by  the  efforts  of  the  French  themselves,  and  had 
been  treated  as  a  visionary  for  indulging  in  so  wild  a  hope. 

Few  men  of  more  limited  capacity,  or  more  meagre  acquirements  than  Lord 
Castlereagh  possessed,  had  before  his  time  ever  risen  to  any  station  of  eminence 
in  our  free  country;  fewer  still  have  long  retained  it  in  a  state,  where  mere  court 
intrigue  and  princely  favour  have  so  little  to  do  with  men's  advancement.  But  we 
have  lived  to  see  persons  of  more  obscure  merit  than  Lord  Castlereagh  rise  to 
equal  station  in  this  country.  Of  sober  and  industrious  habits,  and  become  pos- 
sessed of  business-like  talents  by  long  experience,  he  was  a  person  of  the  most 
common-place  abilities.  He  had  a  reasonable  quickness  of  apprehension  and 
clearness  of  understanding,  but  nothing  brilliant  or  in  any  way  admirable  marked 
either  his  conceptions  or  his  elocution.  Nay,  to  judge  of  his  intellect  by  his  elo- 
quence, we  should  certainly  have  formed  a  very  unfair  estimate  of  its  perspicacity. 
For,  though  it  was  hardly  possible  to  underrate  its  extent  or  comprehensiveness,  it 

*  The  selection  of  sucli  eminent  diplomatic  talents  as  adorn  and  distinguish  the  Lievens 
and  the  Pozzos,  appears  to  have  been  his  greatest  praise. 


HOLY  ALLIANCE.  339 

was  very  far  from  being  confused  and  perplexed  in  the  proportion  of  his  sentences; 
and  the  listener  who  knew  how  distinctly  the  speaker  could  form  his  plans,  and 
how  clearly  his  ideas  were  known  to  himself,  might,  comparing  small  things  wilh 
preat,  be  reminded  of  the  prodigious  contrast  between  the  distinctness  of  Oliver 
Cromwell's  understanding,  and  the  hopeless  confusion  and  obscurity  of  his  speech. 
No  man,  besides,  ever  attained  the  station  of  a  regular  debater  in  our  Parliament 
with  such  an  entire  want  of  all  classical  accomplishment,  or  indeed  of  all  literary 
provision  whatsoever.  While  he  never  showed  the  least  symptoms  of  an  informa- 
tion extending  beyond  the  more  recent  volumes  of  the  Parliamentary  debates,  or 
possibly  the  files  of  the  newspapers  only,  his  diction  set  all  imitation,  perhaps  all 
description  at  defiance.  It  was  with  some  an  amusement  to  beguile  the  tedious 
hours  of  their  unavoidable  attendance  upon  the  poor,  tawdry,  ravelled  thread  of 
his  sorry  discourse,  to  collect  a  kind  of  ana  from  the  fragments  of  mixed,  incon- 
gruous, and  disjointed  images  that  frequently  appeared  in  it.  "The  features  of 
the  clause" — "the  ignorant  impatience  of  the  relaxation  of  taxation" — "sets  of 
circumstances  coming  up  and  circumstances  going  down" — "men  turning  their 
backs  upon  themselves" — "the  honourable  and  learned  gentlemen's  wedge  getting 
into  the  loyal  feelings  of  the  manufacturing  classes" — "the  constitutional  principle 
wound  up  in  the  bowels  of  the  monarchical  principle" — "the  Herculean  labour  of 
the  honourable  and  learned  member,  who  will  find  himself  quite  disappointed  when 
he  has  at  last  brought  forth  his  Hercules" — (by  a  slight  confounding  of  the  mo- 
ther's labour,  who  produced  that  hero,  wilh  his  own  exploits  which  gained  him, 
immortality) — these  are  but  a  few,  and  not  the  richest  samples,  by  any  means,  of  a 
rhetoric  which  often  baffled  alike  the  gravity  of  the  treasury  bench  and  the  art  of  the 
reporter,  and  left  the  wondering  audience  at  a  loss  to  conjecture  how  any  one  could 
ever  exist,  endowed  with  humbler  pretensions  to  the  name  of  orator.  Wherefore, 
when  the  tory  party  "  having  a  devil,"  preferred  him  to  Mr.  Canning  for  their 
leader,  all  men  naturally  expected  that  he  would  entirely  fail  to  command  even  the 
attendance  of  the  House  while  he  addressed  it;  and  that  the  benches,  empty  during 
his  time,  would  only  be  replenished  when  his  highly  gifted  competitor  rose.  They 
were  greatly  deceived;  they  underrated  the  effect  of  place  and  power;  they  forgot 
that  the  representative  of  a  government  speaks  "as  one  having  authority,  and  not 
as  the  scribes."  Hut  they  also  forgot  that  Lord  Castloreagh  had  some  qualities 
well-fitted  to  conciliate  favour,  and  even  to  provoke  admiration,  in  the  absence  of 
everything  like  eloquence.  He  was  a  bold  and  fearless  man;  the  very  courage 
with  which  he  exposed  himself  unabashed  to  the  most  critical  audience  in  the  world, 
while  incapable  of  uttering  two  sentences  of  anything  but  the  meanest  matter,  in 
the  most  wretched  language;  the  gallantry  with  which  he  faced  the  greatest  diffi- 
culties of  a  quesiion;  the  unflinching  perseverance  with  which  he  went  through  a 
whole  subject,  leaving  untouched  not  one  of  its  points,  whether  he  could  grapple 
with  it  or  no,  and  not  one  of  the  adverse  arguments,  however  forcibly  and  felici- 
tously they  had  been  urged,  neither  daunted  by  recollecting  the  impression  just 
made  by  his  antagonist's  brilliant  display,  nor  damped  by  consciousness  of  the 
very  rags  in  which  he  now  presented  himself — all  thi*  made  him  upon  the  whole 
rather  a  favourite  with  the  audience  whose  patience  he  was  taxing  mercilessly,  and 
whose  gravity  he  ever  and  anon  put  to  a  very  severe  trial.  Nor  can  any  one  have 
forgotten  the  kitid  of  pride  that  mantled  on  th;>  fronts  of  the  Tory  phalanx,  when, 
after  being  overwhelmed  with  the  powerful  lire  of  the  Whig  opposition,  or  galled 
by  the  fierce  denunciations  of  the  mountain,  or  harassed  by  the,  splendid  displays 
of  Mr.  Canning,  their  chosen  leader  stood  forth,  and  presenting  the  graces  of  his 
eminently  patrician  figure,  flung  open  his  coat,  displayed  an  a/.ure  ribbon  travers- 
ing a  snow  white  chest,  and  declared  "  bis  high  satisfaction  that  he  could  now 
meet  the  charges  against  him  face  to  face,  and  repel  with  indignation  all  that  his 
adversaries  had  been  bold  and  rash  enough  to  advance." 

Such  he  was  in  debate;  in  council  he  certainly  had  far  more  resources.  lie 
possessed  a  considerable  fund  of  pi, tin  sense,  not  to  bo  misled  by  any  refinement 
of  speculation,  or  clouded  by  any  fanciful  notions,  lie  went  straight  to  his  point; 
— he  was  brave  politically  as  well  as  personally.  Of  this,  his  conduct  on  the 
Irish  Union  bad  given  abundant  proof;  iind  nothing  could  be  mure  just  than  the 
rebuke  which,  as  connected  wilh  thu  topic  of  personal  courage,  we  may  recollect 


340  INTRODUCTION. 

his  administering  to  a  great  man  who  had  passed  the  limits  of  Parliamentary  cour- 
tesy— "Every  one  must  be  sensible,"  he  said,  "that  if  any  personal  quarrel  were 
desired,  any  insulting  language  used  publicly,  where  it  could  not  be  met  as  it  de- 
served, was  the  way  to  prevent  and  not  to  produce  such  a  rencounter." — No  one 
after  that  treated  him  with  disrespect.  The  complaints  made  of  his  Irish  admi- 
nistration were  perfectly  well  grounded  as  regarded  the  corruption  of  the  Parlia- 
ment by  which  he  accomplished  the  union;  but  they  were  entirely  unfounded  as 
regarded  the  cruelties  practised  during  and  after  the  rebellion.  Far  from  partaking 
in  these  atrocities,  he  uniformly  and  strenuously  set  his  face  against  them.  He 
was  of  a  cold  temperament  and  determined  character,  but  not  of  a  cruel  disposi- 
tion; and  to  him,  more  than  perhaps  to  any  one  else,  was  owing  the  termination  of 
the  system  stained  with  blood. 

His  foreign  administration  was  as  destitute  of  all  merit  as  possible.  No  enlarged 
views  guided  his  conduct;  no  liberal  principles  claimed  his  regard;  no  generous 
sympathies,  no  grateful  feelings  for  the  people  whose  sufferings  and  whose  valour 
had  accomplished  the  restoration  of  their  national  independence,  prompted  his 
tongue,  when  he  carried  forth  from  the  land  of  liberty  that  influence  which  she  had 
a  right  to  exercise — she  who  had  made  such  vast  sacrifices,  and  was  never  in  return 
to  reap  any  the  least  selfish  advantage.  The  representative  of  England  among 
those  Powers  whom  her  treasure  and  her  arms  had  done  so  much  to  save,  he  ought 
to  have  held  the  language  becoming  a  free  state,  and  claimed  for  justice  and  for 
liberty  the  recognition  which  we  had  the  better  right  to  demand,  that  we  gained  no- 
thing for  ourselves,  after  all  our  sufferings,  and  all  our  expenditure  of  blood  as  well 
as  money.  Instead  of  this,  he  flung  himself  at  once  and  for  ever  into  the  arms  of 
the  sovereigns— seemed  to  take  a  vulgar  pride  in  being  suffered  to  become  their  asso- 
ciate— appeared  desirous,  with  the  vanity  of  an  upstart  elevated  unexpectedly  into 
higher  circles,  of  forgetting  what  he  had  been,  and  qualifying  himself  for  the  com- 
pany he  now  kept,  by  assuming  their  habits — and  never  pronounced  any  of  those 
words  so  familiar  with  the  English  nation  and  with  English  statesmen,  in  the 
mother  tongue  of  a  limited  monarchy,  for  fear  they  might  be  deemed  low-bred,  and 
unsuited  to  the  society  of  crowned  heads,  in  which  he  was  living,  and  to  which 
they  might  prove  as  distasteful  as  they  were  unaccustomed. 

It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at,  that  those  potentates  found  him  ready  enough  with 
his  defence  of  their  Holy  Alliance.  When  it  was  attacked  in  1816,  he  began  by 
denying  that  it  meant  anything  at  all.  He  afterwards  explained  it  away  as  a  mere 
pledge  of  pacific  intentions,  and  a  new  security  for  the  stability  of  the  settlement 
made  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  Finally,  when  he  was  compelled  to  depart  from 
the  monstrous  principles  of  systematic  interference  to  which  it  gave  birth,  and  to 
establish  which  it  was  originally  intended,  he  made  so  tardy,  so  cold,  so  reluctant 
a  protest  against  the  general  doctrine  of  the  allies,  that  the  influence  of  England 
could  not  be  said  to  have  been  exerted  at  all  in  behalf  of  national  independence, 
even  if  the  protest  had  been  unaccompanied  with  a  carte  blanche  to  the  allies  for  all 
the  injuries  they  were  offering  to  particular  states  in  the  genuine  spirit  of  the  sys- 
tem protested  against.  The  allies  issued  from  Troppau  one  manifesto,  from  Ley- 
bach  another,  against  the  free  constitution  which  had  just  been  established  at  Na- 
ples by  a  military  force  co-operating  with  a  movement  of  the  people.  On  the  eve 
of  the  Parliament  meeting  (19th  Jan.  1821,)  Lord  Castlereagh  delivered  a  note 
to  the  Holy  Allies,  expressing  in  feeble  and  measured  terms  a  very  meagre  dissent 
from  the  principle  of  interference;  but  adding  a  peremptory  disapproval  of  the  means 
by  which  the  Neapolitan  revolution  had  been  effected,  and  indicating  very  plainly 
that  England  would  allow  whatever  they  chose  to  do  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
down  the  new  government  and  restoring  the  old.  It  is  certain  that  this  kind  of  re- 
volution is  of  all  others  the  very  worst,  and  to  liberty  the  most  unpropitious.  It  is 
also  probable  that  the  people  of  Naples  knew  not  what  they  sought;  nay,  when 
they  proclaimed  the  Spanish  Constitution,  it  is  said  there  was  no  copy  of  it  to  be 
found  in  the  whole  city.  Nevertheless  the  same  kind  of  military  movement  had 
produced  the  destruction  of  the  same  constitution  in  Spain,  and  restored  the  power 
and  prerogative  of  Ferdinand;  and  no  exception  had  been  ever  taken  to  it,  in  that 
instance,  either  by  the  Holy  Allies  or  by  England.  There  could  be  no  doubt  what- 
ever, that  this  mode  of  effecting  changes  in  a  government  was  only  displeasing  to 


HOLY  ALLIANCE.  341 

those  parties  when  the  change  happened  to  be  of  a  popular  kind,  and  that  a  mili- 
tary revolution  to  restore  or  to  found  a  de<polic  government,  was  a  thing  perfectly 
to  their  liking.  Thus  faintly  dissented  from  as  to  tho  principle,  and  not  even  faintly 
opposed  as  to  the  particular  instance,  the  three  sovereigns  deputed  one  of  their 
number  to  march,  and  the  Austrian  troops  ended,  in  a  few  days,  all  that  the  Neapo- 
litan army  had  done  in  as  many  hours. 

But  late  in  182-2,  Spain,  or  rather  Madrid,  again  hecame  the  scene  of  a  revolu- 
tionary movement;  and  the  people  obtained  once  more  a  free  form  of  government. 
Again  the  Holy  Allies  were  at  work;  and,  on  this  occasion,  their  manifestos  were 
directed  to  arm  France  with  the  authority  of  the  League.  First,  an  army  was  as- 
sembled on  the  Spanish  frontier,  under  the  stale  pretext  of  some  infectious  disor- 
der requiring  a  sanatory  cordon;  the  same  pretext  on  which  the  predecessors  of  the 
Holy  Allies  had  in  former  times  surrounded  unhappy  Poland  with  their  armed 
hordes — the  only  difference  being,  that  an  epidemic  was  in  that  instance  said  to  be 
raging  among  the  cattle,  and  now  it  was  supposed  to  be  the  plague  among  men. 
A  great  change,  had,  however,  now  taken  place  in  the  British  department  of  Fo- 
reign affairs.  Lord  Castlereagh's  sudden  death  had  changed  Mr.  Canning's  In- 
dian destination,  and  placed  him  both  at  the  head  of  the  Foreign  Office,  and  in  the 
lead  of  the  House  of  Commons.  His  views  were  widely  different  from  those  of 
his  predecessor.  He  was  justly  jealous  of  the  whole  principles  and  policy  of  the 
Holy  Alliance:  he  was  disgusted  with  the  courtly  language  of  the  crafty  and  cruel 
despots  who,  under  the  mask  of  religious  zeal,  were  enslaving  Europe;  he  was  in- 
dignant at  the  subservient  part  in  those  designs  which  England  had  been  playing; 
and  he  was  resolved  that  this  obsequiousness  should  no  longer  disgrace  his  coun- 
try. In  America,  he  was  determined  that  the  colonies  of  Spain  should  be  recog- 
nized as  clothed  with  the  independence  which  they  had  purchased  by  their  valour; 
in  Europe,  he  was  fixed  in  the  design  of  unchaining  England  from  the  chariot 
wheels  of  the  Holy  Allies.  When  Parliament  met,  the  speech  from  the  Throne 
contained  some  indications  of  these  principles;  and  more  were  given  by  the  minis- 
terial speakers  who  began  the  debate  on  the  address.  The  following  speech  was 
delivered  on  that  occasion  by  Mr.  Brougham,  who  had,  almost  unsupported  seven 
years  before,  denounced  the  Holy  Alliance,  and  moved  for  the  production  of  the 
Christian  Treaty  of  September  1815,  which  Lord  Casilereagh,  on  the  pretences 
already  described,  had  refused. 

Although  on  that  earlier  occasion  he  had  met  with  hardly  any  support  from  the 
regular  leaders  of  the  Whig  party,  h«  had  yet  obtained  the  countenance,  to  him  of 
all  others  the  most  grateful,  of  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  and  Mr.  Homer.  Of  the 
former,  opportunity  has  already  been  given  to  speak;  it  is  fit  something  should  hero 
be  said  of  the  latter,  upon  an  occasion  certainly  connected  with  that  on  which  he 
made-  the  most  remarkable  of  the  displays  that  won  for  him  the  admiration  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  made  the  sorrow  fur  a  loss,  as  premature  as  it  was  irre- 
parable, the  more  lasting. 

Mr.  Homer  having  entered  public  life  without  any  advantage  of  rank  or  fortune, 
had  in  a  very  short  time  raised  himself  to  a  high  place  among  the  members  of  the 
Whig  party,  (to  which  he  was  attached  alike  from  sincere  conviction,  and  from 
private  friendship  with  its  chiefs,)  by  the  effect  of  a  most  honourable  and  virtuous 
character  in  private  life,  a  steady  adherence  to  moderate  opinions  in  politics,  talents 
of  a  very  high  order,  and  information  at  once  accurate  i'.iul  extensive  upon  all  sub- 
jects connected  with  state  affairs.  Not  that  his  studies  had  been  confined  to  these; 
for  his  education,  chiefly  at  Edinburgh,  had  hern  most  liberal,  and  had  put  him  in 
possession  of  far  more  knowledge  upon  the  subjects  of  general  philosophy,  than 
falls  to  the  lot  of  most  English  statesmen.  All  the  departments  of  moral  science 
lie  had  cultivated  in  an  especial  manner;  and  he  was  well  grounded  in  the  rxacter 
sciences,  although  he  had  not  pursued  these  with  the  same  assiduity.  The  pro- 
fession of  the  law,  which  he  followed,  rather  disciplined  his  mind  than  distracted 
it  from  the  more  attractive  and  elegant  pursuits  of  literary  leisure;  and  his  taste, 
the  guid(!  and  control  of  eloquence,  was  manly  and  chaste!,  erring  on  the  safer  side 
of  fastidiousness.  Accordingly,  when  he  joined  hi.s  party  in  Parliament,  his  or.itorv 
was  of  a  kind  which  never  tailed  to  produce  a  very  great  effect,  and  he  only  did 


342  INTRODUCTION. 

not  reach  the  highest  place  among  debaters,  because  he  was  cut  off  prematurely, 
while  steadily  advancing  upon  the  former  successes  of  his  career.  For  although 
in  the  House  of  Commons  he  had  never  given  the  reins  to  his  imagination,  and  had 
rather  confined  himself  to  powerful  argument  and  luminous  statement  than  in- 
dulged in  declamation,  they  who  knew  him,  and  had  heard  him  in  other  debates, 
were  aware  of  his  powers  as  a  declaimer,  and  expected  the  day  which  should  see 
him  shining  in  the  more  ornamental  parts  of  oratory.  The  great  question  of  the 
currency  had  been  thoroughly  studied  by  him  at  an  early  period  of  life,  when 
the  writings  of  Mr.  Henry  Thornton  and  Lord  King  first  opened  men's  eyes  to  the 
depreciation  which  Mr.  Pitt's  ill-starred  policy  had  occasioned.  With  the  former 
he  had  partaken  of  the  doubts  by  which  his  work  left  the  question  overcast  in  1802; 
the  admirable  and  indeed  decisive  demonstration  of  the  latter  in  the  next  year, 
entirely  removed  those  doubts;  and  Mr.  Homer,  following  up  the  able  paper  upon 
the  subject,  which  he  had  contributed  to  the  Edinburgh  Review  at  its  first  appear- 
ance, with  a  second  upon  Lord  King's  work,  avowed  his  conversion,  and  joined 
most  powerfully  with  those  who  asserted  that  the  currency  had  been  depreciated, 
and  the  metallic  money  displaced  by  the  inconvertible  bank  paper.  In  1810,  he 
moved  for  that  famous  Bullion  Committee,  whose  labours  left  no  doubt  of  the 
matter  in  the  mind  of  any  rational  person  endowed  with  even  a  tolerable  clearness 
of  understanding;  and  the  two  speeches  which  he  made,  upon  moving  his  resolutions 
the  year  after,  may  justly  be  regarded  as  finished  models  of  eloquence  applied  to 
such  subjects.  The  fame  which  they  acquired  for  him  was  great,  solid,  lasting; 
and  though  they  might  be  surpassed,  they  were  certainly  not  eclipsed,  by  the 
wonderful  resources  of  close  argument,  profound  knowledge,  and  brilliant  ora- 
tory, which  Mr.  Canning  brought  to  bear  upon  the  question,  and  of  which  no  one 
more  constantly  than  Mr.  Homer  acknowledged  the  transcendent  merits. 

When  the  subject  of  the  Holy  Alliance  was  brought  forward  by  Mr.  Brougham, 
early  in  the  session  of  1816,  Mr.  Homer,  who  had  greatly  distinguished  himself 
on  all  the  questions  connected  with  what  the  Ministers  pleasantly  called  "the 
final  settlement  of  Europe,"  during  the  absence  of  the  former  from  Parliament, 
was  now  found  honestly  standing  by  his  friend,  and  almost  alone  of  the  regular 
Whig  party  declared  his  belief  in  the  deep-laid  conspiracy,  which  the  hypocriti- 
cal phrases  and  specious  pretences  of  the  allies  were  spread  out  to  cover.  The 
part  he  took  upon  the  debate  to  which  the  treaties  gave  rise,  showed  that  there 
was  no  portion  of  the  famous  arrangements  made  at  Vienna,  to  which  he  had  not 
sedulously  and  successfully  directed  his  attention.  His  speech  on  that  occasion 
was  admitted  to  be  one  of  the  best  ever  delivered  in  Parliament;  and  it  was  truly 
refreshing  to  hear  questions  of  foreign  policy,  usually  discussed  with  the  super- 
ficial knowledge,  the  narrow  and  confused  views  to  be  expected  in  the  produc- 
tions of  ephemeral  pens,  now  treated  with  a  dopth  of  calm  reflection,  an  enlarged 
perception  of  relations,  and  a  provident  forethought  of  consequences,  only  ex- 
ceeded by  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  justice  which  animated  the  whole  discourse, 
and  the  luminous  clearness  of  statement  which  made  its  drift  plain  to  every  hearer. 

But  this  able,  accomplished,  and  excellent  person  was  now  approaching  the 
term  assigned  to  his  useful  and  honourable  course  by  the  mysterious  dispensa- 
tions under  which  the  world  is  ruled.  A  complication  of  extraordinary  maladies 
soon  afterwards  precluded  all  further  exertion,  and,  first  confining  his  attention 
to  the  care  of  his  health,  before  a  year  was  over  from  the  date  of  his  last  brilliant 
display,  brought  him  deeply  and  universally  lamented  to  an  untimely  grave.* 

*  It  deserves  to  be  noted,  as  a  marvellous  instance  of  that  truly  learned  conjecture  by 
which  the  skill  of  Dr.  Baillie  was  distinguished,  that  after  many  other  physicians  had 
severally  given  their  opinions  on  the  nature  of  Mr.  Homer's  hidden  complaints,  Dr. 
Baillie  at  once  decided  against  all  those  theories;  but,  when  he  came  to  propose  his 
own,  avowed  the  extreme  uncertainty  in  which  so  obscure  and  difficult  a  case  had  left 
him.  However,  he  said  that  he  guessed  it  was  one  or  the  other  of  two  maladies  so  rare 
that  he  had  only  seen  a  case  or  two  of  the  one,  and  the  other  never  but  in  a  Museum  of 
morbid  anatomy.  When  the  body  was  opened  by  Vacca  at  Pisa,  where  he  died,  it  was 
found  that  both  those  rare  diseases  existed. 


HOLY  ALLIANCE.  343 

"Oslendent  tcrris  hunc  lantum  fata,  neqtie  ultra 
Essc  sinent.     Nimium  vobis  Romana  propago 
Visa  potens,  Supcri,  propria  Jiffic  si  dona  luissent!" 

When  the  new  writ  was  moved,  on  his  decease,  for  the  burgh  of  St.  Mawes, 
which  he  represented,  Lord  Morpeth*  gave  a  striking  sketch  of  his  character. 
Mr.  Canning,  Sir  S.  Romilly,  Mr.  W.  Elliott,  and  others,  joined  in  the  conversa- 
tion, and  Mr.  H.  Lascellesf  observed,  with  universal  assent,  that  if  the  form  of 
the  proceeding  could  have  admitted  of  a  question  being  put  upon  Mr.  Horner's  merits, 
there  would  not  have  been  heard  one  dissentient  voice. 

•  Now  Lord  Carlisle.  t  Now  Lord  Harcwood 


SPEECH 


THE    WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
FEBRUARY  4,  1823. 


I  RISE  in  consequence  of  the  appeal  made  to  every  member  of  the 
House  by  the  gallant  officer*  who  lias  just  sat  down,  to  declare  my 
sentiments:  I  ansvver  that  appeal,  which  does  credit  to  the  honour,  to 
the  English  feeling  of- that  gallant  officer;  and  I  join  with  him,  and 
with  every  man  who  deserves  the  name  of  Briton,  in  unqualified 
abhorrence  and  detestation  of  the  audacious  interference  to  which  he 
has  alluded;  or  if  that  execration  is  at  all  qualified,  it  can  only  be  by 
contempt  and  disgust  at  the  canting  hypocrisy  of  the  language  in 
which  the  loathsome  principles  of  the  tyrants  are  promulgated  to  the 
world.  !  have  risen  to  make  this  declaration,  called  upon  as  I  am  in 
common  with  every  member,  but  I  should  ill  discharge  my  duty,  if  I 
did  not  mark  my  sense  of  the  candour  of  the  two  Honourable  gen- 
tlemen who  have  moved  and  seconded  the  address,  and  express  my 
satisfaction  at  what,  in  the  House,  howeverdivided  upon  other  points, 
will  be  almost,  and  certainly  in  the  country  will  be  quite  unanimously 
felt  to  be,  the  sound  and  liberal  view  which  they  have  taken  of  this 
great  affair.  Indeed,  I  know  not,  circumstanced  as  they  were,  that 
they  could  go  farther;  or  even  that  His  Majesty's  ministers,  in  the 
present  state  of  this  very  delicate  question,  ought  to  have  gone  beyond 
the  communication  of  to-day-  That  communication,  coupled  with  the 
commentary  of  the  honourable  mover,  will  be  the  tidings  of  joy,  and 
the  signal  for  exultation  to  England — it  will  spread  gladness  and  ex- 
ultation over  Spain  —  will  be  a  source  of  comfort  to  all  other  free 
states — and  will  bring  confusion  and  dismay  to  the  allies,  who,  with 
a  pretended  respect,  but  a  real  mockery. of  religion  and  morality, 
make  war  upon  liberty  in  the  abstract;  endeavour  to  crush  national 
independence  wherever  it  is  to  be  found;  and  are  now  preparing,  with 

*  Sir.  J.  Yorke. 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  345 

their  armed  hordes,  to  carry  into  execution  their  frightful  projects. 
That  Spain  will  take  comfort  from  the  principles  avowed  in  the  House 
this  evening,  I  am  certain;  and  I  am  not  less  clear,  that  the  handful  of 
men  at  present  surrounding  the  throne  of  our  nearest  and  most  inter- 
esting neighbour,  (who, -by  the  way,  has  somehow  or  other  been  in- 
duced to  swerve  from  the  prudent  councils  which  had  till  of  late 
guided  his  course)  will  feel  astonished  and  dismayed  with  the  proceed- 
ings of  this  day,  in  proportion  as  others  are  encouraged.  Cheering, 
however,  as  is  the  prevalence  of  such  sentiments;  highly  as  they  raise 
the  character  of  the  nation,  and  much  as  may  be  augured  from  their 
effects, — still  I  think  no  man  can  deny,  that  the  country  is  at  present 
approaching  to  a  crisis  such  as  has  not  occurred  perhaps  for  above  a 
century,  certainly  not  since  the  French  revolution.  Whether  we  view 
the  internal  condition  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  severe  distress  which 
press  upon  that  most  important  and  most  useful  branch  of  the  com- 
munity, the  farmers;  or  cast  our  eyes  upon  our  foreign  relations, — our 
circumstances  must  appear,  to  the  mind  of  every  thinking  man,  critical 
and  alarming.  They  may,  it  is  true,  soon  wear  a  better  aspect,  and 
we  may  escape  the  calamities  of  war;  but  he  must  be  a  bold  and 
possibly  a  rash  man,  certainly  not  a  very  thoughtful  one,  who  can 
take  upon  him  to  foretell  that  so  happy  a  fortune  shall  be  ours. 

It  is  the  deep  consideration  of  these  things  which  induces  me  to 
come  forward  and  make  a  declaration  of  my  principles;  and  to  state 
that,  with  a  strict  adherence  to  the  most  rigid  economy  in  every  de- 
partment, the  reduction  of  establishments  which  I  am  at  all  times,  if 
not  the  first,  at  least  among  the  foremost,  to  support,  and  which  is  so 
necessary,  in  the  ordinary  circumstances  of  the  country,  must  now  be 
recommended,  with  a  certain  modification,  in  order  to  adapt  our  poli- 
cy to  the  present  emergency.  I  am  guilty  of  no  inconsistency  what- 
ever, in  thus  qualifying  the  doctrine  of  unsparing  retrenchment; 
indeed,  the  greater  the  chance  of  some  extraordinary  demand  upon 
our  resources,  from  the  aspect  of  affairs  abroad,  the  more  imperious  is 
the  necessity  of  sparing  every  particle  of  expense  not  absolutely  re- 
quisite. Economy  to  its  utmost  extent,  I  still  recommend  as  politic, 
and  urge  as  due  to  the  people  of  right;  and  every  expense  is  now  to 
be  regarded  as  more  inexcusable  than  ever,  both  because  the  country 
is  suffering  more  severely,  and  because  it  may  become  necessary  soon 
to  increase  some  parts  of  our  establishment.  1  say  I  am  certainly 
not  prepared  to  propose,  or  to  suffer,  as  far  as  my  voice  goes,  any  the 
least  reduction  of  our  naval  force,  to  the  extent  even  of  a  single  ship 
or  seaman;  on  the  contrary,  I  fear  the  time  may  not  be  distant  when 
its  increase  will  be  required.  Any  such  augmentation  of  the  army,  I 
cannot  conceive  to  be  justifiable  in  almost  any  circumstances;  for  hap- 
pen what  may,  a  war  on  our  part,  carried  on  with  the  wasteful  and 
scandalous  profusion  of  the  last,  and  upon  the  same  vast  scale,  or  any- 
thing like  it,  is  wholly  out  of  the  question. 

[Mr.  Brougham  entered  at  some  length  into  the  internal  state  of 
the  country — tho  indications  of  distress  at  the  various  meetings — the 
inconsistency  of  the  violent  attacks  made  upon  the  Norfolk  petition  by 


346  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

those  who  had  passed  the  Gold  Coin  Bill  of  1811,  which  enacted  the 
parts  of  the  Norfolk  plan  most  liable  to  objection — the  inadequacy  of 
any  relief  to  be  obtained  from  repeal  of  taxes  that  only  affected  small 
districts — the  absolute  necessity  of  repealing  a  large  amount  of  the 
taxes  pressing  generally  on  all  classes — and,  for  this  purpose,  he  urged 
the  necessity  of  a  saving  wherever  it  could  be  effected  with  safety; 
and,  at  any  rate,  of  giving  up  the  sinking  fund.  He  then  proceeded:] 

1  think,  then,  that  if  war  were  once  commenced,  we  should  soon  be 
compelled  to  take  some  part  in  it,  one  way  or  other,  and  that  for  such 
an  emergency,  every  shilling  which  can  be  saved  by  the  most  riged 
economy,  should  be  reserved.  I  think  our  intervention  in  some  shape 
will  become  unavoidable.  We  are  bound,  for  instance,  to  assist  one 
party,  our  old  ally  Portugal,  if  she  should  be  attacked;  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  she  can  remain  neuter,  if  the  present  hateful  conspiracy 
against  Spain  shall  end  in  open  hostility.  It  is  in  this  view  of  the 
question  that  I  differ  from  the  gallant  officer*  who  last  spoke,  and  I 
am  glad  that  I  could  not  collect  from  the  honourable  mover  or  second- 
er, the  ominous  words  "  strict  neutrality  "  as  applied  to  this  coun- 
try, in  the  threatened  contest.  A  state  of  declared  neutrality  on  our 
part  would  be  nothing  less  than  a  practical  admission  of  those  princi- 
ples which  we  all  loudly  condemn,  and  a  license  to  the  commission  of 
all  the  atrocities  which  we  are  unanimous  in  deprecating.  I  will  say, 
therefore,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  His  Majesty's  ministers,  (with  whom 
I  should  rejoice  in  co-operating  on  the  occasion — and  so  I  am  certain, 
would  every  one  who  now  hears  me,  waving  for  a  season  all  differ- 
ences of  opinion  on  lesser  matters)  to  adopt  and  to  announce  the 
resolution,  that  when  certain  things  shall  take  place  on  the  Continent, 
they  will  be  ready  to  assist  the  Spaniards — a  measure  necessary  to 
avert  evils,  which  even  those  the  least  prone  to  war  (of  which  I 
avow  myself  one)  must  admit  to  be  inevitable,  should  a  wavering  or 
pusillanimous  course  be  pursued.  Our  assistance  will  be  necessary 
to  resist  the  wicked  enforcement  of  principles  contrary  to  the  law  of 
nations,  and  repugnant  to  every  idea  of  national  independence. 

To  judge  of  the  principles  now  shamelessly  promulgated,  let  any 
man  read  patiently,  if  he  can,  the  declarations  in  the  notes  of  Russia, 
Prussia,  and  Austria;  and,  with  all  due  respect  to  those  high  authori- 
ties, I  will  venture  to  say,  that  to  produce  anything  more  preposter- 
ous, more  absurd,  more  extravagant,  better  calculated  to  excite  a 
mingled  feeling  of  disgust  and  derision,  would  baffle  any  chancery  or 
state-paper  office  in  Europe.  I  shall  not  drag  the  House  through  the 
whole  nauseous  details;  I  will  only  select  a  few  passages,  by  way  of 
sample,  from  those  notable  productions  of  legitimate  genius. 

In  the  communication  from  the  minister  of  his  Prussian  Majesty, 
the  constitution  of  1812,  restored  in  1820,  and  now  established,  is  de- 
scribed as  a  system  which — "confounding  all  elements,  and  all  power, 
and  assuming  only  the  single  principle  of  a  permanent  and  legal  oppo- 
sition against  the  government,  necessarily  destroys  that  central  and 

*  Sir  J.  Yorke. 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  347 

tutelary  authority  which  constitutes  the  essence  of  the  monarchical 
system."  Thus  far  the  King  of  Prussia,  in  terms  which,  lo  say  the 
least,  afforded  some  proof  of  the  writer's  knowledge  of  the  monarchi- 
cal system,  and  of  the  contrast  which,  in  his  opinion,  it  exhibited  to 
the  present  government  of  Spain.  The  Emperor  of  Russia,  in  terms 
not  less  strong,  calls  the  constitutional  government  of  the  Cortes, "  that 
which  the  public  reason  of  Europe,  enlightened  by  the  experience  of 
all  ages,  stamps  with  its  disapprobation;"  and  complains  of  its  want- 
ing the  "  conservative  principle  of  social  order."  Where,  in  the  con- 
servative character  of  keeper  of  the  peace  of  Europe,  does  his  Imperial 
Majesty  discover  that  the  constitution  of  Spain 'had  been  stamped 
with  the  disapprobation  of  the  public  reason  of  Europe?  Let  the 
House  observe,  that  the  "  public  reason  of  Europe,  enlightened  by  the 
experience  of  all  ages,"  happens  to  be  that  of  his  Imperial  Majesty 
himself  for  the  last  ten  years  exactly,  and  no  more;  for,  notwithstand- 
ing that  he  had  the  "  experience  of  all  ages"  before  his  eyes  he  did,  in 
the  year  1812,  enter  into  a  treaty  with  Spain,  with  the  same  Cortes, 
under  the  same  constitution,  not  one  iota  of  which  had  been  changed 
up  to  that  very  hour.  In  that  treaty,  his  Imperial  Majesty  the  Empe- 
ror of  all  the  Rnssias,  speaking  of  the  then  government,  did  use  the 
very  word  by  which  he  and  his  allies  would  themselves  be  designated 
— the  word,  by  the  abuse  of  which  they  are  known — he  did  call  the 
Spanish  government  of  the  Cortes  "a  legitimate  government,"  that 
very  government — that  very  constitution — of  which  the  Spaniards 
have  not  changed  one  word;  and  God  forbid  they  should  change  even 
a  letter  of  it,  while  they  have  the  bayonet  of  the  foreign  soldier  at 
their  breast!  I  hope,  if  it  has  faults — and  some  faults  it  may  have — 
that  when  'he  hour  of  undisturbed  tranquillity  arrives,  the  Spaniards 
themselves  will  correct  them.  If  they  will  listen  to  the  ardent  wish 
of  their  best  friends— of  those  who  have  marked  their  progress,  and 
gloried  in  the  strides  they  have  made  towards  freedom  and  happiness 
— of  those  who  would  go  to  the  world's  end  to  serve  them  in  their 
illustrious  struggle — of  those,  above  all,  who  would  not  have  them 
yield  an  hair's  breadth  to  force — my  counsel  would  be  to  disarm  the 
reasonable  objections  of  their  friends,  but  not  to  give  up  anything  to 
the  menaces  of  their  enemies.  I  shall  not  go  more  into  detail  at  the 
present  moment;  for  ample  opportunities  will  occur  of  discussing  this 
subject;  but  I  will  ask,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  can  anything 
be  more  absurd,  more  inconsistent,  than  that  Spain  should  now  be 
repudiated  as  illegitimate  by  those,  some  of  whom  have,  in  treaties 
with  her,  described  her  government  in  its  present  shape,  by  the  very 
term,  "legitimate  government?"  In  the  treaty  of  friendship  and  alli- 
ance, concluded  in  1812,  between  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russia  and 
the  Spanish  Cortes,  Ferdinand  being  then  a  close  prisoner  in  France, 
his  Imperial  Majesty,  by  the  third  article,  acknowledges  in  express 
terms,  the  Cortes,  "  and  the  CONSTITUTION  sanctioned  and  decreed  by 
it."  This  article  I  cite  from  the  collection  of  Treaties  by  Martens,  a 
well  known  Germanic,  and  therefore  a  laborious  and  accurate  com- 
piler. 


348  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

But  not  only  is  the  conduct  of  the  allies  towards  Spain  inconsistent 
with  the  treaties  of  some  among  them  with  Spain — I  will  show  that 
their  principle  of  interference,  in  any  manner  of  way,  is  wholly  at  va- 
riance with  treaties  recently  made  amongst  themselves.  I  will  prove, 
that  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  a  late  treaty  is  decidedly  op- 
posed to  any  discussion  whatever  amongst  them,  respecting  the  inter- 
nal situation  of  that  country.  By  (he  4th  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle,  November  1818,  it  is  laid  down,  that  a  special  congress 
may  be  held,  from  time  to  time,  on  the  affairs  of  Europe.  Using  the 
words,  and  borrowing  the  hypocritical  cant  of  their  predecessors, 
the  same  three  powers  who  basely  partitioned  Poland — who,  while 
they  despoiled  a  helpless  nation  of  its  independence,  kept  preaching 
about  the  quiet  of  Europe,  the  integrity  of  its  states,  and  the  morality 
and  happiness  of  their  people — talking  daily  about  the  desire  of  calm 
repose,  the  atmosphere,  I  well  know,  in  which  despotism  loves  to 
breathe,  but  which  an  ancient  writer  eloquently  painted,  when  he  said, 
that  tyrants  mistake  for  peace  the  stillness  of  desolation — following 
the  vile  cant  of  their  ancestors — the  allies  declared,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
that  their  object  was  to  secure  the  tranquillity,  the  peace,  which  I, 
giving  them  credit  for  sincerity,  read  the  desolation,  of  Europe,  and 
that  their  fundamental  principle  should  be,  never  to  depart  from  a 
strict  adherence  to  the  law  of  nations.  "  Faithful  to  these  principles," 
(continued  this  half-sermon,  half-romance,  and  half-state-paper)  "they 
will  only  study  the  happiness  of  their  people,  the  progress  of  the 
peaceful  arts,  and  attend  carefully  to  the  interests  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion, of  late  years  unhappily  too  much  neglected" — here,  again,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  the  Autocratrix  Catherine — the  spoiler  of  Po- 
land— who,  having  wasted  and  pillaged  it,  province  after  province, 
poured  in  hordes  of  her  barbarians,  which  hewed  their  way  to  the 
capital  through  myriads  of  Poles,  and  there,  for  one  whole  day,  from 
the  rising  of  the  sun,  to  the  going  down  thereof,  butchered  its  unof- 
fending inhabitants,  unarmed  men,  and  women,  and  infants;  and  not 
content  with  this  work  of  undistinguishing  slaughter,  after  the  pause 
of  the  night  had  given  time  for  cooling,  rose  on  the  morrow,  and  re- 
newed the  carnage,  and  continued  it  throughout  that  endless  day; 
and  after  this,  a  Te  Deum  was  sung,  to  return  thanks  for  her  success 
over  the  enemies,  that  is,  the  natives,  of  Poland.  That  mild  and 
gentle  sovereign,  in  the  midst  of  these  most  horrible  outrages  upon 
every  feeling  of  human  nature,  issued  a  proclamation,  in  which  she 
assured  the  Poles,  (1  mean  to  give  her  very  words)  that  she  felt  to- 
wards them,  "the  solicitude  of  a  tender  mother,  whose  heart  is  only 
filled  with  sentiments  of  kindness  for  all  her  children."  Who  can,  or 
who  dares  doubt  that  she  was  all  she  described  herself;  and  who  can, 
after  the  experience  of  the  last  year,  dispute  the  legitimate  descent  of 
the  allied  powers,  and  the  purity  of  their  intentions  towards  Spain? 
But  along  with  this  declaration  of  the  object  of  future  congresses, 
came  the  article  which  I  should  like  to  see  some  German  statist — some 
man  versed  in  the  manufacture  of  state-papers — compare  with,  and 
reconcile  (if  it  only  may  be  done  within  a  moderate  compass)  to  the 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  349 

notes  fashioned  at  Verona,  not  unlikely  by  the  very  hands  which  pro- 
duced the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  article  is  this: — "Special 
congresses  concerning  the  affairs  of  states  not  parties  to  this  alliance, 
shall  not  take  place,  except"  (and  here  I  should  like  to  know  how 
Spain,  which  was  no  party  to  the  alliance,  has  brought  herself  within 
the  exception) — "except  in  consequence  of  a  formal  invitation  from 
such  states;"  "and  their  ambassadors  shall  assist  at  such  congresses." 
How  will  any  German  commentator  reconcile  these  contradictions? 
Here  the  interference  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Spain  is  not  only  not 
"  by  special  invitation"  from,  but  is  in  downright  opposition  to,  the 
will  of  Spain.  Thus  stands  the  conduct  of  those  Holy  Allies  diamet- 
rically opposed  to  their  own  professions  and  engagements,  and  by 
such  means  is  the  attempt  now  made  to  crush  the  independence  of  a 
brave  people. 

But  it  is  not  in  the  case  of  Spain  alone  that  the  consideration  of 
these  papers  is  important — they  furnish  grounds  of  rational  fear  to  all 
independent  governments;  for  I  should  be  glad  to  learn  what  case  it 
is  (upon  the  doctrines  now  advanced)  to  which  this  principle  of  inter- 
ference may  not  be  extended? — or  what  constitution  or  what  act  of 
state  it  is  on  which  the  authority  to  comment,  criticise,  and  dictate, 
may  not  be  assumed?  The  House  is  not  aware  of  the  latitude  to 
which  the  interference  of  those  armed  legislators  may  be,  nay  actually 
is,  extended.  The  revolt  of  the  colonies  is  distinctly  stated  as  one 
ground  of  interposition!  The  allies  kindly  offer  their  "  intervention" 
to  restore  this  great  branch  of"  the  strength  of  Spain."  There  is  no 
end  of  the  occasions  for  interfering  which  they  take.  One  is  rather 
alarming — the  accident  of  a  sovereign  having  weak  or  bad  ministers. 
Russia,  forsooth,  was  anxious  to  see  Ferdinand  surrounded  with  "the 
most  enlightened — most  faithful  of  his  subjects" — men  "of  tried  in- 
tegrity and  superior  talents" — men,  in  a  word,  who  should  be  every 
way  worthy  of  himself.  So  that,  according  to  these  wise  men  of  VTe- 
rona,  (and  this  is  a  consideration  which  should  he  looked  to  in  some 
other  countries,  as  well  as  Spain,)  the  existence  of  an  inefficient  or  un- 
principled administration,  would  be  of  itself  a  just  ground  of  interfe- 
rence. The  principle  does  not  stop  here.  "  Ruinous  loans"  form 
another  ground,  and  "contributions  unceasingly  renewed;"  "taxes 
which,  for  year  alter  year,  exhausted  the  public  treasures  and  the 
fortunes  of  individuals" — these  are  instances,  in  which  the  principle 
of  interference  may  apply  to  other  powers  beside  Spain;  ami  I  have 
no  doubt  that  when  tin:  same  doctrines  are  extended  to  certain  coun- 
tries, the  preparatory  manifesto  will  make  mention  of  agricultural  dis- 
tress, financial  embarrassment,  and  the  sinking  fund.  But,  to  complete; 
all  the  charges  against  Spain, the  Russian  Emperor  finishes,  his  invec- 
tive with  the  awful  assertion,  that,  on  the  7th  of  July,  "blood  was 
seen  to  How  in  the  palace  of  the  King, and  a  civil  war  raged  through- 
out the  Peninsula."  It  is  true  that  a  revolt  had  been  excited  in  soino 
of  the  provinces.  But  by  whom?  An  ally.  It  was  produced  by 
those  cordons  of  troops,  which  were  posted  on  the  Spanish  frontier, 
armed  with  gold  and  with  steel,  and  affording  shelter  and  assi 
VOL.  i. — JO 


350  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

by  force,  to  those  in  whose  minds  disaffection  had  been  excited  by 
bribery.  It  is  also  true  that  blood  has  been  shed.  But  would  it  not 
be  supposed,  by  any  person  unacquainted  with  the  fact,  and  who  only 
read  the  statement  in  the  manifesto,  that  this  was  blood  shed  in  an 
attempt  to  dethrone  Ferdinand,  and  introduce  some  new  and  unheard 
of  form  of  government?  At  any  rate,  does  not  this  statement  plainly 
intend  it  to  be  supposed,  that  the  constitutional  party  had  made  the 
onset,  and  shed  royalist,  if  not  royal  blood?  But  what  is  the  fact? 
A  few  persons  were  killed  who  had  first  attacked  the  constitutional- 
ists, in  other  words,  mutinied  against  the  established  government — the 
government  which  the  Emperor  Alexander  himself  recognized  as 
legitimate  in  1812;  and  this  he  has  now  the  audacity  to  call  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  by  Spaniards  in  the  palace  of  the  king! — As  well  might 
he  accuse  the  People,  the  Parliament,  and  the  Crown  of  England,  of 
causing  "  blood  to  flow  in  the  palace  of  the  king,"  for  ordering  their 
sentinels  to  fire  on  some  person  whom  they  found  attempting  to  assas- 
sinate the  sovereign,  as  accuse  the  Spaniards  of  such  a  crime,  for  the 
events  which  happened  in  July  1822. 

I  shall  pass  over  many  other  heavy  charges  levelled  at  the  Spaniards, 
in  phrases  of  terrible  import — as  harbouring  a  "disorganized  philoso- 
phy,"— "indulging  in  dreams  of  fallacious  liberty," — and  the  want 
of  "  venerable  and  sacred  rights,"  with  which  the  Prussian  note  is 
loaded  to  repletion:  and  shall  proceed  to  the  Russian,  which  objects 
to  the  Spaniards  their  want  of  the  "  true  conservative  principle  of 
social  order" — or,  in  other  words,  of  despotic  power,  in  the  hands  of 
one  man,  for  his  own  benefit,  at  the  expense  of  all  mankind  besides; 
and  to  their  not  falling  within  the  scope  of  those  "grand  truths," 
which,  though  they  were  ever  in  their  mouths,  were  nowhere  ex- 
plained by  any  one  of  the  three  sovereigns.  The  Austrian  note  dis- 
courses largely  of  "the  solid  and  venerable  claims"  which  the  Spanish 
nation  has  upon  the  rest  of  Europe:  prays  it  to  adopt  a  better  form  of 
government  than  it  has  at  present;  and  calls  upon  it  to  reject  a  system 
which  is  at  once  "powerful  and  paralyzed."  It  would  be  disgusting 
to  enter  at  any  length  into  papers,  at  once  so  despicable  in  their  exe- 
cution, and  in  their  plan  so  abominably  iniquitous.  There  is  but  one 
sentiment  held  regarding  them  out  of  the  House;  and  my  excuse  for 
taking  notice  of  them  now,  is  my  desire  to  call  forth  a  similar  expres- 
sion of  feeling  from  the  House  itself.  Monstrous,  and  insolent,  and 
utterly  unbearable,  as  all  of  them  are,  I  consider  that  of  Russia  to  be 
more  monstrous,  more  insolent,  and  more  prodigiously  beyond  all  en- 
durance, than  the  rest.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  which  most  to  ad 
mire — the  marvellous  incongruity  of  her  language  and  conduct  now, 
with  her  former  most  solemn  treaties — or  the  incredible  presumption 
of  her  standing  forward  to  lead  the  aggression  upon  the  independence 
of  all  free  and  polished  states.  Gracious  God!  Russia! — Russia!  — 
a  power  that  is  only  half  civilized — which,  with  all  her  colossal  mass 
of  physical  strength,  is  still  quite  as  much  Asiatic  as  European — 
whose  principles  of  policy,  foreign  and  domestic,  are  completely  des- 
potic, and  whose  practices  are  almost  altogether  oriental  and  barba- 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  351 

rous!  In  all  these  precious  documents,  there  is,  with  a  mighty  num- 
ber of  general  remarks,  mixed  up  a  wondrous  affectation  of  honest 
principles — a  great  many  words  covering  ideas  that  are  not  altogether 
clear  and  intelligible;  or,  if  they  happen  to  be  so,  only  placing  Jheir 
own  deformity  in  a  more  hideous  and  detestable  light:  but,  for  argu- 
ment, or  anything  like  it,  there  is  none  to  be  found  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  them.  They  reason  not,  but  speak  one  plain  lan- 
guage to  Spain  and  to  Europe,  and  this  is  its  sum  and  substance: — 
"  We  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of  hired  mercenaries,  and  we  will 
not  stoop  to  reason  with  those  whom  we  would  insult  and  enslave." 
I  admire  the  equal  frankness  with  which  this  haughty  language  had 
been  met  by  the  Spanish  government:  the  papers  which  it  had  sent 
forth  are  plain  and  laconic;  and  borrowing  for  liberty,  the  ancient 
privilege  of  tyrants — to  let  their  will  stand  in  the  place  of  argument 
— they  bluntly  speak  this  language; — "we  are  millions  of  freemen, 
and  will  not  stoop  to  reason  with  those  who  threaten  to  enslave  us." 
They  hurl  back  the  menace  upon  the  head  from  which  it  issued,  little 
caring  whether  it  came  from  Goth,  or  Hun,  or  Calmuck;  with  a  frank- 
ness that  outwitted  the  craft  of  the  Bohemian,  and  a  spirit  that  defied 
the  ferocity  of  the  Tartar,  and  a  firmness  that  mocks  the  obstinacy  of 
the  Vandal.  If  they  find  leagued  against  them  the  tyrants  by  whom 
the  world  is  infested,  they  may  console  themselves  with  this  reflection, 
that  wherever  there  is  an  Englishman,  either  of  the  old  world  or  of 
the  new — wherever  there  is  a  Frenchman,  with  the  miserable  excep- 
tion of  that  little  band  which  now,  for  a  moment,  sways  the  desti- 
nies of  France  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  and  interests  of  its  gallant 
and  liberal  people — a  people  which,  after  enduring  the  miseries  of  the 
Revolution,  and  wading  through  its  long  and  bloody  wars,  are  entitled, 
Heaven  knows,  if  ever  any  people  were,  to  a  long  enjoyment  of  peace 
and  liberty,  so  dearly  and  so  honourably  purchased — wherever  there 
breathes  an  Englishman  or  a  true-born  Frenchman — wherever  there 
beats  a  free  heart  or  exists  a  virtuous  mind,  there  Spain  has  a  natural 
ally,  and  an  inalienable  friend.  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  but  ad- 
mire the  mixture  of  firmness  and  forbearance  which  the  government 
of  Spain  has  exhibited.  When  the  Allied  Monarchs  were  pleased  to 
adopt  a  system  of  interference  with  the  internal  policy  of  Spain — 
when  they  thought  fit  to  deal  in  minute  and  paltry  criticisms  upon 
the  whole  course  of  its  domestic  administration — when  each  sentence 
in  their  manifestoes  was  a  direct  personal  insult  to  the  government,  nay 
to  every  individual  Spaniard — and  when  the  most  glaring  attempts 
were  made  in  all  their  state  papers  to  excite  rebellion  in  the  country, 
and  to  stir  up  one  class  of  the  community  against  the  other — it  would 
not  have  surprised  me,  if,  in  the  replies  of  the  Spanish  government 
some  allusion  had  been  made  to  the  domestic  policy  of  the  Allied 
Sovereigns;  or  if  some  of  the  allegations  which  had  been  so  lavishly 
cast  upon  it,  had  been  scornfully  retorted  upon  those  who  had  so  falsely 
and  so  insolently  called  them  forth.  What  could  have  been  more 
pardonable,  nay,  what  more  natural,  than  for  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment to  have  besought  his  Prussian  Majesty,  who  was  so  extremely 


352  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

anxious  for  the  welfare  and  good  government  of  Spain — who  had 
shown  himself  so  minute,  a  critic  on  its  laws  and  institutions,  and  who 
seemed  so  well  versed  in  its  recent  history — to  remember  the  promises 
which  he  made  some  years  ago  to  his  own  people,  by  whose  gallant 
exertions,  on  the  faith  of  those  promises,  he  had  regained  his  lost 
crown?  What  would  have  been  more  natural  than  to  have  suggested, 
that  it  would  be  better,  ay,  and  safer  too  in  the  end,  to  keep  those 
promises,  than  to  maintain,  at  his  people's  cost,  and  almost  to  their 
ruin,  a  prodigious  army,  only  safely  employed  when  in  the  act  of 
ravaging  the  territories,  or  putting  down  the  liberties,  of  his  neigh- 
bours? The  government  of  Spain  would  have  had  a  right  to  make 
such  representations,  for  his  Prussian  Majesty  owed  much,  very  much, 
to  its  exertions;  indeed,  the  gallant  resistance  which  it  made  to  the 
invasion  of  Buonaparte  had  alone  enabled  Prussia  to  shake  off  the 
yoke;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Spaniards  owed  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  the  brave  and  honest  people  of  Prussia  for  beginning  the  resist- 
ance to  Buonaparte  in  the  north.  Could  any  thing,  I  will  also  ask, 
have  been  more  natural  for  the  Spanish  government,  than  to  have 
asked  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  whether  he  who  now  pretended  to  be 
so  scrupulously  fond  of  strict  justice  in  Ferdinand's  case,  when  it  cost 
him  nothing,  or  must  prove  a  gain,  had  always  acted  with  equal  jus- 
tice towards  others,  when  he  was  himself  concerned?  Could  anything 
have  been  more  natural,  than  suggesting  to  him,  that  before  he  was 
generous  to  King  Ferdinand,  he  might  as  well  be  just  to  King  George; 
that  he  had  better  not  rob  the  one  to  pay  the  other — nay,  that  he  ought 
to  return  him  the  whole,  or  at  any  rate,  some  part  of  the  millions, 
principal  and  interest,  which  he  owed  him? — a  debt  which,  remaining 
unpaid,  wastes  the  resources  of  a  faithful  ally  of  Spain,  and  tends 
mightily  to  cripple  his  exertions  in  her  behalf.  I  wish  likewise  to 
know  what  could  have  been  more  natural — nay,  if  the  doctrine  of 
interference  in  the  internal  concerns  of  neighbouring  nations  be  at  all 
admitted — what  could  have  been  more  rightful,  in  a  free  people,  than 
to  have  asked  him  how  it  happened  that  his  dungeons  were  filled 
with  all  that  was  noble,  and  accomplished,  and  virtuous, and  patriotic 
in  the  Milanese? — to  have  called  on  him  to  account  for  the  innocent 
blood  which  he  had  shed  in  the  north  of  Italy? — to  have  required  at 
his  hands  satisfaction  for  the  tortures  inflicted  in  the  vaults  and  caverns 
where  the  flower  of  his  Italian  subjects  were  now  languishing? — to 
have  demanded  of  him  some  explanation  of  that  iron  policy  which 
has  consigned  fathers  of  families,  the  most  virtuous  and  exalted  in 
Europe,  not  to  the  relief  of  exile  or  death,  but  to  a  merciless  imprison- 
ment for  ten,  fifteen,  and  twenty  years,  nay,  even  for  life,  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  charge  against  them,  or  the  crime  for  which  they  are 
punished?  Even  the  Emperor  Alexander  himself,  tender  and  sensitive 
as  he  is  at  the  sight  of  blood  flowing  within  the  precincts  of  a  royal 
palace, — a  sight  so  monstrous,  that  if  his  language  could  be  credited, 
it  had  never  before  been  seen  in  the  history  of  the  world, — might  have 
been  reminded  of  passages  in  that  history,  calculated  to  lessen  his 
astonishment  at  least,  if  not  to  soothe  his  feelings;  for  the  Emperor 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  353 

Alexander,  if  the  annals  of  Russian  story  may  be  trusted,  however 
pure  in  himself,  and  however  happy  in  always  having  agents  equally 
innocent,  is  nevertheless  descended  from  an  illustrious  line  of  ances- 
tors, who  have,  with  exemplary  uniformity,  dethroned,  imprisoned, 
and  slaughtered,  husbands,  brothers,  and  children.  Not  that  I  can 
dream  of  imputing  those  enormities  to  the  parents,  or  sisters,  or  con- 
sorts; but  it  does  happen  that  those  exalted  and  near  relations  had 
never  failed  to  reap  the  whole  benefit  of  the  atrocities,  and  had  ever 
failed  to  bring  the  perpetrators  to  justice.  In  these  circumstances,  if 
I  had  had  the  honour  of  being  in  the  confidence  of  his  Majesty  of  all 
the  Russias,  I  should  have  been  the  last  person  in  the  world  to  counsel 
my  Imperial  Master  to  touch  upon  so  tender  a  topic — I  should  humbly 
have  besought  him  to  think  twice  or  thrice,  nay,  even  a  third  and  a 
fourth  time,  before  he  ventured  to  allude  to  so  delicate  a  subject — I 
should,  with  all  imaginable  deference,  have  requested  him  to  meddle 
with  any  other  topic — I  should  have  directed  him  by  preference  to 
every  other  point  of  the  compass — I  should  have  implored  him  rather 
to  try  what  he  could  say  about  Turkey,  or  Greece,  or  even  Minorca, 
on  which  he  has  of  late  been  casting  many  an  amorous  glance — in 
short,  anything  and  everything,  before  he  approached  the  subject  of 
"  blood  flowing  within  the  precincts  of  a  royal  palace,"  and  placed  his 
allusion  to  it  like  an  artful  rhetorician,  upon  the  uppermost  step  of 
his  climax.  I  find,  likewise,  in  these  self-same  documents,  a  topic 
for  which  the  Spanish  government,  had  it  been  so  inclined,  might 
have  administered  to  the  Holy  Alliance  another  severe  lecture;  I  allude 
to  the  glib  manner  in  which  the  three  Potentates  now  talk  of  an  indi- 
vidual, who,  let  his  failings  or  even  his  crimes  be  what  they  may, 
must  always  be  regarded  as  a  great  and  a  resplendent  character — 
who,  because  he  was  now  no  longer  either  upon  a  throne  or  at  liberty, 
or  even  in  life,  is  described  by  them,  not  merely  as  an  ambitious  ruler, 
not  merely  as  an  arbitrary  tyrant,  but  as  an  upstart  and  an  usurper. 
This  is  not  the  language  which  those  Potentates  formerly  employed, 
nor  is  it  the  language  which  they  were  now  entitled  to  use  regarding 
this  astonishing  individual.  Whatever  epithets  England,  for  instance, 
or  Spain,  may  have  a  right  to  apply  to  his  conduct,  the  mouths  of  the 
allies  at  least  are  stopped:  they  can  have  no  right  to  call  him  usurper 
— they  who,  in  Ins  usurpations,  had  been  either  most  greedy  accom- 
plices or  most  willing  tools.  What  entitles  the  King  of  Prussia  to 
hold  such  language  now? — he  who  followed  his  fortunes  with  the 
most  shameless  subserviency,  after  the  thorough  beating  he  received 
from  him,  when  trampled  upon  and  trodden  down  in  the  year  1SOG? 
Before  he  had  risen  again  and  recovered  the  upright  attitude  of  a  man, 
he  fell  upon  his  knees,  and  still  crouching  before  him  who  had  made 
him  crawl  in  the  dust,  kissed  the  blood-stained  hand  of  Napoleon  for 
leave  to  keep  his  Britannic  Majesty's  foreign  dominions,  the  Electo- 
rate of  Hanover,  which  the  Prussian  had  snatched  hold  of  while  at 
peace  with  England.  So  the  Emperor  Alexander,  after  he  had  also 
undergone  the  like  previous  ceremony,  did  not  disdain  to  lick  up  the 
crumbs  which  foil  from  the  table  of  his  more  successful  rival  in  usur- 

30* 


354  HOLT  ALLIANCE. 

pation.  Little,  it  is  true,  was  left  by  the  edge  of  Gallic  appetite;  but 
rather  than  have  nothing — rather  than  desert  the  true  Russian  princi- 
ple of  getting  something  on  every  occasion,  either  in  Europe  or  in 
Asia,  (and  of  late  years  they  haveeven  laid  claim  to  an  almost  indefinite 
naval  dominion  in  America) — rather  than  forego  the  Calmnck  policy 
for  the  last  century  and  a  half,  of  always  adding  something,  be  it  ever 
so  little,  to  what  was  already  acquired,  be  it  ever  so  great — he  con- 
descended to  receive  from  the  hand  of  Buonaparte  a  few  square 
leagues  of  territory,  with  an  additional  population  of  some  two  or 
three  thousand  serfs.  The  object  was  trifling  indeed,  but  it  served 
to  keep  alive  the  principle.  The  tender  heart  of  the  father,  over- 
flowing, as  his  imperial  grandmother  had  phrased  it,  with  the  milk  of 
human  kindness  for  all  his  children,  could  not  be  satisfied  without 
receiving  a  further  addition  to  their  numbers;  and  therefore  it  is  not 
surprising,  that  on  the  next  ocasion  he  should  be  ready  to  seize,  in 
more  effectual  exemplification  of  the  principle,  a  share  of  the  booty, 
large  in  proportion  as  his  former  one  had  been  small.  The  Emperor 
of  Austria,  too,  who  had  entered  before  the  others  into  the  raee  for 
plunder,  and  never  weary  in  ill-doing,  had  continued  in  it  till  the  very 
end — he  who,  if  not  an  accomplice  with  the  Jacobins  of  France  in  the 
spoliation  of  Venice,  was  at  least  a  receiver  of  the  stolen  property — a 
felony,  of  which  it  was  well  said  at  the  time  in  the  House,  that  the 
receiver  was  as  bad  as  the  thief — that  magnanimous  Prince,  who, 
after  twenty  years  alternation  of  truckling  and  vapouring — now  the 
feeble  enemy  of  Buonaparte,  now  his  willing  accomplice — constantly 
punished  for  his  resistance,  by  the  discipline  invariably  applied  to 
those  mighty  Princes  in  the  tenderest  places,  their  capitals,  from  which 
they  were  successively  driven — as  constantly,  after  punishment,  join- 
ing the  persecutor,  like  the  rest  of  them,  in  attacking  and  plundering 
his  allies — ended,  by  craving  the  honour  of  giving  Buonaparte  his 
favourite  daughter  in  marriage.  Nay,  after  the  genius  of  Buonaparte 
had  fallen  under  the  still  more  powerful  restlessness  of  his  ambition 
— when  the  star  of  his  destiny  had  waned,  and  the  fortune  of  the 
Allies  was  triumphant,  through  the  roused  energies  of  their  gallant 
people,  the  severity  of  the  elements,  his  own  turbulent  passions  and 
that  without  which  the  storms  of  popular  ferment,  and  Russian  winter, 
and  his  own  ambition,  would  have  raged  in  vain,  the  aid  of  English 
arms,  and  skill,  and  gallantry — strange  to  tell,  these  very  men  were 
the  first  to  imitate  that  policy  against  which  they  had  inveighed  and 
struggled,  and  to  carry  it  farther  than  the  enemy  himself  in  all  its  most 
detestable  points.  I  maintain  that  it  is  so;  for  not  even  by  his  bitter- 
est slanderers  was  Buonaparte  ever  accused  of  actions  so  atrocious  as 
was  the  spoliation  of  Norway,  the  partition  of  Saxony,  the  transfer  of 
Genoa,  and  the  cession  of  Ragusa,  perpetrated  by  those  in  whose 
mouths  no  sound  had  been  heard  for  years  but  that  of  lamentation 
over  the  French  attacks  upon  national  independence.  It  is  too  much, 
after  such  deeds  as  these — it  is  too  much,  after  the  Allies  had  sub- 
mitted to  a  long  course  of  crouching  before  Buonaparte,  accompanied 
by  every  aggravation  of  disgrace — it  is  too  much  for  them  now  to 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  355 

come  forth,  and  calumniate  his  memory  for  transactions,  in  the  benefits 
of  which  they  participated  at  the  time,  as  his  accomplices,  and  the 
infamy  of  which  they  have  since  surpassed  with  the  usual  exaggera- 
tion of  imitators.  I  rejoice  that  the  Spaniards  have  only  such  men 
as  these  to  contend  with.  I  know  that  there  are  fearful  odds  when 
battalions  are  arrayed  against  principles.  I  may  feel  solicitous  about 
the  issue  of  such  a  contest.  But  it  is  some  consolation  to  reflect,  that 
those  embodied  hosts  are  not  aided  by  the  merits  of  their  chiefs,  and 
that  all  the  weight  of  character  is  happily  on  one  side.  It  gives  me, 
however,  some  pain  to  find  that  a  monarch  so  enlightened  as  the  King 
of  France  has  shown  himself  on  various  occasions,  should  have  yielded 
obedience,  even  for  an  instant,  to  the  arbitrary  mandates  of  this  ty- 
rannic junto.  I  trust  that  it  will  only  prove  a  temporary  aberration 
from  the  sounder  principles  on  which  he  has  hitherto  acted:  I  hope 
that  the  men  who  appear  to  have  gained  his  confidence  only  to  abuse 
it,  will  soon  be  dismissed  from  his  councils;  or  if  not,  that  the  voice  of 
the  country,  whose  interests  they  are  sacrificing  to-  rheir  wretched 
personal  views,  and  whose  rising  liberties  they  seem  anxious  to 
destroy,  in  gratification  of  their  hatred  and  bigotry,  will  compel  them 
to  pursue  a  more  manly  and  more  liberal  policy.  Indeed,  the  King  of 
France  has  been  persuaded  by  the  parasites  who  at  present  surround 
him,  to  go  even  beyond  the  principles  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  He  has 
been  induced  to  tell  the  world,  that  it  is  from  the  hands  of  a  tyrant 
alone  that  a  free  people  can  hold  a  constitution.  That  accomplished 
Prince — and  all  Europe  acknowledges  him  to  be,  amongst  other  things 
a  finished  scholar, — cannot  but  be  aware  that  the  wise  and  good  men 
of  former  times  held  far  other  opinions  upon  this  subject;  and  if  I 
venture  to  remind  him  of  a  passage  in  a  recently  recovered  work  of 
the  greatest  philosopher  of  the  ancient  world,  ii  is  in  the  sincere  hope 
thai  his  Majesty  will  consider  it  with  all  ihe  attention  that  is  due  to 
such  hi^h  authority.  That  great  man  said,  "  Xon  in  ulla  civitate,  nisi 
in  qua  suniina  potestas  populi  cst,  ullmn  domicilium  libertas  habet." 
I  recommend  to  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  the  reflection,  that  this 
lesson  came  not  only  from  the  wisdom  of  so  great  a  philosopher,  but 
also  from  the  experience  of  so  great  a  statesman.  I  would  have  him 
remember  that,  like  himself,  he  lived  in  times  of  great  dilliculty  and 
of  great  danger — that  he  had  to  contend  with  the  most  formidable  con- 
spiracy to  which  the  life,  property,  and  liberty  of  the  citizen  had  ever 
been  exposed — that,  to  defeat  it,  he  had  recourse  only  to  the  powers 
of  the  constitution — threw  himself  on  tin;  good  will  of  his  patriotic 
countrymen — and  only  put  forth  the  powers  of  his  own  genius,  and 
only  used  the  wholesome  vigour  of  the  law.  He  never  thought  of 
calling  to  his  assistance  the  Allobroges,  or  the  Teutones,  or  the  Scy- 
thians of  his  day;  and  I  now  say,  that  if  Louis  XVIII  shall  call  upon 
the  modern  Tentones  or  Scythians  to  assist  him  in  this  unholy  war, 
the  day  their  hordes  move  towards  the  Rhine,  judgment  will  go  forth 
against  him,  and  his  family,  and  his  councillors;  and  the  dynasty  of 
Gaul  has  ceased  to  reign. 

What,  I  ask,  are  the  grounds  on  which  the  necessity  of  this  war 


356  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

is  defended?  It  is  said  to  be  undertaken  because  an  insurrection  has 
broken  out  with  success  at  Madrid.  I  deny  this  to  be  the  fact. 
What  is  called  an  insurrection,  was  an  attempt  to  restore  the  law- 
ful constitution  of  the  country — a  constitution  which  was  its  estab- 
lished government,  till  Ferdinand  overthrew  it  by  means  of  a  mu- 
tiny in  the  army;  and  therefore,  when  a  military  movement  enabled 
the  friends  of  liberty  to  recover  what  they  had  lost,  it  is  a  gross  per- 
version of  language  to  call  this  recovery,  this  restoration,  by  the 
name  of  insurrection, — an  insidious  confusion  of  terms,  which  can 
only  be  intended  to  blind  the  reason,  or  play  upon  the  prejudices,  of 
the  honest  part  of  mankind.  Let  the  pretext,  however,  for  the  war, 
be  what  it  may,  the  real  cause  of  it  is  not  hard  to  conjecture.  It  is 
not  from  hatred  to  Spain  or  to  Portugal  that  the  Allied  Sovereigns 
are  for  marching  their  swarms  of  barbarians  into  the  Peninsula — it 
is  not  against  freedom  on  the  Ebro,  or  freedom  on  the  Miucio,  they 
make  war.  No,  it  is  against  freedom! — against  freedom  wherever 
it  is  to  be  found — freedom  by  whomsoever  enjoyed — freedom  by 
whatever  means  achieved,  by  whatever  institutions  secured.  Free- 
dom is  the  object  of  their  implacable  hate.  For  its  destruction,  they 
are  ready  to  exhaust  every  resource  of  force  and  fraud.  All  the 
blessings  which  it  bestows, — all  the  establishments  in  which  it  is  em- 
bodied, the  monuments  that  are  raised  to  it,  and  the  miracles  that  are 
wrought  by  it, — they  hate  with  the  malignity  of  demons,  who  trem- 
ble while  they  are  compelled  to  adore;  for  they  quiver  by  instinct  at 
the  sound  of  its  name.  And  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves;  these  des- 
pots can  have  but  little  liking  toward  this  nation  and  its  institutions, 
more  especially  our  Parliament  and  our  Press.  As  long  as  England 
remains  unenslaved;  as  long  as  the  Parliament  continues  a  free  and 
open  tribunal,  to  which  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  under  heaven 
can  appeal  against  their  oppressors,  however  mighty  and  exalted — 
and  with  all  its  abuses,  (and  no  man  can  lament  them  more  than  I  do, 
because  no  man  is  more  sensible  of  its  intrinsic  value,  which  those 
abuses  diminish),  with  all  its  imperfections,  (and  no  man  can  be  more 
anxious  to  remove  them,  because  none  wishes  more  heartily,  by  re- 
storing its  original  purity,  to  make  it  entirely  worthy  of  the  country's 
love), — it  is  still  far  too  pure  and  too  free  to  please  the  taste  of  the 
continental  despots — so  long  would  England  be  the  object  of  their 
hatred,  and  of  machinations,  sometimes  carried  on  covertly,  some- 
times openly,  but  always  pursued  with  the  same  unremitting  activity, 
and  pointed  to  the  same  end. — But  it  is  not  free  states  alone  that 
have  to  dread  this  system  of  interference;  this  plan  of  marching  armies 
to  improve  the  political  condition  of  foreign  nations.  It  is  idle  to 
suppose  that  those  armed  critics  will  confine  their  objections  to  the 
internal  policy  of  popular  governments.  Can  any  one  imagine,  that, 
if  there  be  a  portion  of  territory  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Emperor 
Alexander  peculiarly  suited  to  his  views,  he  will  not  soon  be  able  to 
discover  some  fault,  to  spy  out  some  flaw  in  its  political  institutions 
requiring  his  intervention,  however  little  these  may  savour  of  demo- 
cracy, supposing  it  even  to  be  a  part  of  the  Ottoman  government  itself? 


WAR  WITH  SPAIN.  357 

If  his  Imperial  Majesty  be  present  in  council  with  his  consistory  of 
jurists  and  diplomatists,  I  believe  that  it  will  be  in  vain  for  the  Ule- 
niah  to  send  a  deputation  of  learned  Muftis,  for  the  purpose  of  vindi- 
cating the  Turkish  institutions.  These  sages  of  the  law  may  contend 
that  the  Ottoman  government  is  of  the  most  "venerable  description" 
— that  it  has  "antiquity  in  its  favour" — that  it  is  in  full  possession  of 
"the  conservative  principle  of  social  order'' in  its  purest  form — that 
it  is  replete  with  "grand  truths;" — a  system  "  powerful  and  para- 
lyzed"— that  it  has  never  lent  an  ear  to  the  doctrines  of  a  "  disor- 
ganized philosophy" — never  indulged  in  "vain  theories,"  nor  been 
visited  by  such  things  as  "dreams  of  fallacious  liberty."  All  this  the 
learned  and  reverend  deputies  of  the  Ulemah  may  urge,  and  may 
maintain  to  be  true  as  holy  Koran:  still  "The  Three  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,"  I  fear,  will  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  argument,  and  set  about 
prying  for  some  imperfection  in  the  "  pure  and  venerable  system" — 
some  avenue  by  which  to  enter  the  territory;  and,  if  they  cannot  find 
a  way,  will  probably  not  be  very  scrupulous  about  making  one.  The 
windings  of  the  path  may  be  hard  to  trace,  but  the  result  of  the  opera- 
tion will  be  plain  enough.  In  about  three  months  from  the  time  of 
deliberation,  the  Emperor  Alexander  will  be  found  one  morning  at 
Constantinople — or  if  it  suit  him,  at  Minorca — for  he  has  long  shown 
a  desire  to  have  some  footing,  in  what  he  pleasantly  termed  the 
"western  provinces"  of  Europe,  which,  in  the  Muscovite  tongue,  sig- 
nifies the  petty  territories  of  France  and  Spain,  while  Austria  and 
Prussia  will  be  invited  to  look  for  an  indemnity  elsewhere;  the  latter, 
as  formerly,  taking  whatever  the  King  of  England  may  have  on  the 
Continent.  The  principles  on  which  this  band  of  confederated  despots 
have  shown  their  readiness  to  act,  are  dangerous  in  the  extreme,  not 
only  to  free  states,  (and  to  those  to  which  no  liberty  can  be  imputed), 
but  also  to  the  states  over  which  the  very  members  of  this  unholy 
league  preside.  Resistance  to  them  is  a  matter  of  duty  to  all  nations, 
and  the  duty  of  this  country  is  especially  plain.  It  behoves  us,  how- 
ever, to  take  care  that  we  rush  not  blindly  into  a  war.  An  appeal 
to  arms  is  the  last  alternative  we  should  try,  but  still  it  ought  never 
to  be  so  foreign  to  our  thoughts  as  to  be  deemed  very  distant,  much 
less  impossible;  or  so  foreign  from  our  councils  as  to  leave  us  unpre- 
pared. Already,  if  there  is  any  force  in  language,  or  any  validity  in 
public  engagements,  we  are  committed  by  the  defensive  treaties  into 
which  we  have  entered.  We  are  bound  by  various  ties  to  prevent 
Portugal  from  being  overrun  by  an  enemy.  If  (which  Heaven  avert!) 
Spain  were  overrun  by  foreign  invaders,  what  would  be  the  situation 
of  Portugal? — Her  frontier  on  the  side  of  Spain  can  scarcely  be  said 
to  have  an  existence;  there  is  no  defending  it  anywhere;  and  it  is  in 
many  places  a  mere  imaginary  line,  that  can  only  be  traced  on  the 
page  of  the  geographer;  her  real  frontier  is  in  the  Pyrenees;  her  real 
defence  is  in  their  fastnesses  and  in  the  defence  of  Spain;  whenever 
those  passes  are  crossed,  the  danger  which  has  reached  Spain  will 
hang  over  Portugal.  If  we  acknowledge  the  force  of  treaties,  and 
really  mean  that  to  be  performed  for  which  we  engaged,  though  we 


358  HOLY  ALLIANCE. 

may  not  be  bound  to  send  an  army  of  observation  to  watch  the  mo- 
tions of  the  French  by  land,  because  that  would  be  far  from  the  surest 
way  of  providing  for  the  integrity  of  our  ally,  at  least  we  are  bound 
to  send  a  naval  armament;  to  aid  with  arms  and  stores;  to  have  at  all 
times  the  earliest  information;  and  to  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  give 
effectual  assistance  to  our  ancient  ally.  Above  all  things,  we  ought 
to  do  that  which  of  itself  will  be  a  powerful  British  armament  by  sea 
and  by  land — repeal  without  delay  the  Foreign  Enlistment  Bill — a 
measure  which,  in  my  opinion,  we  ought  never  to  have  enacted,  for 
it  does  little  credit  to  us  either  in  policy  or  justice.  I  will  not,  how- 
ever, look  backward  to  measures  on  the  nature  of  which  all  may  not 
agree;  I  will  much  rather  look  forward,  to  avoid  every  matter  of  vitu- 
peration, reserving  all  blame  for  the  foreign  tyrants  whose  profligate 
conduct  makes  this  nation  hate  them  with  one  heart  and  soul,  and 
my  co-operation  for  any  faithful  servant  of  the  Crown,  who  shall,  in 
performing  his  duty  to  his  country,  to  freedom,  and  to  the  world, 
speak  a  language  that  is  truly  British — pursue  a  policy  that  is  truly 
free — and  look  to  free  states  as  our  best  and  most  natural  allies  against 
all  enemies  whatsoever;  allies  upon  principle,  but  whose  friendship 
was  also  closely  connected  with  our  highest  interests; — quarrelling 
with  none,  whatever  may  be  the  form  of  their  government,  for  that 
would  be  copying  the  faults  we  condemn; — keeping  peace  wherever 
we  could,  but  not  leaving  ourselves  a  moment  unprepared  for  war; — 
not  courting  hostilities  from  any  quarter,  but  not  fearing  the  issue, 
and  calmly  resolved  to  brave  it  at  all  hazards,  should  it  involve  us  in 
the  affray  with  them  all; — determined  to  maintain,  amid  every  sacri- 
fice, the  honour  and  dignity  of  the  Crown,  the  independence  of  the 
country,  the  ancient  law  of  nations,  the  supremacy  of  all  separate 
states;  all  those  principles  which  are  cherished  as  most  precious  and 
most  sacred  by  the  whole  civilized  world, 


OX  THE 


SLAVE    TRADE    AND    SLAVERY 


INTRODUCTION. 

MR.  WILBERFORCE MR.  GRANVILLE  SHARP — MR.  CLARKSON. 

THE  history  of  the  Slave  Trade  is  too  fresh  in  the  recollections  of  men,  to  require 
any  full  details  in  this  place.  As  soon  as  South  America  began  to  be  explored  by 
the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  it  was  found  that  the  speculations  of  their  insatiable 
avarice,  which  the  plunder  and  torture  of  the  natives  had  only  for  the  moment 
appeased,  could  not  be  permanently  carried  on  without  a  supply  of  hands  to  work 
the  mines,  and  to  cultivate  in  the  islands,  the  rich  produce  of  tropical  climates. 
The  Indians,  a  feeble  race,  unused  to  toil,  were  soon  exceedingly  reduced  in  num- 
bers; and  the  practice  was  instituted  of  bringing  over  Negroes  from  the  coast  of 
Africa.  The  shortness  of  the  distance  between  that  continent  and  the  Brazils  first 
suggested  this  traffic  to  the  Portuguese,  who  had  settlements  on  the  African  coast; 
but  it  was  not  followed  to  any  great  extent,  or  in  a  regular  manner.  The  specu- 
lators of  New  Spain,  however,  soon  felt  the  want  of  hands  to  work  their  mines 
and  cultivate  their  lands;  and  Bartolomeo  de  las  Casas,  a  friar  of  the  Dominican 
order,  who  had  charitably  devoted  his  life  to  the  protection  of  the  unhappy  Indians, 
treated  like  cattle,  only  that  they  were  more  inhumanly  used  by  their  cruel  and 
profligate  taskmasters,  now  joined  in  the  scheme,  if  he  did  not  first  suggest  it,  of 
supplying  their  place  with  African  Negroes.  He  never  reflected,  says  the  his- 
torian, "upon  the  iniquity  of  reducing  one  race  of  men  to  slavery,  while  consult- 
ing about  the  means  of  granting  liberty  to  another;  but,  with  the  inconsistency 
natural  to  men  who  hurry  with  headlong  impetuosity  towards  a  favourite  point,  in 
the  warmth  of  his  zeal  to  save  the  Americans  from  the  yoke,  pronounced  it  lawful 
and  expedient  to  impose  one  much  heavier  upon  the  Africans."*  Charles  V 
granted  a  patent  for  introducing  four  thousand  Negroes  yearly  into  Spanish  Ame- 
rica, and  thus  was  begun  that  horrible  traffic  which  immediately  began  to  ravage 
Africa,  and  ended  in  exposing  the  American  continent  to  the  utmost  peril,  while  it 
brought  eternal  disgrace  upon  the  Christian  profession  and  the  European  name. 

After  this  scourge  had  been  suffered  to  desolate  Africa,  and  to  disgrace  mankind 
for  two  centuries  and  a  half,  the  attention  of  men  was  at  length  directed  to  it  by 
some  eminent  philanthropists  of  this  country.  Among  these,  a  high  place  must 
be  assigned  to  (Jranville  Sharp,  than  whom  a  purer  spirit  never  resided  in  the 
human  form.  With  a  perseverance  which  is  only  not  unexampled  because  it  set  an 
example  afterwards  followed  by  other  labourers  in  the  same  cause;  with  a  bene- 
volence which  was  quite  universal,  and  made  the  aspect  of  human  suffering  so 
painful  to  him,  that  he  would  suffer  any  privation  to  lessen  it;  with  a  piety  which, 

*  Robertson's  America. 


360  INTRODUCTION. 

though  it  rose  to  an  enthusiasm  that  oftentimes  warped  his  otherwise  clear  and 
sound  judgment,  was  yet  wholly  unattended  with  any  the  least  vestige  of  harsh- 
ness or  intolerance;  he  pursued,  in  privacy  and  seclusion,  the  paths  of  charity 
which  lead  to  no  fame  among  men,  which  conduct  to  that  peace  the  world  cannot 
give,  and  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  hide  a  multitude  of  transgressions,  if 
Granville  Sharp  had  had  any  transgressions  to  hide.  But  he  was  not  a  mere  tole- 
rant follower  of  religion,  and  anxious  dispenser  of  secret  benevolence,  high  and 
rare  as  these  attributes  are.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  and 
could  maintain  the  parts  of  lettered  controversy,  classical  and  theological,  with 
the  most  accomplished  scholars  in  the  church.  The  wholesale  violation  of  all 
human  rights,  and  flagrant  wreck  of  all  Christian  duties,  with  which  the  Slave 
Trade  and  West  Indian  slavery  had  so  long  outraged  and  insulted  the  world,  early 
attracted  his  regard;  and  he  persevered  in  trying  the  legal  question,  at  first  held 
to  be  desperate — How  far  a  slave  coming  to  this  country  under  the  power  of  his 
master,  continues  subject  to  that  authority,  or  gains  his  personal  liberty  in  com- 
mon with  the  other  subjects  of  the  realm.  Although  not  bred  to  the  legal  pro- 
fession, he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  law,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting 
this  contention;  he  enlightened  lawyers  with  the  result  of  his  researches;  he 
overpowered  opposition  by  the  force  and  the  closeness  of  his  reasonings;  he  dis- 
armed all  personal  opposition  by  the  unruffled  serenity  of  his  temper,  the  unequalled 
suavity  of  his  simple  yet  frank  and  honest  manners;  he  gave  his  fortune,  as  well 
as  his  toil,  to  the  cause;  and  he  ceased  not  until  he  obtained  the  celebrated  judg- 
ment of  the  King's  Bench,  so  honourable  to  the  law  and  constitution  of  this  coun- 
try, that  a  slave  cannot  touch  our  soil,  but  immediately  his  chains  fall  away.  This 
is  that  famous  case  of  Somerset  the  Negro,*  which  has  for  ever  fixed  the  great 
principle  of  personal  liberty,  by  promoting  which  Granville  Sharp  did  more  than 
had  ever  before  been  done  towards  bringing  slavery  into  an  odious  conflict  with 
the  spirit  of  British  jurisprudence.  He  stopped  not  here,  however,  but  continued 
a  zealous  and  useful  coadjutor  through  the  long  period  of  his  after  life,  in  all  that 
related  to  the  extinction  of  the  African  trafBc,  and  the  slavery  of  the  colonies. 

He  was  soon  after  followed  in  his  bright  cpurse  by  Thomas  Clarkson,  of  whom 
it  has  been  justly  said,  nor  can  higher  praise  be  earned  by  man,  that  to  the  great 
and  good  qualities  of  Las  Casas — his  benevolence — his  unwearied  perseverance — 
his  inflexible  determination  of  purpose — piety  which  would  honour  a  saint — cou- 
rage which  would  accomplish  a  martyr — he  added  the  sound  judgment  and  strict 
sense  of  justice  which  were  wanting  in  the  otherwise  perfect  character  of  the 

*  This  case  is  very  fully  and  learnedly  argued  in  Mr.  Margrave's  Juridical  Tracts, 
where  a  very  expanded  statement  of  his  argument  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  is  given. 
Tlie  question  came  on  by  the  Negro  body  applying,  in  the  year  1771,  for  a  writ  of  Habeas 
Corpus,  which  Lord  Mansfield,  who  issued  it,  desired  might  be  argued  in  court  on  the 
return  being  made.  Mr.  Wallace,  Mr.  Alleyne,  and  Mr.  ILirgrave  argued  for  the  slave's 
freedom,  Mr.  Dunning  and  Sergeant  Davy  against  it.  The  court,  utter  taking  time  to 
consider,  gave  judgment  for  the  slave  in  177:2.  Lord  Mansfield  said  of  slavery,  in  con- 
cluding his  judgment,  "Slavery  is  so  odious,  that  nothing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it 
but  positive  law,  and  it  is  not  allowed  or  approved  by  the  law  of  England." 

The  same  question  had  arisen  in  Scotland,  some  years  before,  in  the  case  of  Shcddan, 
a  Negro.  During  the  argument  before  the  Court  of  Session,  (a  hearing  in  presence,  as  it 
is  there  termed,)  he  died,  and  the  point  was  left  undecided  until  the  year  1778,  when  the 
court  determined,  in  favour  of  the  slaves,  in  the  case  of  Wedderburn  v.  Knight,  as  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench  had  done  in  Somerset's  case. 

In  France,  the  same  question  arose  in  1731,  and  the  argument  is  given  at  large  in  the 
Causfs  Celebris.  The  advocates  all  dwelt  with  much  complacency  upon  the  topic,  so 
familiar  to  us  in  this  country,  that  the  moment  a  slave  touches  French  ground  he  is  free, 
slavery  being  utterly  repugnant  to  their  law,  and  the  air  of  France  being  too  pure  to  be 
breathed  but  by  freemen;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  admitted  that  the  Negro's  freedom 
was  secured  to  him  at  common  law;  but  an  edict  of  1716  had  provided  that  in  certain 
cases,  as  for  religious  instruction,  teaching  them  useful  arts,  &c.,  a  slave,  under  very 
minute  and  careful  regulations,  might  be  brought  to  France  from  the  colonies,  and  not 
acquire  his  freedom;  and  the  question  appears  to  have  been  determined  in  the  slave's 
favour  on  the  ground  of  these  conditions  not  having  been  complied  with. 


INTRODUCTION.  361 

Spanish  philanthropist,  While  pursuing  his  studies  at  Cambridge,  he  made  the 
Slave  Trade  the  subject  of  an  essay,  which  gained  one  of  the  university  prizes, 
and  this  accident  having  called  his  especial  attention  to  the  iniquity  of  that  exe- 
crable commerce,  he  devoted  his  life  to  waging  an  implacable  hostility  with  it. 
The  evidence  which  he  collected  and  brought  before  a  committee  formed  to  obtain 
its  abolition,  drew  the  attention  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  and  secured  at  once  the  ser- 
vices of  that  great  man  as  the  leader  in  the  cause. 

Few  persons  have  ever  either  reached  a  higher  and  more  enviable  place  in  the 
esteem  of  their  fellow  creatures,  or  have  better  deserved  the  place  they  had  gained, 
than  William  Wilberforce.  He  was  naturally  a  person  of  great  quickness  and 
even  subtilty  of  mind,  willr  a  lively  imagination,  approaching  to  playfulness  of 
fancy;  and  hence  he  had  wit  in  an  unmeasured  abundance,  and  in  all  its  varieties; 
for  he  was  endowed  with  an  exquisite  sense  of  the  ludicrous  in  character,  the  foun- 
dation of  humour,  as  well  as  the  perception  of  remote  resemblances,  the  essence 
of  wit.  These  qualities,  however,  he  had  so  far  disciplined  his  faculties  as  to  keep 
in  habitual  restraint,  lest  he  should  ever  offend  against  strict  decorum,  by  intro- 
ducing light  matter  into  serious  discussion,  or  be  betrayed  into  personal  remarks  too 
poignant  for  the  feelings  of  individuals.  For  his  nature  was  mild  and  amiable  be- 
yond that  of  most  men;  fearful  of  giving  the  least  pain  in  any  quarter,  even  while 
heated  with  the  zeal  of  controversy  on  questions  that  roused  all  his  passions;  and 
more  anxious,  if  it  were  possible,  to  gain  over  rather  than  to  overpower  an  adver- 
sary; disarming  him  by  kindness,  or  the  force  of  reason,  or  awakening  appeals  to 
his  feelings,  rather  than  defeating  him  by  hostile  attack.  His  natural  talents  were 
cultivated,  and  his  taste  refined  by  all  the  resources  of  a  complete  Cambridge  edu- 
cation, in  which,  while  the  classics  were  sedulously  studied,  the  mathematics  were 
not  neglected;  and  he  enjoyed  in  the  society  of  his  intimate  friends,  Mr.  Pitt  and 
Dean  Milner,  the  additional  benefit  of  foreign  travel,  having  passed  nearly  a  year 
in  France,  after  the  dissolution  of  Lord  Shelburne's  administration  had  removed 
Mr.  Pitt  from  office.  Having  entered  Parliament  as  member  for  Hull,  where  his 
family  were  the  principal  commercial  men  of  the  place,  he  soon  afterwards,  upon 
the  ill-fated  coalition  destroying  all  confidence  in  the  Whig  party,  succeeded  Mr. 
Foljambe  as  member  for  Yorkshire,  which  he  continued  to  represent  as  long  as  his 
health  permitted  him,  having  only  retired  to  a  less  laborious  seat  in  the  year  1812. 
Although  generally  attached  to  the  Pitt  ministry,  he  pursued  his  course  wholly  un- 
fettered by  party  connection,  steadily  refused  all  office  through  his  whole  life,  nor 
would  he  lay  himself  under  any  obligations  by  accepting  a  share  of  patronage;  and 
he  differed  with  his  illustrious  friend  upon  the  two  most  critical  emergencies  of  his 
life,  the  question  of  peace  with  France  in  1795,  and  the  impeachment  of  Lord  Mel- 
ville ten  years  later. 

His  eloquence  was  of  the  highest  order.  It  was  persuasive  and  pathetic  in  an 
eminent  degree;  but  it  was  occasionally  bold  and  impassioned,  animated  with  the 
inspiration  which  deep  feeling  alone  can  breathe  into  spoken  thought,  chastened  by 
a  pure  taste,  varied  by  extensive  information,  enriched  by  classical  allusion,  some- 
times elevated  by  the  more  sublime  topics  of  holy  writ — the  thoughts 

"  Tliut  wrapt  Isaiah's  hallowed  soul  in  fire." 

Few  passages  can  he  cited  in  the  oratory  of  modern  times  of  a  more  electrical 
effect  than  the  singularly  felicitous  and  striking  allusion  to  Mr.  Pitt's  resisting 
the  torrent  of  Jacobin  principles: — "  He  stood  between  the  living  and  the  dead,  and 
the  plague  was  staid."  The  singular  kindness,  the  extreme  gentleness  of  his  dis- 
position, wholly  free  from  gall,  from  vanity  or  any  selfish  feeling,  kept  him  from 
indulging  in  any  of  the  vituperative  branches  of  rhetoric;  but  a  memorable  instance 
showed  that  it  was  anything  rather  than  the  want  of  force  which  held  him  off 
from  the  use  of  the  weapons  so  often  in  almost  all  other  men's  hands.  When 
a  well  known  popular  member  thought  fit  to  designate  him  repeatedly,  and  very 
irregularly,  as  the  "  Honourable  and  religious  gentleman"  not  because  he  was 
ashamed  of  the  cross  he  gloried  in,  but  because  he  felt  indignant  at  any  one  in  the  Uri- 
tish  senate  deeming  piety  a  matter  of  imputation,  he  poured  out  a  strain  of  sarcasm 
which  none  who  heard  it  can  ever  forget.  A  common  friend  of  the  parties  having 


362  INTRODUCTION. 

remarked  to  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  beside  whom  he  sat,  that  this  greatly  outmatched 
Pitt  himself,  the  great  master  of  sarcasm,  the  reply  of  that  great  man,  and  just  ob- 
server, was  worthy  to  be  remarked — "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  it  is  the  most  sinking-  thinor 
I  almost  ever  heard;  but  I  look  upon  it  as  a  more  singular  proof  of  Wilberforce's 
virtue  than  of  his  genius,  for  who  but  he  ever  was  possessed  of  such  a  formidable 
weapon,  and  never  used  it]"  Against  all  these  accomplishments  of  a  finished  ora- 
tor there  was  little  to  set  on  the  other  side.  A  feeble  constitution,  which  made  him 
say,  all  his  life,  that  he  never  was  either  well  or  ill;  a  voice  sweetly  musical  be- 
yond that  of  most  men,  and  of  great  compass  also,  but  sometimes  degenerating  into 
a  whine;*  a  figure  exceedingly  undignified  and  ungraceful,  though  the  features  of 
the  face  were  singularly  expressive;  and  a  want  of  condensation,  in  the  latter  years 
of  his  life  especially,  lapsing  into  digression,  and  ill  calculated  for  a  very  business- 
like audience  like  the  House  of  Commons;  may  be  noted  as  the  only  drawbacks 
which  kept  him  out  of  the  very  first  place  among  the  first  speakers  of  his  age, 
whom,  in  pathos,  and  also  in  graceful  and  easy  and  perfectly  elegant  diction,  as 
well  as  harmonious  periods,  he  unquestionably  excelled.  The  influence  which  the 
member  for  Yorkshire  always  commanded  in  the  old  Parliament— the  great  weight 
which  the  head,  indeed,  the  founder,  of  a  powerful  religious  sect,  possessed  in  the 
country — would  have  given  extraordinary  authority  in  the  senate  to  one  of  far  infe- 
rior personal  endowments.  But  when  these  partly  accidental  circumstances  were 
added  to  his  powers,  and  when  the  whole  were  used  and  applied  with  the  habits  of 
industry  which  naturally  belonged  to  one  of  his  extreme  temperance  in  every  re- 
spect, it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  one  bringing  a  greater  force  to  any  cause  which 
he  might  espouse. 

Wherefore,  when  he  stood  forward  as  the  leader  of  the  abolition,  vowed  impla- 
cable war  against  Slavery  and  the  Slave  trade,  and  consecrated  his  life  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  its  destruction,  there  was  every  advantage  conferred  upon  this 
great  cause,  and  the  rather  that  he  held  himself  aloof  from  all  party  connection.  A 
few  personal  friends,  united  with  him  by  similarity  of  religious  opinions,  might  be 
said  to  form  a  small  party,  and  they  generally  acted  in  concert,  especially  in  all 
matters  relating  to  ihe  Slave  question.  Of  these,  Henry  Thornton  was  the  most 
eminent  in  every  respect.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  understanding,  great  powers  of 
reasoning  and  of  investigation,  an  accurate  and  a  curious  observer,  but  who  nei- 
ther had  cultivated  oratory  at  all,  nor  had  received  a  refined  education,  nor  had  ex- 
tended his  reading  beyond  the  subjects  connected  with  moral,  political,  and  theolo- 
gical learning.  The  trade  of  a  banker,  which  he  followed,  engrossed  much  of  his 
time;  and  his  exertions,  both  in  parliament  and  through  the  press,  were  cheifly  con- 
fined to  the  celebrated  controversy  upon  the  currency,  in  which  his  well  known 
work  led  the  way,  and  to  a  bill  for  restricting  the  Slave  Trade  to  part  of  the  African 
coast,  which  he  introduced  when  the  abolitionists  were  wearied  out  with  their  re- 
peated failures,  and  had  well-nigh  abandoned  all  hopes  of  carrying  the  great  mea- 
sure itself.  That  measure  was  fated  to  undergo  much  vexatious  delay,  nor  is  there 
any  great  question  of  justice  and  policy,  the  history  of  which  is  less  creditable  to  the 
British  Parliament,  or,  indeed,  to  some  of  the  statesmen  of  this  country,  although, 
upon  it  mainly  rests  the  fame  of  others. 

When  Mr.  Wilberforce,  following  in  Mr.  Clarkson's  track,  had  with  matchless 
powers  of  eloquence,  sustained  by  a  body  of  the  clearest  evidence,  unveiled  all 
the  horrors  of  a  traffic,  which,  had  it  been  attended  with  neither  fraud  nor  cruelty  of 
any  kind,  was,  confessedly,  from  beginning  to  end,  not  a  commerce,  but  a  crime, 
he  was  defeated  by  large  majorities,  year  after  year.  When  at  length,  for  the  first 
time,  in  1801,  he  carried  the  Abolition  Bill  through  the  Commons,  the  Lords  im- 
mediately threw  it  out;  and  the  next  year  it  was  again  lost  in  the  Commons.  All 
this  happened  while  the  opinion  of  the  country  was,  with  the  single  exception  of 
persons  having  West  India  connections,  unanimous  in  favour  of  the  measure.  At 

*  Habebat  enim  flcbilc  qniddam  in  qutcstibus  aptumque  cum  ad  fidum  f.iciendam  tuin 
ad  misericordiarn  cornmovendam:  ut  vcrum  videretur  in  hoc  illud  quod  Dcmosthcnem  fc- 
runt  ei  qui  quaesivisset  quid  primuin  cssct  in  diccndo  aclioncm,  quid  sccundum  idem,  et 
idem  tertium  respondisse.  Nulla  res  magis  penetrat  in  animos,  cosqnc  fingii,  format  ct 
flectit,  talesque  oratores  vidcri  facit,  quales  ipsi  se  videri  volunt. — (CICERO,  Brutus,} 


INTRODUCTION.  363 

different  times  there  was  the  strongest  and  most  general  expression  of  public 
feeling  upon  the  subject,  and  it  was  a  question  upon  which  no  two  men  endowed 
with  reason,  could  possibly  differ,  because,  admitting  whatever  could  be  alleged 
about  the  profits  of  the  traffic,  it  was  not  denied  that  their  gain  proceeded  from 
pillage  or  murder.  Add  to  all  this,  that  the  enormous  evil  continued  to  disgrace 
the  country  and  its  legislature  for  twenty  years,  although  the  voice  of  every  states- 
man of  any  eminence,  Mr.  Windham  alone  excepted,  was  strenuously  lifted  against 
it — although,  upon  this  very  question,  Pitt,  Fox,  and  Burke,  heartily  agreed — 
although  by  far  the  finest  of  all  Mr.  Pitt's  speeches  were  those  which  he  pro- 
nounced against  it — and  although  every  press  and  every  pulpit  in  the  island 
habitually  cried  it  down.  How  are  we,  then,  to  account  for  the  extreme  tenacity 
of  life  which  the  hateful  reptile  showed?  How  to  explain  the  fact  that  all  those 
powerful  hands  fell  paralyzed,  and  could  not  bring  it  to  death]  If  little  honour 
redounds  to  the  Parliament  from  this  passage  in  our  history,  and  if  it  is  thus 
plainly  shown  that  the  unreformed  House  of  Commons  but  ill  represented  the 
country;  it  must  also  be  confessed  that  Mr.  Pitt's  conduct  gains  as  little  glory  from 
the  retrospect.  How  could  he  who  never  suffered  any  of  his  coadjutors,  much  less 
his  underlings  in  office,  to  thwart  his  will  even  in  trivial  matters — he  who  would 
have  cleared  any  of  the  departments  of  half  their  occupants,  had  they  presumed 
to  have  an  opinion  of  their  own  upon  a  single  item  of  any  budget,  or  an  article  in 
the  year's  estimates— how  could  he,  after  shaking  the  walls  of  the  senate  with 
the  thunders  of  his  majestic  eloquence,  exerted  with  a  zeal  which  set  at  defiance 
all  suspicions  of  his  entire  sincerity,  quietly  suffer,  that  the  object,  just  before 
declared  the  dearest  to  his  heart,  should  be  ravished  from  him  when  within  his 
sight,  nay  within  his  reach,  by  the  votes  of  the  secretaries  and  under-secretaries, 
the  puisne  lords  and  the  other  fry  of  mere  placemen — the  pawns  of  his  boards'?  It 
is  a  question  often  anxiously  put  by  the  friends  of  the  abolition,  never  satisfactorily 
answered  by  those  of  the  minister;  and  if  any  additional  comment  were  wanting' 
on  the  darkest  passage  of  his  life,  it  is  supplied  by  the  ease  with  which  he  cut  off 
the  slave  traffic  of  the  conquered  colonies,  an  importation  of  thirty  thousand  yearly, 
which  he  had  so  long  suffered  to  exist,  though  an  order  in  council  could  any  day 
have  extinguished  it.  This  he  never  thought  of  till  1805,  and  then,  of  course,  the 
instant  he  chose,  he  destroyed  it  forever  with  a  stroke  of  his  pen.  Again,  when 
the  Whigs  were  in  power,  they  found  the  total  abolition  of  the  traffic  so  easy,  that 
the  measure  in  pursuing  which  Mr.  Pitt  had  for  so  many  long  years  allowed  him- 
self to  be  baffled,  was  carried  by  them  with  only  sixteen  dissentient  voices  in  a 
House  of  250  members.  There  can  then,  unhappily,  be  but  one  answer  to  the 
question  regarding  Mr.  Pitt's  conduct  on  this  great  measure.  He  was,  no  doubt, 
quite  sincere,  but  he  was  not  so  zealous  as  to  risk  anything,  to  sacrifice  anything, 
or  even  to  give  himself  any  extraordinary  trouble  for  the  accomplishment  of  his 
purpose.  The  court  was  decidedly  against  abolition;  George  III  always  regarded 
the  question  with  abhorrence,  as  savouring  of  innovation — and  innovation  in  a 
part  of  his  empire,  connected  with  his  earliest  and  most  rooted  prejudices — the 
colonies.  The  courtiers  took  as  is  their  wont,  the  colour  of  their  sentiments  from 
him.  The  peers  were  of  the  same  opinion.  Mr.  Pitt  had  not  the  enthusiasm  for 
right  and  justice,  to  risk  in  their  behalf  the  friendship  of  the  mammon  of  unrighte- 
ousness, and  he  left  to  his  rivals,  when  they  became  his  successors,  the  glory  of 
that  sacred  triumph  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  which  should  have  illustrated  his 
name,  who  in  its  defence,  had  raised  all  the  strains  of  his  eloquence  to  their  very 
highest  pitch. 

Notwithstanding  the  act  of  1807  had  made  the  slave  trade  illegal  after  the  1st 
of  January  180H,  by  whomsoever  carried  on  in  the  British  dominions,  and  by 
British  subjects  wheresoever  carried  on;  yet,  as  forfeitures  and  penalties  of  a  pecu- 
niary kind  were  the  only  consequences  of  violating  the  law,  the  temptations  of 
high  profit  induced  many,  both  capitalists  and  adventurers,  to  defy  the  prohibitions 
of  the  statute,  and  the  clearest  proofs  were  soon  furnished  of  British  subjects 
being  employed  in  the  slave  trade  under  tho  most  flimsy  disguises.  It  becmno 
necessary  at  length  to  treat  this  traffic  as  a  crime,  and  no  longer  to  deal  with  tlio 
criminals  nn  smugglers  only,  who  have  broken  some  provisions  of  the  revenue  lu\v. 
Mr.  Brougham  taking  this  view  of  the  subject,  broached  it  in  the  House  of  Com- 


364  INTRODUCTION. 

mons  on  14th  June  1810,  in  the  following  speech;  and  following  up  the  resolu- 
tions and  address,  then  adopted  unanimously  by  the  Commons,  he  next  session 
brought  in  and  carried  without  a  dissenting  voice,  through  both  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, the  bill  declaring  slave-trading  a  felony,  and  punishing  it  with  fourteen 
years  transportation  or  imprisonment  for  five  years.  In  1824,  this  punishment 
was  deemed  insufficient;  the  offence  was  made  capital,  and  so  continued  until  the 
acts  for  mitigating  the  rigour  of  the  criminal  law  in  1837,  made  slave-trading  punish- 
able with  transportation  for  life.  There  is  every  reason  to  think  that  no  British 
subjects  are  now  or  have  for  many  years  been  directly  engaged  in  this  execrable 
traffic,  with  the  exception  of  those  belonging  to  the  Mauritius.  In  that  island  it  is 
certain,  that  with  the  connivance,  if  not  under  the  direct  encouragement  of  the  higher 
authorities  of  the  colony,  slave-trading  to  an  enormous  extent,  was  for  some  years 
openly  carried  on.  A  colonial  Secretary  of  State  admitted  that  above  25,000  Negroes 
had  been  brought  over  from  the  African  coast,  in  other  words,  25,000  capital  felo- 
nies committed  under  the  eye,  if  not  with  the  encouragement  of  the  government. 
It  is  an  unenviable  reflection  which  is  left  to  us,  that  for  all  those  human  beings, 
illegally  held  in  bondage,  and  in  not  one  of  whom  could  there  by  law  be  any 
kind  of  property  claimed,  full  compensation,  at  the  rate  of  £53  each,  has  been 
allowed  by  the  commissioners,  and  paid  by  the  people  of  this  country — and  that 
besides  this  sum  of  at  least  a  million  and  a  half  being  so  squandered  upon  the  vile 
and  sordid  wrong-doers,  those  felons  and  accomplices  of  felons  are  still  suffered  to 
claim  the  labour  of  the  Africans,  under  the  name  of  indentured  apprentices.  With 
the  flagrant  exception  of  the  Mauritius,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  British 
subjects  have,  since  the  felony  act  of  1811  came  into  operation,  been  directly  con- 
cerned in  the  traffic;  but  there  is  too  much  reason  to  suspect  that  British  capital  has 
pretty  freely  found  its  way  into  that  corrupt  channel. 


SPEECH 


o.v 


THE    SLAVE    TRADE 

JUNE  14,  1810. 


SIR, — I  rise,  pursuant  to  notice,  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to 
the  state  of  the  Slave  Trade,  a  subject  of  the  first  importance;  and, 
although  it  is  neither  a  personal  question,  nor  a  party  one;  although 
its  discussion  involves  neither  the  pursuit  nor  the  defence  of  place; 
although,  indeed,  it  touches  matters  of  no  higher  concernment  than  the 
honour  of  the  House  and  the  country,  and  the  interests  of  humanity 
at  large;  I  trust  that  it  will,  nevertheless,  receive  the  same  favourable 
consideration  which  it  has  so  often  experienced  upon  former  occasions. 
The  question  I  propose  to  submit  to  the  House  is,  Whether  any,  and 
what  measures  can  be  adopted,  in  order  to  watch  over  the  execution 
of  the  sentence  of  condemnationtwhich  Parliament  has,  with  a  singular 
unanimity,  pronounced  upon  the  African  Slave  Trade?  It  is  now  four 
years  since  Mr.  Fox  made  his  last  motion  in  this  house,  and,  I  believe, 
his  last  speech  here,  in  favour  of  the  abolition.  He  then  proposed  a 
resolution,  pledging  the  House  to  the  abolition  of  the  traffic,  and  moved 
an  address  to  the  crown,  beseeching  his  Majesty  to  use  all  his  endea- 
vours for  obtaining  the  concurrence  of  other  powers  in  the  pursuit  of 
this  great  object.  An  address  to  the  same  effect  was  voted  by  the 
other  House,  with  equal  unanimity;  and,  early  in  the  next  year,  two 
noble  friends  of  mine,*  who  were  second  only  to  my  honourable 
friend,t  prevented  by  indisposition  from  attending  this  day,  in  their 
services  to  the  cause,  and  will  yield  not  even  to  him  in  their  zeal  for 
its  success,  gave  the  Parliament  an  opportunity  of  redeeming  its 
pledge,  by  introducing  the  Abolition  Bills  in  the  two  Houses.  That 
measure,  which  had  formerly  met  so  many  obstacles,  whether,  as  some 
are  willing  to  believe,  from  the  slowness  with  which  truth  works  its 
way,  or,  as  others  were  prone  to  suspect,  from  the  want  of  zeal  in  its 
official  supporters,  now  experienced  none  of  the  impediments  that  had 

*  Lords  Grenvillc  and  Grev.  t  Mr.  Wilbcrforce. 

31* 


366  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

hitherto  retarded  its  progress.  Far  from  encountering  any  formidable 
difficulties,  it  passed  through  Parliament  almost  without  opposition; 
and  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  disputed  of  measures,  was  at  length 
carried  by  larger  majorities,  perhaps,  than  were  ever  known  to  divide 
upon  any  contested  question.  The  friends  of  the  abolition,  however, 
never  expected  that  any  legislative  measure  would  at  once  destroy  the 
Slave  Trade:  they  were  aware  how  obstinately  such  a  trade  would 
cling  to  the  soil  where  it  had  taken  root;  they  anticipated  the  difficul- 
ties of  extirpating  a  traffic  which  had  entwined  itself  with  so  many 
interests,  prejudices,  and  passions.  But  I  must  admit,  that  although 
they  had  foreseen,  they  had  considerably  underrated,  those  difficulties. 
They  had  not  made  sufficient  allowance  for  the  resistance  which  the 
real  interests  of  those  directly  engaged  in  the  trade,  and  the  supposed 
interests  of  the  colonists,  would  oppose  to  the  execution  of  the  acts; 
they  had  underrated  the  wickedness  of  the  Slave  Trader,  and  the  infa- 
tuation of  the  planter.  While  on  the  one  hand  it  appears,  from  the 
documents  I  formerly  moved  for,  that  nothing  has  been  done  to  cir- 
cumscribe the  foreign  Slave  Trade,  it  is  now  found,  that  this  abomi- 
nable commerce  has  not  completely  ceased,  even  in  this  country!  I 
hope  the  House  will  favour  me  with  its  attention,  while,  from  the 
papers  on  the  table,  and  from  such  other  information  as  I  have  been 
enabled  to  obtain,  I  lay  before  it  a  statement,  which  will,  in  some 
measure,  enable  it  to  appreciate  the  extent  of  the  evil,  and  to  apply 
the  proper  remedies. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  state  of 
the  Slave  Trade  in  foreign  countries.  In  these  it  exists  variously.  In 
America  it  is  contraband,  as  in  England,  having  been  prohibited  by 
law,  but  it  is  still  carried  on,  illegally,  for  the  supply  of  the  American 
as  well  as  of  foreign  plantations:  while,  in  the  colonies  of  Portugal 
and  Spain,  it  is  still  sanctioned  by  tlje  laws,  and  even  receives  pecu- 
liar encouragement  from  the  government.  The  extent  of  the  Spanish 
Slave  Trade  I  cannot  state  very  accurately,  but,  from  returns  at  the 
custom-house  at  Cadiz,  to  which  I  have  had  access,  and  from  the  well- 
known  increase  of  the  sugar  culture  in  Cuba,  the  importation  of 
Negroes  appear  to  be  very  great.  The  average  annual  importation 
into  that  island,  during  thirteen  years,  from  17S9  to  1803,  was  5S40; 
and  it  is  evidently  upon  the  increase,  for  the  average  of  the  last  four 
years  of  the  period  was  8600;  the  total  number  imported  during  the 
period  exceeded  76.000  slaves.  This  statement,  among  other  things, 
proves  how  much  the  American  flag  is  used  in  covering  the  foreign 
Slave  Trade;  for,  after  the  commencement  of  hostilities  between  Spain 
and  this  country,  the  trade  could  only  have  been  carried  on  to  a  very 
limited  extent  in  Spanish  bottoms;  and  yet,  instead  of  being  checked 
by  the  war,  it  has  greatly  increased  since  1795.  The  culture  of  sugar 
has  likewise  increased  at  Porto  Rico,  and  on  the  Main,  and  with  it,  of 
course,  the  importation  of  slaves.  The  precise  amount  of  this  I  cannot 
speak  to;  but  I  have  every  reason  to  suppose  it  very  inconsiderable, 
when  compared  with  the  traffic  in  Cuba.  The  annual  importation  of 
Mexico  does  not  exceed  100  Negroes,  and  that  of  the  settlements  on 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  367 

the  South  Sea  is  only  500.     The  other  colonies  obtain  their  supplies 
principally  through  the  Brazils. 

With  regard  to  the  Portuguese  Slave  Trade,  I  cannot  speak  with 
more  precision.  During  my  residence  at  Lisbon,  in  the  king's  ser- 
vice, I  had  oth'cial  communication  with  the  Portuguese  minister,  and 
also  with  a  person  of  high  rank,  who  had  been  governor  of  the 
northern  provinces  of  Brazil,  and  was  then  going  out  as  governor  of 
Angola  and  Benguela,  upon  the  African  coast.  It  appeared  from  the 
returns  of  a  capitation-tax  on  Negroes  exported  from  Africa,  (which 
gentlemen  will  perceive  must  give  the  lowest  amount  of  the  exporta- 
tion,) that  there  were  annually  sent  to  the  Brazils,  from  that  part  of 
Africa  alone,  above  15,000  Negroes;  and  this  was  reckoned  only  one- 
half  of  the  total  number  exported  from  all  parts  of  the  Portuguese 
settlements.  From  another  quarter,  of  high  authority,  I  learned  that 
this,  if  estimated  at  30,000,  would  not  be  overrated.  But  the  branch  of 
the  trade  which  it  is  the  most  important  to  attend  to  at  present,  is  that 
carried  on  by  American  vessels,  in  open  violation  of  the  laws  of  the 
United  States.  I  firmly  believe,  as  I  have  before  stated  when  the 
matter  was  questioned  by  the  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite,* 
that  the  American  government  has  all  along  acted  in  regard  to  the 
Slave  Trade,  with  the  most  perfect  sincerity  and  good  faith.  They 
had,  indeed,  set  us  the  example  of  abolishing  it.  All  the  states,  except 
two,  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  had  early  abolished  it  by  acts  of 
their  separate  legislatures,  before  the  period  arrived  when  the  consti- 
tution gave  Congress  a  right  to  pass  such  a  law  for  the  whole  Union; 
and,  as  soon  as  that  period  arrived,  viz.  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1S08,  the  traffic  was  finally  prohibited  by  an  act  of  Congress.  But  it 
is  one  thing  to  pass  a  law,  and  another  to  carry  it  into  execution,  as 
we  have  ourselves  found  on  this  side  of  the  water,  I  am  sorry  to  think; 
and,  although  the  American  legislature  and  the  government  have 
done  all  that  lies  in  their  power,  it  requires  much  greater  naval  means 
than  they  possess  to  suppress  effectually  their  contraband  Slave 
Trade.  They  may,  in  a  great  measure,  by  their  police,  prevent  the 
importation  of  Negroes  into  the  United  States;  nnd  this  they  have 
done:  but  the  bulk  of  their  contraband  Slave  Trade  is  carried  on 
between  Africa  and  the  islands,  or  Africa  and  South  America;  and,  to 
check  this,  a  very  different  navy  is  wanted  from  any  that  the  Ameri- 
cans (happily  for  this  country,  in  every  point  of  view,  except  the  one 
now  in  question,)  are  likely,  fora  long  series  of  years,  to  possess.  By 
such  a  contraband  trade,  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  colonies,  and  not 
only  they,  but  our  own  settlements,  are  supplied  with  slaves:  and  in 
this  manner  it  is  that  the  foreign  Slave  Trade  interferes  with  our  own 
abolition. 

What  I  intend  to  propose  is,  that  the  executive  government  shall 
be  exhorted  to  take  such  further  steps  as  may  be  conducive  to  the 
object  of  the  joint  address  of  both  branches  of  the  legislature.  Unless 
the  American  flag  can,  by  some  means  or  other,  be  excluded  from  its 

*  Mr.  Canning. 


368  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

large  share  in  this  abominable  commerce;  and  unless  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  governments  can  be  brought  to  some  concurrent  arrange- 
ment; the  trade  must  still  be  carried  on  to  an  enormous  extent;  and 
it  is  in  vain  to  talk  even  of  abolishing  it  entirely  in  our  own  colonies. 
Our  largest  island  is  within  a  day's,  I  should  rather  say,  a  night's  sail, 
of  the  largest  slave  colony  of  Spain.  Our  other  old  colonies  lie  in  the 
very  track  both  of  the  Spanish  and  American  slave-ships.  When  the 
vast  plantations  of  Trinidad  and  Guiana  are  in  such  want  of  Negroes 
to  clear  their  waste  lands,  and  are  situated  almost  within  sight  of  the 
Spanish  slave  market,  where  the  law  still  sanctions  that  infernal  traffic, 
how  can  it  be  expected  that  the  British  abolition  should  be  effectual? 
A  gentleman  of  the  profession  to  which  1  have  the  honour  of  belong- 
ing, having  lately  returned  from  Berbice,  informs  me  of  the  manner  in 
which  our  planters  carry  on  this  contraband  intercourse.  The  Oroonoko 
falls  into  the  sea  between  Trinidad  and  Guiana.  The  Spanish  slave- 
ships  take  their  station  near  its  mouth,  and  our  planters  send  large 
boats  along  the  coast  to  the  station  of  the  ships,  from  whence  they  are 
supplied  with  cargoes  of  sixty  or  seventy  Negroes  by  trans-shipment  at 
sea,  and  these  cargoes  they  land  on  their  return,  in  the  various  creeks 
of  the  settlements,  so  as  to  elude  the  utmost  vigilance  of  the  colonial 
officers.  Does  not  this  single  fact  evince  the  necessity  of  forming  some 
arrangement  with  the  Spanish  government,  while  the  friendly  rela- 
tions between  the  two  governments  subsist?  The  great  obstacle  which 
I  always  find  opposed  to  such  a  proposition  is,  What  can  we  do? 
Those  nations,  it  is  pretended,  are  wedded  to  their  own  prejudices; 
they  have  views  of  their  own,  arid  we  cannot  interfere.  Of  this  argu- 
ment, I  entertain  very  great  suspicion,  and  for  one  plain  reason,  that 
it  is  on  the  single  subject  of  the  abolition  that  I  ever  hear  it  used;  it  is 
here  alone  that  any  want  of  activity  is  ever  observed  in  our  govern- 
ment, or  that  we  ever  hear  of  our  want  of  influence  in  the  councils  of 
our  neighbours.  On  all  other  measures,  some  of  suspicious,  some  of 
doubtful  policy — in  matters  indifferent,  or  repugnant  to  humanity — we 
are  ready  enough  to  intrigue,  to  fight,  to  pay.  It  is  only  when  the 
interests  of  humanity  are  concerned,  and  ends  the  most  justifiable,  as 
well  as  expedient,  are  in  view,  that  we  not  only  all  at  once  lose  our 
activity  and  influence,  but  become  quite  forward  in  protesting  that  we 
have  no  power  to  interfere.  From  one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other 
our  weight  is  felt,  and  in  general  it  is  no  very  popular  thing  to  call  it 
in  question.  At  all  times  we  are  ready  enough  to  use  it,  as  well  as  to 
magnify  it;  but  on  this  one  occasion  we  become  both  weak  and  diffi- 
dent, and  while  we  refuse  to  act,  must  needs  make  a  boast  of  our 
impotency.  Why,  we  never  failed  at  all  when  the  object  was  to 
obtain  new  colonies,  and  extend  the  Slave  Trade!  Then  we  could 
both  conquer  and  treat;  we  had  force  enough  to  seize  whole  provinces 
where  the  Slave  Trade  might  be  planted,  and  skill  enough  to  retain 
them  by  negotiation,  in  order  to  retain  with  them  the  additional  com- 
merce in  slaves,  which  their  cultivation  required.  It  is  natural,  there- 
fore, for  me  to  view  with  some  suspicion  our  uniform  failure,  when 
the  object  is  to  abolish  or  limit  this  same  Slave  Trade.  I  suspect  it  may 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  369 

arise  from  there  being  some  similarity  between  our  exertions  in  the 
cause  and  those  of  some  of  its  official  advocates  in  this  House;  that  we 
have  been  very  sincere,  no  doubt,  but  rather  cold — without  a  particle 
of  ill-will  towards  the  abolition,  but  without  one  spark  of  zeal  in  its 
favour. 

I  shall  now  answer  the  question  of,  "  What  can  we  do  to  stop  the 
foreign  Slave  Trade?"  by  putting  another  question;  and  I  would  ask, 
"  How  have  we  contrived  to  promote  the  Slave  Trade  when  that  was 
our  object?"  I  would  only  desire  one  tenth  part  of  the  influence  to  be 
exerted  in  favour  of  the  abolition,  which  we  have  with  such  fatal 
success  exerted  in  augmenting  the  slave  traffic;  when,  by  our  cam- 
paigns and  our  treaties,  we  acquired  the  dominion  of  boundless  and 
desert  regions,  and  then  laid  waste  the  villages  and  the  fields  of 
Africa,  that  our  new  forests  might  be  cleared. 

But  if  I  be  asked  to  what  objects  our  influence  should  be  directed, 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  pointing  them  out:  And,  first,  I  should  say,  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  governments.  Happily,  in  those  quarters 
where  most  is  to  be  attempted,  our  influence  is  the  greatest  at  the  pre- 
sent moment;  for  both  countries  we  have  done  much,  and  having 
lavished  our  blood  and  our  treasure  in  defending  them  from  cruelty, 
injustice,  and  every  form  of  ordinary  oppression,  it  is  certainly  not 
asking  too  much  to  require  that  they  should  give  over  a  course  of 
iniquity  towards  nations  as  innocent  as  they,  and  infinitely  more 
injured  by  them.  Everything  favours  some  arrangement  with  Spain, 
on  this  point.  The  only  Spanish  colonies  where  the  sugar  cane  is 
extensively  cultivated  are  the  islands,  and  of  these  principally  Cuba. 
To  that  settlement  the  bulk  of  the  Slave  Trade  is  confined.  On  the 
main  land  there  is  little  demand  for  slaves;  about  1400  are  annually 
sent  to  Buenos  Ayres,  500  to  Peru  and  Chili,  and  only  100  to  Mexico, 
while  Cuba  receives  8,600  a-year.  This  then  is  the  only  Spanish 
colony  which  can  suffer  materially;  and  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that 
the  Spanish  government  would  not  refuse  this  inconsiderable  sacri- 
fice. At  any  rate  some  arrangement  might  be  made  both  with  Por- 
tugal and  Spain,  to  prevent  their  flags  from  being  used  for  the  purposes 
of  the  foreign  Slave  Trade. 

Adverting  next  to  the  means  which  we  have  of  inducing  the 
American  government  to  make  some  arrangement,  I  admit  that  our 
influence  in  that  quarter  is  not  so  powerful;  but  I  would  throw  out 
one  or  two  remarks  for  the  consideration  of  ministers.  First,  an  at- 
tempt ought  to  be  made  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  naval  resources 
in  America,  by  lending  the  assistance  of  our  own;  and  I  should  sug- 
gest the  necessity  of  the  two  governments  coming  to  some  understand- 
ing, that  the  cruisers  of  each  may  capture  the  contraband  slave  ships 
of  the  other  country.  From  communications  which  I  have  held  with 
persons  of  high  rank  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  I  have  reason 
to  think,  that  such  an  arrangement  would  not  be  greatly  objected  to 
in  America.  An  opening  for  a  proposal  of  this  nature  is  certainly 
afforded  by  the  correspondence  which  has  taken  place  between  Mr. 
Erskine  and  the  American  government  relative  to  the  orders  in  coun- 


370  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

cil,  and  non-intercourse  laws;  for  an  assurance  is  there  given,  that  if 
a  British  cruiser  capture  an  American  found  acting  contrary  to  the 
American  municipal  law,  the  government  of  the  United  States  will 
never  notice  the  capture;  and  though  there  is  an  objection  to  recog- 
nising by  treaty  the  non-intercourse  law,  it  by  no  means  follows,  that 
a  similar  recognition  could  not  be  obtained  in  the  present  instance. 
The  right  thus  given  must  no  doubt  be  mutual,  but  so  is  every  right 
which  this  country  claims  under  the  law  of  nations;  and  it  should  be 
remembered,  that  the  two  parties  are  very  differently  affected  by  it; 
for  while  the  Americans  could  scarcely  search  or  detain  half  a  dozen 
of  our  slave  vessels  in  a  year,  we  should  be  enabled  to  stop  hundreds 
of  theirs.  The  advantage  of  such  an  arrangement  to  our  own  plant- 
ers would  also  be  great;  for  if  rival  foreigners  carry  on  the  Slave 
Trade,  while  it  is  prohibited  in  our  settlements,  our  planters  are,  for 
a  certain  time  at  least,  liable  to  be  undersold  in  the  sugar  market,  and 
subjected  to  a  temporary  pressure.  Another  circumstance  with  regard 
to  American  ships,  I  throw  out  for  the  consideration  of  merchants  and 
cruisers.  It  appears  to  me,  that  even  without  any  such  arrangement 
between  the  two  governments,  the  expeiiment  of  capturing  American 
slave  ships  might  safely  be  made.  I  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
that  no  reclamation  whatever  would  be  made  by  the  American  go- 
vernment if  such  vessels  were  detained,  however  great  their  numbers 
might  be.  A  claim  might  no  doubt  be  entered  by  individual  owners, 
when  the  vessels  were  brought  in  for  condemnation,  and  the  courts  of 
prize  have  been  in  the  practice  of  saying,  that  they  cannot  take  notice 
of  the  municipal  laws  of  other  countries.  But,  beside  the  great  risk 
to  which  American  owners  expose  themselves  by  making  such  claims, 
(the  risk  of  the  penalties  which  they  thereby  prove  themselves  to  have 
incurred  under  the  Abolition  Acts  of  America),  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  the  courts  require  a  proof  of  property  in  the  claimants;  and  I 
wish  to  see  whether  courts  sitting  and  judging  by  the  law  of  nations 
are  prepared  to  admit  of  a  property  in  human  iflesh.*  I  wish  to  know 

*  This  opinion  has  since  been  fully  confirmed  by  the  decision  of  the  Lords  of 
Prize  Appeal  in  the  case  of  the  Amedie,  as  appears  by  the  following-  Report  of  the 
Judgment  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Prize  Appeals,  at  the  Privy  Council,  Sa- 
turday, July  28,  1810. 

Case  of  the  Amedie;  James  Johnson,  master. — This  was  a  vessel  under  Ameri- 
can colours,  with  slaves  from  Africa,  captured  in  December,  1807,  in  the  West  In- 
dies, and  carried  into  Tortola.  The  claimant  pretended  that  she  was  bound  to 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  where  the  importation  of  slaves  continued  to  be  law- 
ful to  the  end  of  that  year;  but  that,  having  been  detained  on  the  coast,  and  there 
being  no  prospect  of  reaching  Charleston  before  the  1st  of  January  1808,  the 
period  appointed  for  the  cessation  of  the  Slave  Trade  in  every  part  of  the  United 
States,  by  a  law  of  the  General  Congress,  the  master  of  necessity  bore  away  for 
the  island  of  Cuba,  there  to  wait  directions  from  his  owners.  It  was  contended, 
on  the  other  hand,  by  the  captor,  that  this  statement  was  a  mere  pretence,  and  that, 
in  truth,  the  original  plan  of  the  voyage  was  a  destination  to  Cuba,  which  was  un- 
lawful under  the  American  laws,  long  previous  to  their  general  abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade.  Admitting,  however,  the  case  to  be  so,  it  was  strenuously  contended 
for  the  claimant,  that  a  British  court  of  prize  had  no  right  to  take  any  cognizance 
of  American  municipal  law,  and  that,  as  no  belligerent  right  of  this  country  had 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  371 

in  what  part  of  that  law  any  such  principle  is  recognized.  I  desire  to 
be  informed  where  the  decision  or  where  the  dictum  is,  which  allows 
a  person  to  bring  forward  a  claim  in  a  court  of  the  law  of  nations,  for 
the  bodies  of  humnu  beings  forcibly  and  fraudulently  obtained,  or  at 
all  events  carried  away  from  their  homes  against  their  will,  and  by 
violence  confirmed,  and  compelled  to  labour  and  suffer?  What  I  am 
anxious  to  see  is,  how  such  a  claim  can  be  stated  with  common  de- 
cency in  such  courts:  I  have  no  great  fears  as  to  the  reception  it 
would  meet  with:  it  is  repugnant  to  the  whole  law  of  nature,  and 
any  knowledge  of  the  law  of  nations  which  I  possess  affords  me  no 
authority  for  it.  I  earnestly  hope  some  persons  connected  with  priva- 
teers and  cruisers  may  soon  try  the  question.  They  could  run  no  risk, 
I  venture  to  assert  on  my  own  authority,  and  still  more  confidently  on 

been  violated,  tlie  property  ought  to  be  restored  to  the  neutral  owner.  A  series  of 
precedents  seemed  to  support  this  doctrine.  The  ship  was  condemned  at  Tortola, 
and  the  enslaved  Africans  were,  according  to  the  Abolition  act,  restored  to  their 
freedom;  but  the  claimant  appealed,  and  the  liberty  of  the  Africans,  as  well  as  the 
property  of  the  ship,  depended  on  the  issue  of  this  appeal.  The  case  was  solemnly 
argued  in  March  last,  and  as,  in  the  opinion  of  the  court,  it  turned  on  the  new  ques- 
tion of  the  effect  of  the  American  and  British  Abolition  Acts  on  this  species  of  con- 
traband commerce,  when  brought  before  a  court  of  prize,  the  case,  on  account  of 
its  importance,  has  since  stood  over  for  judgment.  Several  other  cases  of  American 
slave  ships  have  also  stood  over,  as  depending  on  the  same  general  question.  The 
judgment  of  the  court  was  delivered  hy  Sir  William  Grant,  the  Master  of  the  Rolls, 
nearly  in  the  following  terms: — "  This  ship  must  be  considered  as  being  employed, 
at  the  time  of  capture,  in  carrying  slaves  from  the  coast  of  Africa  to  a  Spanish 
colony.  We  think  that  this  was  evidently  the  original  plan  and  purpose  of  the 
voyage,  notwithstanding  the  pretence  set  up  to  veil  the  true  intention.  The  claim- 
ant, however,  who  is  an  American,  complains  of  ihe capture,  and  demands  from  us  the 
restitution  of  property,  of  which  he  alleges  that  he  has  been  unjustly  dispossessed. 
In  all  the  former  cases  of  this  kind,  which  have  come  before  this  court,  the  Slave 
Trade  was  liable  to  considerations  very  diflVrent  from  those  which  belong  to  it  now. 
It  had  at  that  time  been  prohibited  (as  far  as  respected  carrying  slaves  to  the  colo- 
nies of  foreign  nations)  by  America,  but  by  our  own  laws  it  was  still  allowed.  It 
appeared  to  us,  therefore,  difficult  to  consider  the  prohibitory  law  of  America  in  any 
other  light  than  as  one  of  those  municipal  regulations  of  a  foreign  state,  of  which 
this  court  could  not  take  any  cognizance.  Hut  by  the  alteration  which  has  since 
taken  place  the  question  stands  on  different  grounds,  and  is  open  to  the  application 
of  very  different  principles.  The  Slave  Trade  has  since  been  totally  abolished  in 
this  country,  and  our  legislature  has  pronounced  it  to  be  contrary  to  the  principles 
of  justice  and  humanity.  Whatever  we  might  think  as  individuals  before,  we 
could  not,  sitting  as  judges  in  a  British  court  of  justice,  regard  the  trade  in  that 
light,  while  our  own  laws  permitted  it.  Hut  we  can  now  assert,  that  this  trade 
cannot,  abstractedly  speaking,  have  a  legitimate  existence.  When  I  say  abstractedly 
speaking,  I  mean  this  country  has  no  right  to  control  any  foreign  legislature  that 
may  think  fit  to  dissent  from  this  doctrine,  and  to  permit  to  its  own  subjects  the 
prosecution  of  this  trade;  but  we  have  now  a  right,  to  affirm,  that  prima  facie  tin; 
trade  is  illegal,  and  thus  to  throw  on  claimants  the  burden  of  proof  that  in  respect 
of  them,  by  the  authority  of  their  own  laws,  it  is  otherwise.  As  the  case  now 
stands,  wo  think  wo  are  entitled  to  say,  that  a  claimant  can  have  no  right,  upon 
principles  of  universal  law,  to  claim  the  restitution  in  a  prize  court,  of  human  beings 
carried  as  his  slaves.  He  must  show  some  right  that  has  been  violated  by  the  cap- 
ture, some  property  of  which  ho  has  been  dispossessed, and  to  which  he  ought  to  he 
restored.  In  this  case,  the  laws  of  the  claimant's  country  allow  of  no  ri^lit  of  pro- 
perty of  such  as  lie  claims.  There  can  therefore-  be  no  right  to  rcMituti<'ti.  Tim 
consequence  is,  that  the  judgment  must  be  affirmed." 


372  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

that  of  professional  friends  who  frequent  the  prize  courts,  that  no  risk 
whatever  of  being  condemned  in  costs  could  possibly  be  incurred, 
even  if  the  vessels  were  restored.  Without  running  any  risk,  much 
good  may  thus  be  done;  and  I  should  feel  satisfied  that  I  have  more 
than  announced  the  ends  I  had  in  view  when  I  began  this  discussion, 
if  I  could  persuade  myself  that  what  I  now  say  may  lead  any  one  to 
make  this  important  trial. 

Having  hitherto  only  spoken  of  the  foreign  Slave  Trade,  it  is  with 
great  mortification  that  I  now  feel  myself  obliged  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  House  to  the  evasions  of  the  Abolition  Acts  in  this  country. 
For  accomplishing  this  detestable  purpose,  all  the  various  expedients 
have  been  adopted  which  the  perverse  ingenuity  of  unprincipled  ava- 
rice can  suggest.  Vessels  are  fitted  out  at  Liverpool,  as  if  for  inno- 
cent commerce  with  Africa.  The  ships,  and  even  the  cargoes,  are, 
for  the  most  part,  the  same  as  those  used  in  the  trade  of  gold-dust, 
grains,  and  ivory.  The  goods  peculiarly  used  in  the  Slave  Trade  are 
carefully  concealed,  so  as  to  elude  the  reach  of  the  port  officers.  The 
platforms  and  bulk-heads  which  distinguish  slave  ships  are  not  fitted 
and  fixed  until  the  vessel  gets  to  sea,  and  clears  the  channel,  when  the 
carpenters  set  to  work  and  adapt  her  for  the  reception  of  slaves.  For 
better  concealment,  some  of  the  sailors,  and  not  unfrequently,  the 
master  himself,  are  Portuguese.  But  it  is  remarkable,  that,  lurking 
in  some  dark  corner  of  the  ship,  is  almost  always  to  be  found  a  hoary 
slave  trader — an  experienced  captain,  who,  having  been  trained  up 
in  the  slave  business  from  his  early  years,  now  accompanies  the  ves- 
sel as  a  kind  of  supercargo,  and  helps  her,  by  his  wiles,  both  to  escape 
detection,  and  to  push  her  iniquitous  adventures.  This  is  not  a  fan- 
ciful description.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  record  of  a  court  of  justice, 
which  throws  so  much  light  on  the  subject,  that  I  moved,  on  a  former 
night,  to  have  it  laid  on  the  table.  It  appears  from  thence,  that,  but 
a  few  months  ago,  in  the  very  river  which  washes  the  walls  of  this 
house,  not  two  miles  from  the  spot  where  we  now  sit,  persons  daring 
to  call  themselves  English  merchants  have  been  detected  in  the  act  of 
fitting  out  a  vessel  of  great  bulk  for  the  purpose  of  tearing  seven  or 
eight  hundred  wretched  beings  from  Africa,  and  carrying  them  through 
the  unspeakable  horrors  of  the  middle  passage  to  endless  bondage  and 
misery,  and  toil  which  knows  no  limits,  nor  is  broken  by  any  rest,  in 
the  sands  and  swamps  of  Brazil.  This  detection  has  been  made  by 
the  zeal  and  knowledge  of  a  much  loved  and  respected  friend  of  mine,* 
who  was  only  enabled  to  pursue  so  difficult  an  investigation  by  that 
perfect  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  which  lie  has  acquired  by  his 
residence  in  Africa  as  governor  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  by  having  even 
submitted  to  the  pain  of  a  slave  voyage  for  the  purpose  of  better  learn- 
ing the  nature  of  the  traffic. 

I  shall  here  read  several  extracts  from  the  record  of  condemnation 
of  the  Comercio  de  Rio,  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer  last  Hilary  term. 
It  appears,  that  besides  an  enormous  stock  of  provisions,  water-casks, 

*  Mr.  Z.  Macaulay. 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  373 

mess-kits,  &c.  there  were  found  on  board  fifty-five  dozen  of  padlocks, 
ninety-three  pair  of  hand-cuffs,  a  hundred  and  ninety-seven  iron 
shackles  for  the  feet,  thirteen  hundred  weight  three  quarters  of  iron 
chains,  one  box  of  religious  implements,  and,  that  the  bodily  as  well 
as  the  spiritual  health  of  this  human  cargo  might  not  be  neglected, 
the  slave  merchants,  out  of  their  rare  humanity — which  one  must 
really  have  known  a  good  deal  of  the  sort  of  character,  easily  to  be- 
lieve— allowed,  for  the  medical  wants  of  eight  hundred  negroes,  of  all 
ages,  crammed  into  a  loathsome  cage,  and  carried  through  new  and 
perilous  climates  during  a  voyage  of  weeks,  or  even  months — one 
little  medicine  chest,  value  £5.  This  is  not  the  only  instance  of  the 
kind,  nor  even  the  latest  one,  I  grieve  to  say,  recent  though  it  be.  I 
mentioned  on  a  former  night,  that  at  one  port  of  this  country,  six  ves- 
sels have  only  just  been  fitted  out,  by  a  similar  course  of  base  fraud, 
for  the  same  trade,  or  rather  let  me  call  it,  the  same  series  of  detest- 
able crimes. 

It  is  now  three  years  since  that  abominable  traffic  has  ceased  to  be 
sanctioned  by  the  law  of  the  land;  and,  I  thank  God,  I  may  therefore 
now  indulge  in  expressing  feelings  towards  it,  which  delicacy  rather 
to  the  law  than  the  traffic,  might,  before  that  period,  have  rendered  it 
proper  to  suppress.  After  a  long  and  most  unaccountable  silence  of 
the  law  on  this  head,  which  seemed  to  protect,  by  permitting,  or  at 
least  by  not  prohibiting  the  traffic,  it  has  now  spoken  out,  and  the 
veil  which  it  has  appeared  to  interpose  being  now  withdrawn,  it  is  fit 
to  let  our  indignation  fall  on  those  who  still  dare  to  trade  in  human 
flesh, — not  merely  for  the  frauds  of  common  smugglers,  but  for  en- 
gaging in  crimes  of  the  deepest  dye;  in  crimes  always  most  iniquitous, 
even  when  not  illegal;  but  which  now  are  as  contrary  to  law  as  they 
have  ever  been  to  honesty  and  justice.  I  must  protest  loudly  against 
the  abuse  of  language,  which  allows  such  men  to  call  themselves 
traders  or  merchants.  It  is  not  commerce,  but  crime,  that  they  are 
driving.  I  too  well  know,  and  too  highly  respect,  that  most  honour- 
able and  useful  pursuit,  that  commerce  whose  province  it  is  to  human- 
ize and  pacify  the  world — so  alien  in  its  nature  to  violence  and  fraud 
— so  formed  to  flourish  in  peace  and  in  honesty — so  inseparably  con- 
nected with  freedom,  and  good  will,  and  fair  dealing, — I  deem  too 
highly  of  it  to  endure  that  its  name  should,  by  a  strange  perversion, 
be  prostituted  to  the  use  of  men  who  live  by  treachery,  rapine,  tor- 
ture, and  murder,  and  are  habitually  practising  the  worst  of  crimes  for 
the  basest  of  purposes.  When  I  say  murder,  I  speak  literally  and 
advisedly.  I  mean  to  use  no  figurative  phrase;  and  I  know  I  am 
guilty  of  no  exaggeration.  I  am  speaking  of  the  worst  form  of  that 
crime.  For  ordinary  murders  there  may  be  some  excuse.  Revenge 
may  have  arisen  from  the  excess  of  feelings  honourable  in  themselves. 
A  murder  of  hatred,  or  cruelty,  or  mere  bloodthirstiness,  can  only  be 
imputed  to  a  deprivation  of  reason.  But  here  we  have  to  do  with 
cool,  deliberate,  mercenary  murder,  nay,  worse  than  this;  for  the  ruf- 
fians who  go  on  the  highway,  or  the  pirates  who  infest  the  seas,  at 
least  expose  their  persons,  and,  by  their  courage,  throw  a  kind  of  false 
VOL.  i. — 32 


374  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

glare  over  their  crimes.  But  these  wretches  dare  not  do  this.  They 
employ  others  as  base  as  themselves,  only  that  they  are  less  cowardly; 
they  set  on  men  to  rob  and  kill,  in  whose  spoils  they  are  willing  to 
share,  though  not  in  their  dangers.  Traders,  or  merchants,  do  they 
presume  to  call  themselves!  and  in  cities  like  London  and  Liverpool, 
the  very  creations  of  honest  trade?  I  will  give  them  the  right  name, 
at  length,  and  call  them  cowardly  suborners  of  piracy  and  mercenary 
murder!  Seeing  this  determination,  on  the  part  of  these  infamous 
persons,  to  elude  the  Abolition  Act,  it  is  natural  for  me  to  ask,  before  I 
conclude,  whether  any  means  can  be  devised  for  its  more  effectual 
execution.  I  would  suggest  the  propriety  of  obtaining  from  the  Por- 
tuguese government,  either  in  perpetuity,  or  for  a  term  of  years,  the 
island  of  Bissao,  situated  on  the  African  coast,  and  the  only  foreign 
settlement  in  that  quarter  where  our  commerce  chiefly  lies.  This 
cession  would  leave  us  a  coast  of  five  hundred  miles'  extent,  wholly 
uninterrupted,  and  greatly  facilitating  the  destruction  of  the  slave 
traffic  in  that  part  of  Africa.  I  would  next  remark,  that  the  number 
of  cruisers  employed  on  the  African  coast  is  too  scanty.  It  is  thither, 
and  not  to  America,  that  vessels  intended  to  detect  slave  traders  should 
be  sent;  because  a  slave  ship  must  remain  for  some  weeks  on  the 
coast  to  get  in  her  cargo,  whereas  she  could  run  into  her  port  of  des- 
tination in  the  West  Indies  in  a  night,  and  thus  escape  detection;  yet, 
to  watch  a  coast  so  extensive  as  the  African,  we  had  never  above 
two,  and  now  have  only  one  cruiser.  I  would  recommend,  that  the 
ships  thus  employed  should  be  of  a  light  construction  and  small 
draught  of  water,  that  they  may  cross  the  bars  of  the  harbours,  in 
order  to  follow  the  slave-ships  into  the  shallows  and  creeks,  and  up 
the  mouths  of  rivers,  and  also  that  they  should  be  well  manned,  and 
provided  with  boats,  for  the  same  purpose.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  employ  six  or  seven  light  ships  better  than  on  such  a  service.  It 
is  even  more  economical  to  employ  a  sufficient  number;  the  occasion 
for  them  would,  by  this  means,  speedily  cease.  Once  root  out  the 
trade,  and  there  is  little  fear  of  its  again  springing  up.  The  industry 
and  capital  required  by  it  will  find  out  other  vents.  The  labour  and 
ingenuity  of  the  persons  engaged  in  it  will  seek  the  different  channels 
which  will  continue  open.  Some  of  them  will  naturally  go  on  the 
highway,  while  others  will  betake  themselves  to  piracy,  and  the  law 
might,  in  due  time,  dispose  of  them. 

But  I  should  not  do  justice  either  to  my  own  sentiments,  or  to  the 
great  cause  which  I  am  maintaining,  were  I  to  stop  here.  All  the 
measures  I  have  mentioned  are  mere  expedients — mere  makeshifts 
and  palliatives,  compared  with  the  real  and  effectual  remedy  for  this 
grand  evil,  which  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  it  is  now  full  time  to 
apply.  I  should,  indeed,  have  been  inclined  to  call  the  idea  of  stop- 
ping such  a  traffic  by  pecuniary  penalties,  an  absurdity  and  incon- 
sistency, had  it  not  been  adopted  by  Parliament,  and  were  I  not  also 
persuaded,  that  in  such  cases  it  is  necessary  to  go  on  by  steps,  and 
often  to  do  what  we  can,  rather  than  attempt  what  we  wish.  Never- 
theless, I  must  say,  after  the  trial  that  has  been  given  to  the  abolition 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  375 

•law,  I  am  now  prepared  to  go  much  further,  and  to  declare  that  the 
slave  trade  should  at  once  be  made  felony.  When  I  consider  how 
easily  laws  are  passed,  declaring  those  acts  even  capital  offences, 
which  have  heretofore  been  either  permitted  or  slightly  punished; 
when  scarce  a  session  ends  without  some  such  extension  of  the  cri- 
minal code;  when  even  capital  offences  are  among  the  most  nume- 
rous progenies  of  our  legislative  labours;  when  I  sec  the  difficulty 
experienced  by  an  honourable  and  learned  friend  of  mine,*  in  doing 
away  the  capital  part  of  the  offence  of  stealing  five  shillings:  when 
it  is  remembered  that  Lord  Ellenborough,  by  one  act  created  some- 
where about  a  dozen  capital  felonies;  when,  in  short,  so  many  com- 
paratively trivial  offences  are  so  severely  visited;  can  one,  who  knows 
what  slave  trading  means,  hesitate  in  admitting  that  it  ought  at  length 
to  be  punished  as  a  crime?  Adverting,  again,  to  the  record  before 
mentioned,  I  find  that  the  vessel,  ready  fitted  out  for  the  slave  coast, 
has  sold  for  about  £11,000,  including  guns,  tackle,  cargo,  and  all; 
but  making  allowance  for  seamen's  wages,  wear,  and  tear,  &c.  I 
calculate  the  whole  expense  of  carrying  SOO  slaves  over  to  America, 
at  £20,000,  as  they  will  sell  for  £100  a-head,  the  net  profits  would 
be  near  £60,000.  Is  this  to  be  stopped  by  a  pecuniary  penalty?  If 
one  such  speculation,  in  four  or  five,  succeed,  they  are  safe:  there  is 
even  a  temptation  to  engage  in  many  speculations,  because  the  ad- 
venturer thus  insures  against  the  risk  of  capture,  and  becomes  his 
own  underwriter  against  the  chance  of  detection,  which  he  could  in 
no  other  way  insure  against.  If  an  inhuman  being  of  this  class  fit 
out  ten  or  twelve  such  ships,  and  escape  with  three  or  four,  his  vile 
profits  are  enormous;  but  it  should  be  recollected,  that  all  his  vessels, 
those  which  escape  as  well  as  those  which  are  taken,  spread  devas- 
tation over  the  African  continent;  and  even  a  single  cargo  is  the  utter 
ruin  of  whole  villages.  To  this  case,  more  than  to  any  other  that 
can  be  fancied,  pecuniary  checks  are  peculiarly  inapplicable.  While 
you  levy  your  pence,  the  wholesale  dealers  in  blood  and  torture 
pocket  their  pounds,  and  laugh  at  your  twopenny  penalty. 

I  shall  next  advert  to  the  10th  of  Geo.  II,  for  regulating  watermen 
between  Gravesend  and  Chelsea.  If  a  person  of  this  description 
carry  above  a  certain  number  of  persons,  although  no  accident  hap- 
pen, he  forfeits  the  use  of  the  river;  and  if  by  accident  any  one  be 
drowned,  the  boatman  who  so  overloads  is  transported  for  seven  years 
as  a  felon.  How  do  we  treat  those  who  overload  their  vessels  with 
miserable  negroes,  so  as  knowingly  and  wilfully  to  ensure  the  death 
of  many,  and  the  torments  of  all?  Why,  the  slave  carrying  bill, 
which  is  somewhat  similar  to  the  statute  of  George  II  in  its  object, 
does  not  even  deprive  such  offenders  of  the  use  of  the  sea,  which 
they  have  so  perverted  and  polluted  by  their  crimes;  far  less  does  it 
transport  for  seven  years,  even  where  the  deaths  of  hundreds  on 
board  of  such  vessels  happen  not  by  accident,  but  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  overloading.  I  make  no  reflection  on  the  statute 

*  Sir  Samuel  Romilly. 


376  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

of  George  II,  but  its  provisions  appear  somewhat  more  applicable  to 
the  slave-trader,  than  to  the  boatman.  What  has  the  Divine  Legis- 
lator said  on  this  subject?  There  is  a  most  false  and  unfounded 
notion,  that  the  sacred  writings  are  silent  upon  it;  I  shall  prove  the 
contrary.  "  Whosoever"  (says  the  Scripture)  "  stealeth  a  man,  and 
selleth  him,  or  in  whose  hands  he  shall  be  found,  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death."  And  what  is  our  gloss  or  application  of  this  divine  text? 
"  Whosoever"  (says  the  English  law)  "  stealeth  a  man,  and  tortureth 
him,  and  killeth  him,  or  selleth  him  into  slavery  for  all  the  days  of 
his  life,  shall  surely — pay  twenty  pounds!"  I  trust  that  this  grievous 
incongruity  will  at  length  be  done  away,  and  I  now  pledge  myself 
to  bring  in  a  bill  to  that  effect  early  in  the  ensuing  session;  but  I 
earnestly  hope,  that  in  the  meantime  the  House  will  leave  nothing  un- 
atternpted  which  may  tend  to  diminish  the  great  evils  complained  of, 
and  give  effect  to  one  of  the  most  holy  of  our  laws. 

I  move,  "That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  his  Majesty, 
representing  to  his  Majesty,  that  this  House  has  taken  into  its  serious 
consideration  the  papers  which  his  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased 
to  cause  to  be  laid  before  this  House  upon  the  subject  of  the  African 
Slave  Trade. — That  while  this  House  acknowledges  with  gratitude  the 
endeavours  which  his  Majesty  has  been  pleased  to  use,  in  compliance 
with  the  wishes  of  Parliament,  to  induce  foreign  nations  to  concur  in 
relinquishing  that  disgraceful  commerce,  this  House  has  to  express 
its  deep  regret  that  those  efforts  have  been  attended  with  so  little 
success. — That  this  House  does  most  earnestly  beseech  his  Majesty 
to  persevere  in  those  measures  which  may  tend  to  induce  his  allies, 
and  such  other  foreign  states  as  he  may  be  able  to  negotiate  with,  to 
co-operate  with  this  country  in  a  general  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade, 
and  to  concur  in  the  adoption  of  such  measures  as  may  assist  in  the 
effectual  execution  of  the  laws  already  passed  for  that  purpose. — 
That  this  House  has  learnt  with  the  greatest  surprise  and  indignation, 
that  certain  persons  in  this  country  have  not  scrupled  to  continue  in 
a  clandestine  and  fraudulent  manner  the  detestable  traffic  in  slaves. 
— And  that  this  House  does  most  humbly  pray  his  Majesty  that  he 
will  be  graciously  pleased  to  cause  to  be  given  to  the  commanders  of 
his  Majesty's  ships  and  vessels  of  war,  the  officers  of  his  Majesty's 
customs,  and  the  other  persons  in  his  Majesty's  service,  whose  situ- 
ation enables  them  to  detect  and  suppress  these  abuses,  such  orders 
as  may  effectually  check  practices  equally  contemptuous  to  the  au- 
thority of  Parliament,  and  derogatory  to  the  interests  and  the  honour 
of  the  country," 


CASE 

OF  THE 

REV.     JOHN     SMITH, 

MISSIONARY  IN  DEMERARA. 


INTRODUCTION. 

OPPRESSION     OF     THE      MISSIONARIES MOTION     OF     CENSURE     OF     THE 

DEMERARA  GOVERNMENT EFFECT  OF  THE  DISCUSSION  UPON  PUBLIC 

OPINION. 

THERE  never  has  been  any  case  of  colonial  oppression  attended  with  such  impor- 
tant consequences,  and  seldom  any  that  excited  so  lively  an  interest  as  that  of  the 
Missionary  Smith,  in  1823.  This  venerable  person  belonged  to  the  sect  of  Inde- 
pendents— a  class  of  men  famous  in  all  ages  for  their  tolerant  principles,  as  well 
as  for  their  love  of  liberty,  and  to  whom  this  country  owes  a  lasting  debt  of  grati- 
tude, for  their  strenuous  exertions  in  the  troubles  of  the  seventeenth  century,  those 
troubles  in  which  the  cradle  of  English  liberty  was  rocked.  He  had  been  sent  t* 
Demerara  by  the  London  Missionary  .Society,  and  its  worthy  head  the  truly  respect- 
able Mr.  Alers  Hankey.  An  insurrection  of  the  Negroes  having  broken  out,  in 
the  fever  of  alarm  which  generally  attends  such  events,  among  a  set  of  men  justly 
conscious  like  the  planters,  both  of  the  Negro's  continued  wrongs,  and  of  their 
own  imminent  dangers,  it  was  fancied  that  Mr.  Smith  had  in  some  way  contributed 
to  the  movement.  That  sucli  a  rumour  once  propagated  should  have  gained  ground 
among  the  multitude,  was  perhaps  not  to  be  wondered  at.  But,  that  the  consti- 
tuted authorities  should  have  been  so  far  moved  by  it  as  to  put  the  party  on  his 
trial,  without  the  most  careful  previous  investigation  of  all  the  circumstances,  seems 
hardly  credible,  when  we  reflect  on  the  extreme  delicacy  of  the  questions  thus  cer- 
tain to  be  raised,  nnd  upon  the  religious  feeling,  still  stronger  than  the  political,  sure 
to  be  excited.  There  were,  however,  stranger  things  yet  to  be  witnessed  in  the  pro- 
gress of  this  important  affair.  The  popular  agitation  (if  we  may  so  call  the  excitement 
among  the  handful  of  whites  thinly  scattered  among  the  real  bulk  of  the  people) 
extended  itself  to  tho  court,  before  whom  the  Missionary  was  tried;  and  the  judges, 
partaking  of  the  violence  which  inspired  the  planters  and  other  slave-dealers,  com- 
mitted a  series  of  errors  so  gross  as  to  mock  belief,  and  of  oppressions  which  are 
unexampled  in  the  dispensation  of  English  justice.  Among  these  acts,  whether  of 
matchless  ignorance  or  of  gross  injustice,  the  most  striking  but  not  tho  only  ones, 
were,  the  constant  admission  of  manifestly  illegal  evidence,  and  the  condemning 
to  death  a  person  only  accused  of  misprision,  a  crime  plainly  not  capital.  The 
Missionary  was  cast  into  a  small  and  loathsome  dungeon,  in  a  state  of  health  which 
made  any  imprisonment  dangerous.  There,  after  somn  weeks  of  the  most  severe 
suffering,  he  yielded  up  his  pious  spirit,  expiating  with  his  guiltless  blood  the  bin 


378  INTRODUCTION. 

of  which  there  is  no  remission  in  the  West  Indies — the  sin  of  having  taught  the 
slaves  the  religion  of  peace,  and  consoled  them  for  the  cruel  lot  inflicted  by  the 
crimes  of  this  world,  with  the  hopes  of  mercy  in  another. 

The  arrival  of  this  intelligence  in  England,  speedily  produced  all  the  feelings 
which  might  well  have  been  expected.  Pity  for  the  victim;  sympathy  with  his 
unhappy  widow;  fellow  feeling  for  his  bereaved  flock;  alarm  at  the  sight  of  reli- 
gious persecution;  contempt  for  the  ignorance  of  the  legal,  and  the  pusillanimity 
of  the  political  authorities;  indignation  at  the  injustice  of  the  courts — were  the  sen- 
timents that  strove  for  the  mastery  among  the  great  body  of  the  British  people:  and 
all  were  concentrated  in  one  single,  universal,  and  implacable  feeling  of  revenge 
against  that  execrable  system,  which,  contrary  to  the  law  of  God,  pretends  to  vest 
in  man  a  property  in  his  fellow-creatures,  as  fatal  to  the  character  of  the  oppressor 
as  to  the  happiness  of  his  victim. 

After  maturely  deliberating  upon  the  course  most  fit  to  be  taken,  both  with  a 
view  to  attain  the  ends  of  justice,  and  to  make  the  blow  most  effectual,  which  this 
question  enabled  him  to  level  at  Negro  Slavery  and  colonial  misgovernment,  Mr. 
Brougham,  on  the  1st  of  June,  brought  forward  his  motion  of  censure  upon  the 
Demerara  government,  and  the  court,  its  instrument  and  accomplice  in  oppression. 
A  debate  of  surpassing  interest  ensued.  The  most  distinguished  speakers  for  the 
motion  were  Mr.  Williams,*  Mr.  Denman,j~  and  Dr.  Lushington.  On  the  other 
side,  the  majority  inclined  at  first  to  resist  the  motion,  and  the  Colonial  Under  Sec- 
retary^: met  it  with  a  direct  negative;  but  finding  they  were  in  peril  of  a  defeat, 
Mr.  Canning,  who  did  not  very  creditably  distinguish  himself  on  this  occasion, 
concluded  by  moving  the  previous  question,  upon  which  the  division  was  taken. 
Mr.  Tindal§  made  on  this  occasion  his  first  parliamentary  speech,  with  distin- 
guished ability;  and  Mr.  Scarlett||  ably  argued  on  the  same  side;  Lord  Palmerston 
and  Messrs.  Lamb  and  Grant]]"  voted  in  the  ministerial  majority,  thus  giving  to  the 
country  an  early  pledge  of  those  principles  so  hostile  to  colonial  liberty,  on  which 
they  have  since  acted.  The  motion  was  lost  by  146  to  193  votes,  after  an  adjourned 
debate. 

But  the  effect  produced  by  this  great  discussion  was  extreme  and  powerful.  The 
minds  of  men  were  turned  to  the  real  state  of  Negro  bondage;  the  abuses  and  op- 
pressions committed  in  the  colonies  were  fully  examined;  the  impossibility  of  car- 
rying the  acts  now  everywhere  loudly  complained  of,  unless  by  destroying  so  un- 
natural a  system,  was  generally  recognized.  "  The  Missionary  Smith's  Case," 
became  a  watchword  and  a  rallying  cry  with  all  the  friends  of  religious  liberty,  as 
well  as  the  enemies  of  West  Indian  Slavery.  The  votes  of  those  who  had  sided 
with  the  government  in  resisting  the  motion  were  carefully  recorded,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  them  from  ever  again  being  returned  to  Parliament.  The  mea- 
sures of  the  abolitionists  all  over  the  country  became  more  bold  and  decided,  as 
their  principles  commanded  a  more  general  and  warmer  concurrence;  and  all  men 
now  saw  that  the  warning  given  in  the  peroration  of  the  latter  of  these  two  speeches, 
though  sounded  in  vain  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  was  echoing  with  a  loudness  re- 
doubled at  each  repetition  through  the  British  Isles,  that  it  had  rung  the  knell  of 
the  system,  and  that  at  the  fetters  of  the  slave  a  blow  was  at  length  struck  which 
must,  if  followed  up,  make  them  fall  off  his  limbs  for  ever.  The  cause  of  Negro 
Emancipation  has  owed  more  to  this  case  of  individual  oppression,  mixed  with  reli- 
gious persecution,  than  to  all  the  other  enormities  of  which  Slavery  has  ever  been 
convicted. 

*  Now  a  judge  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench. 

t  Now  Lord  Chief  Justice,  who  has  recently  shown  his  habitual  love  of  liberty  by  de- 
claring slavery  to  be  unlawful. 

I  Mr.  W.  Horton.  §  Now  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas. 

|]  Now  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer.          t  Now  Lords  Melbourne  and  Glenclg. 


SPEECH 

IN   THE    CASE    OF   THE 

REV.    JOHN    SMITH, 

THE    MISSIONARY. 

DELIVERED   IN  THE  HOUSE   OF   COMMONS, 

JUNE  1,  1824. 


MR.  SPEAKER, — I  confess,  that  in  bringing  before  this  House  the 
question  on  which  I  now  rise  to  address  yon,  I  feel  not  a  little  dis- 
heartened by  the  very  intense  interest  excited  in  the  country,  and  the 
contrast  presented  to  those  feelings  by  the  coldness  which  prevails 
within  these  walls.  I  cannot  conceal  from  myself,  that,  even  in' quar- 
ters where  one  would  least  have  expected  it,  a  considerable  degree  of 
disinclination  exists  to  enter  into  the  discussion,  or  candidly  to  examine 
the  details  of  the  subject.  Many  persons  who  have  upon  all  otber 
occasions,  been  remarkable  for  their  manly  hostility  to  acts  of  official 
oppression,  who  have  been  alive  to  every  violation  of  the  rights  of  the 
subject,  and  who  have  uniformly  and  most  honourably  viewed  with 
peculiar  jealousy  every  infraction  of  the  law,  strange  to  say,  on  tbe 
question  of  Mr.  Smith's  treatment,  evince  a  backwardness  to  discuss, 
or  even  listen  to  it.  Nay,  they  would  fain  fasten  upon  any  excuse  to 
get  rid  of  the  subject.  What  signifies  inquiring,  say  they,  into  a  trans- 
action which  lias  occurred  in  a  remote  portion  of  the  world?  As  if 
distance  or  climate  made  any  difference  in  an  outrage  upon  law  or 
justice.  One  would  rather  have  expected  that  the  very  idea  of  that 
distance — the  circumstance  of  the  event  having  taken  place  beyond 
the  immediate  scope  of  our  laws,  and  out  of  the  view  of  the  people  of 
this  country — in  possessions  where  none  of  the  inhabitants  have  repre- 
sentatives in  this  House,  and  the  bulk  of  them  have  no  representatives 
at  all — one  might  have  thought,  I  say,  that  in  place  of  forming  a  ground 
of  objection, their  remote  and  unprotected  situation  would  have  strength- 
ened the  claims  of  the  oppressed  to  the  interposition  of  the  British  le- 


380  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

gislature.  Then,  says  another,  too  indolent  to  inquire,  slow  to  hear, 
but  prompt  enough  to  decide,  "  It  is  true  there  have  been  a  great 
number  of  petitions  presented  on  the  subject,  but  then  every  body 
knows  how  those  petitions  are  procured,  by  what  descriptions  of  persons 
they  are  signed,  and  what  are  the  motives  which  influence  a  few  mis- 
guided, enthusiastic  men,  in  preparing  them,  and  the  great  crowd  in 
signing  them.  And,  after  all,  it  is  merely  about  a  poor  missionary!" 
I  have  now  to  learn,  for  the  first  time,  that  the  weakness  of  the  sufferer 
— his  unprotected  situation — his  being  left  single  and  alone  to  contend 
against  power  exercised  with  violence — constitutes  a  reason  for  this 
House  shutting  its  ears  against  all  complaints  of  such  proceedings,  and 
refusing  to  investigate  the  treatment  of  the  injured  individual.  But  it 
is  not  enough  that  he  was  a  missionary:  to  make  the  subject  still  more 
unpalatable — for  I  will  come  to  the  point,  and  at  once  use  the  hateful 
word — he  must  needs  also  be  a  Methodist.  I  hasten  to  this  objec- 
tion, with  a  view  at  once  to  dispose  of  it.  Suppose  Mr.  Smith  had 
been  a  Methodist — what  then?  Does  his  connection  with  that  class 
of  religious  people,  because,  on  some  points  essential  in  their  conscien- 
tious belief,  they  are  separated  from  the  National  Church,  alter  or  les- 
sen his  claims  to  the  protection  of  the  law?  Are  British  subjects  to  be 
treated  more  or  less  favourably  in  courts  of  law — are  they  to  have 
a  larger  or  a  smaller  share  in  the  security  of  life  and  limb,  in  the  jus- 
tice dealt  out  by  the  government — according  to  the  religious  opinions 
which  they  may  happen  to  hold?  Had  Fie  belonged  to  the  society  of 
the  Methodists,  and  been  employed  by  the  members  of  that  commu- 
nion, I  should  have  thought  no  worse  of  him  or  his  mission,  and  felt 
nothing  the  less  strongly  for  his  wrongs.  But  it  does  so  happen,  that 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  of  these  assumptions  is  true;  neither  the 
Missionary  society,  nor  their  servants,  are  of  the  Methodist  persuasion. 
The  society  is  composed  indifferently  of  churchmen  and  dissenters:  Mr. 
Smith  is,  or,  as  I  unhappily  must  now  say,  was,  a  minister — a  faith- 
ful and  pious  minister — of  the  Independents — that  body  much  to  be 
respected  indeed  for  their  numbers,  but  far  more  to  be  held  in  lasting 
veneration  for  the  unshaken  fortitude  with  which,  in  all  times,  they 
have  maintained  their  attachment  to  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and, 
holding  fast  by  their  own  principles,  have  carried  to  its  uttermost  pitch 
the  great  doctrine  of  absolute  toleration; — men  to  whose  ancestors  this 
country  will  ever  acknowledge  a  boundless  debt  of  gratitude,  as  long 
as  freedom  is  prized  among  us:  for  they,  I  fearlessly  proclaim  it — they, 
with  whatever  ridicule  some  may  visit  their  excesses,  or  with  what- 
ever blame  others — they ,  with  the  zeal  of  martyrs,  the  purity  of  the 
early  Christians,  the  skill  and  the  courage  of  the  most  renowned  war- 
riors, gloriously  suffered,  and  fought,  and  conquered  for  England  the 
free  constitution  which  she  now  enjoys!  True  to  the  generous  prin- 
ciples in  church  and  state  which  won  those  immortal  triumphs,  their 
descendants  still  are  seen  clothed  with  the  same  amiable  peculiarity  of 
standing  forward  among  all  religious  denominations  pre-eminent  in 
toleration;  so  that  although,  in  the  progress  of  knowledge,  other  classes 
of  dissenters  may  be  approaching  fast  to  overtake  them,  they  still  are 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  381 

foremost  in  this  proud  distinction.  All,  then,  I  ask  of  those  who  feel 
indisposed  to  this  discussion  is,  that  they  will  not  allow  their  preposses- 
sions, or  I  would  rather  say  their  indolence  (for,  disguise  it  as  they 
will,  indolence  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  indisposition),  to  prevent  them 
from  entering  calmly  and  fully  into  the  discussion  of  the  question.  It 
is  impossible  that  they  can  overlook  the  unexampled  solicitude  which 
it  has  excited  in  every  class  of  the  people  out  of  doors.  That  consider- 
ation should  naturally  induce  the  House  of  Commons  to  lend  its  ear 
to  the  inquiry,  which,  however,  is  fully  entitled,  on  its  own  merits,  to 
command  undivided  attention. 

It  will  be  my  duty  to  examine  the  charge  preferred  against  the  late 
Mr.  Smith,  and  the  whole  of  the  proceedings  founded  on  that  charge. 
And  in  so  doing,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  from  the  begin- 
ning of  those  proceedings  to  their  fatal  termination,  there  has  been 
committed  more  of  illegality,  more  of  the  violation  of  justice — violation 
of  justice,  in  substance  as  well  as  form — than,  in  the  whole  history  of 
modern  times,  I  venture  to  assert,  was  ever  before  witnessed  in  any 
inquiry  that  could  be  called  a  judicial  proceeding.  I  have  tried  the  expe- 
riment upon  every  person  with  whom  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  con- 
versing on  the  subject  of  these  proceedings  at  Demerara,as  well  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  to  which  I  have  the  honour  of  belonging,  as  others 
acquainted  with  the  state  of  affairs  in  our  Colonies,  and  I  have  never  met 
with  one  who  did  not  declare  to  me,  that  the  more  the  question  was 
looked  into,  the  greater  attention  was  given  to  its  details,  the  more  fully 
the  whole  mass  was  sifted — the  more  complete  was  his  assent  to  the 
conviction  that  there  was  never  exhibited  a  greater  breach  of  the  law, 
a  more  daring  violation  of  justice,  a  more  flagrant  contempt  of  all  those 
forms  by  which  law  and  justice  were  wont  to  be  administered,  and 
under  which  the  perpetrators  of  ordinary  acts  of  judicial  oppression  are 
wont  to  hide  the  nakedness  of  their  crimes. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  that  un- 
happy state  of  things  which  existed  in  Demerara  during  the  course 
of  the  past  year.  Certain  instructions  had  been  forwarded  from  this 
country  to  those  slave  colonies  which  are  more  under  the  control  of 
the  government  than  the  other  West  India  Islands.  Whether-  the 
instructions  were  the  best  calculated  to  fulfil  the  intentions  of  those 
who  issued  them — whether  the  directions  had  not  in  some  points  gone 
too  far,  at  least  in  prematurely  introducing  the  object  that  they  had 
most  properly  in  view — and  whether,  in  other  points,  they  did  not  stop 
short  of  their  purpose — whether,  in  a  country  where  the  symbol  of 
authority  was  the  constantly  manifested  lash  of  the  driver,  it  was  ex- 
pedient at  once  to  withdraw  that  dreadful  title  of  ownership, —  I  shall 
not  now  stop  to  inquire.  Snflicc  it  to  say,  that  those  instructions 
arrived  at  Demerara  on  the  7th  of  last  July,  and  great  alarm  and  fever- 
ish anxiety  appear  to  have  been  excited  by  them  amongst  the  white 
part  of  the  population.  That  the  existence  of  this  alarm  so  generally 
felt  by  the  proprietors,  and  the  arrival  of  some  new  and  beneficial 
regulations,  were  marked  and  understood  by  the  domestic  slaves, 
there  cannot  be  a  doubt.  By  them  the  intelligence  was  speedily  coin- 


382  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

municated  to  the  field  Negroes.  All  this  time  there  was  no  official 
communication  of  the  instructions  from  the  Colonial  government. 
A  meeting  had  been  convened  of  the  Court  of  Policy,  but  nothing  had 
been  made  public  in  consequence  of  its  assembling.  A  second  meet- 
ing was  held,  and  it  was  understood  that  a  difference  of  opinion  pre- 
vailed among  the  members,  after  a  discussion,  which,  though  not 
fierce,  was  still  animated.  The  only  means  which  the  circumstances 
of  the  case  naturally  suggested  do  not  appear  to  have  been  adopted 
by  those  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Demerara.  I  do  not  impute  to  them 
any  intentional  disregard  of  duty.  It  is  very  possible  that  the  true 
remedy  for  the  mischief  may  have  escaped  them  in  the  moment  of 
excited  apprehension — in  the  prevalence  of  general  alarm,  rendered 
more  intense  by  the  inquisitive  anxiety  of  the  slave  population, — an 
alarm  and  anxiety  continued  by  the  state  of  ignorance  in  which  the 
slaves  were  kept  as  to  the  real  purport  of  the  instructions  from  Eng- 
land. But  most  certainly,  whatever  was  the  cause,  the  authorities  at 
Demerara  overlooked  that  course  of  proceeding  best  calculated  to  allay 
at  least  the  inquisitive  anxiety  of  the  slaves;  namely,  promulgating  in 
the  colony  what  it  really  was  that  had  been  directed  by  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  King's  ministers,  even  if  they  were  not  disposed  at  once 
to  declare  whether  they  would  or  would  not  carry  those  instructions 
into  execution.  Unhappily  they  did  not  take  that  plain  course. 
Week  after  week  was  suffered  to  elapse;  and  up  to  the  period  when 
the  lamentable  occurrence  took  place,  which  led  to  these  proceedings, 
no  authentic,  or,  at  least  authoritative  communication,  either  of  what 
had  arrived  from  England,  or  of  what  was  the  intention  of  the  au- 
thorities at  Demerara,  was  made  to  the  slaves.  This  state  of  sus- 
pense occupied  an  interval  of  nearly  seven  weeks.  The  revolt  broke 
out  on  the  18th  of  August.  During  the  whole  of  that  interval  the 
agitation  in  the  colony  was  considerable;  it  was  of  a  twofold  charac- 
ter. There  was  on  one  side  the  alarm  of  the  planters,  as  to  the  conse- 
quences of  the  new  instructions  received  from  his  Majesty's  govern- 
ment; and  on  the  other  the  naturally  increasing  anxiety  of  the  Negro 
as  to  the  precise  purport  and  extent  of  those  instructions.  There  ex- 
isted the  general  impression,  that  some  extension  of  grace  and  bounty 
had  been  made  to  the  slaves.  In  the  ignorance  which  was  so  stu- 
diously maintained  as  to  the  nature  of  it,  their  hopes  were  proportion- 
ably  excited;  they  knew  that  something  had  been  done,  and  they 
were  inquisitive  to  learn  what  it  was.  The  general  conversation 
amongst  them  was,  "  Has  not  our  freedom  come  out  ?  Is  not  the  King 
of  Great  Britain  our  friend  ?"  Various  speculations  occupied  them; 
reports  of  particular  circumstances  agitated  them.  Each  believed  in 
the  detail  as  his  fancy  or  credulity  led  him;  but  to  one  point  all  their 
hopes  pointed; — "Freedom!  freedom!"  was  the  sound  unceasingly 
heard;  and  it  continually  raised  the  vision  on  which  their  fancy  loved 
to  repose. 

And  now,  allow  me  to  take  the  opportunity  of  re-asserting  the 
opinion  which,  with  respect  to  that  most  important  subject  of  emanci- 
pation, I  have  uniformly  maintained,  not  only  since  I  have  had  the 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  383 

honour  of  a  scat  in  this  House,  but  long  before,  with  no  other  differ- 
ence, save,  perhaps,  in  the  manner  of  ihe  expression,  correcting  that 
manner  by  the  experience  and  knowledge  which  a  more  extended 
intercourse  with  human  life  must  naturally  have  bestowed.  My 
opinion  ever  has  been,  that  it  is  alike  necessary  to  the  security  of  our 
white  brethren,  and  just,  and  even  merciful  to  the  Negroes — those 
victims  of  a  long-continued  system  of  cruelty,  impolicy,  and  injustice 
— to  maintain  firmly  Ihe  legal  authorities,  and  with  that  view,  to 
avoid,  in  our  relations  with  the  slaves,  a  wavering  uncertain  policy, 
or  keep  them  in  a  condition  of  doubt  and  solicitude,  calculated  to  work 
their  own  discomfort,  and  the  disquiet  of  their  masters.  Justice  to  the 
whites,  mercy  to  the  blacks,  command  us  to  protect  the  first  from  the 
effect  of  such  alarms,  and  the  last  from  the  expectation,  that,  in  the 
hapless  condition  in  which  they  are  placed,  their  emancipation  can  be 
obtained — meaning  thereby  their  sudden,  unprepared  emancipation, 
by  violent  measures,  or  with  an  unjustifiable  haste,  and  without  pre- 
vious instruction.  The  realization  of  such  a  hope,  though  carrying  the 
name  of  a  boon,  would  inflict  the  severest  misery  on  these  beings, 
whose  condition  is  already  too  wretched  to  require,  or  indeed  to  bear, 
any  increase  of  calamity.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  the  blacks  themselves, 
as  subsidiary  to  their  own  improvement,  .that  the  present  state  of 
things  must  for  a  time  be  maintained.  It  is  because  to  them,  the  bulk 
of  our  fellow-subjects  in  the  Colonies,  liberty,  if  suddenly  given,  and, 
still  more,  if  violently  obtained  by  men  yet  unprepared  to  receive  it, 
would  be  a  curse,  and  not  a  blessing;  that  emancipation  must  be  the 
work  of  time,  and,  above  all,  must  not  be  wrested  forcibly  from  their 
masters.  Reverting  to  the  occurrences  at  Demerara,  it  is  undeniable 
that  a  great  and  unnecessary  delay  took  place.  This  inevitably,  there- 
fore, gave  rise  to  those  fatal  proceedings,  which  all  of  us,  however  we 
may  differ  as  to  the  causes  from  which  they  originated,  must  unfeign- 
edly  deplore. 

It  appears  that  Mr.  Smith  had  officiated  as  a  minister  of  religion  in 
the  colony  of  Demerara  for  seven  years.  He  had  maintained  during 
his  whole  life  a  character  of  the  most  unimpeachable  moral  purity, 
which  had  not  only  won  the  love  and  veneration  of  his  own  imme- 
diate flock,  but  had  procured  him  the  respect  and  consideration  of  all 
who  resided  in  his  neighbourhood.  Indeed,  there  is  not  a  duty  of  his 
ministry  that  he  had  not  discharged  with  fidelity  and  zeal.  That  this 
was  his  character  is  evident  even  from  the  papers  laid  upon  the  table 
of  this  House.  These  documents,  however,  disclose  but  a  part  of  the 
truth  on  this  point.  Before  I  sit  down  I  shall  have  occasion  to  advert 
to  other  sources  of  information,  which  show  that  the  character  of  Mr. 
Smith  was  such  as  I  have  described  it;  and  that  those  who  are  best 
qualified  to  form  an  opinion,  have  borne  the  highest  testimony  to  his 
virtuous  and  meritorious  labours.  Yet  this  Christian  minister,  thus 
usefully  employed,  thus  generally  revered  and  beloved,  was  dragged 
from  his  house,  three  days  after  the  revolt  began,  and  when  it  had 
been  substantially  quelled,  with  an  indecent  haste  that  allowed  not  the 
accommodation  even  of  those  clothes  which,  in  all  climates,  are  neces- 


384  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

sary  to  human  comfort,  but  which,  in  a  tropical  climate,  are  absolutely 
essential  to  health.  He  was  dragged,  too,  from  his  home  and  family 
at  a  time  when  his  life  was  attacked  by  a  disease  which,  in  all  proba- 
bility, would  in  any  circumstances  have  ended  in  his  dissolution;  but 
which  the  treatment  he  then  received  powerfully  accelerated  in  its 
fatal  progress.  He  was  first  imprisoned  in  that  sultry  climate,  in  an 
unwholesome  fetid  room,  exposed  to  the  heat  of  the  tropical  sun.  This 
situation  was  afterwards  changed,  and  he  was  conveyed  to  a  place 
only  suited  to  the  purposes  of  torture — a  kind  of  damp  dungeon,  where 
the  crazy  floor  was  laid  loosely  over  stagnant  water,  visible  through 
the  wide  crevices  of  its  boards.  When  Mr.  Smith  was  about  to  be 
seized,  he  was  first  approached  with  the  hollow  demand  of  the  officer 
who  approached  him,  commanding  him  to  join  the  militia  of  the  dis- 
trict. To  this  he  pleaded  his  inability  to  serve  in  that  capacity,  as 
well  as  an  exemption  founded  on  the  rights  of  his  clerical  character. 
Under  the  pretext  of  this  refusal,  his  person  was  arrested,  and  his 
papers  were  demanded,  and  taken  possesssion  of.  Amongst  them 
was  his  private  journal — a  part  of  which  was  written  with  the  inten- 
tion of  being  communicated  to  his  employers  alone,  while  the  remain- 
ing part  was  intended  for  no  human  eye  but  his  own.  In  this  state 
of  imprisonment  he  was  detained,  although  the  revolt  was  then  entirely 
quelled.  That  it  was  so  quelled,  is  ascertained  from  the  dispatches  of 
General  Murray  to  Earl  Bathurst,  dated  the  26th  of  August.  At  least 
the  dispatch  of  that  date  admits  that  the  public  tranquillity  was  nearly 
restored;  and,  at  all  events,  by  subsequent  dispatches,  of  the  30th  and 
31st,  it  appears  that  no  further  disturbance  had  taken  place;  nor  was 
there  from  that  time  any  insurrectionary  movement  whatever.  At 
that  period  the  colony  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  accustomed  tran- 
quillity, barring  always  those  chances  of  relapse,  which,  in  such  a 
state  of  public  feeling,  and  in  such  a  structure  of  society,  must  be  sup- 
posed always  to  exist,  and  to  make  the  recurrence  of  irritation  and 
tumult  more  or  less  probable.  Martial  law,  it  will  be  recollected,  was 
proclaimed  on  the  15th  of  August,  and  was  continued  to  the  15th  of 
January  following — five  calendar  months — although  there  is  the  most 
unquestionable  proof,  that  the  revolt  had  subsided,  and  indeed  that  all 
appearance  of  insubordination  had  vanished. 

In  a  prison  such  as  I  have  described,  Mr.  Smith  remained  until  the 
14th  day  of  October.  Then,  when  every  pretence  of  real  and  imme- 
diate danger  was  over;  when  everything  like  apprehension,  save  from 
the  state  of  colonial  society,  was  removed:  it  was  thought  fit  to  bring 
to  trial,  by  a  military  court-martial,  this  Minister  of  the  Gospel!  I 
shall  now  view  the  outside  of  that  court-martial:  it  is  fit  that  we  look 
at  its  external  appearance,  examine  the  foundations  on  which  it  rests, 
and  the  structures  connected  with  it,  before  we  enter  and  survey  the 
things  perpetrated  within  its  walls.  I  know  that  the  general  answer 
to  all  which  has  been  hitherto  alleged  on  this  subject  is,  that  martial 
law  had  been  proclaimed  in  Demerara.  But,  sir,  I  do  not  profess  to 
understand,  as  a  lawyer,  martial  law  of  such  a  description:  it  is 
entirely  unknown  to  the  law  of  England — I  do  not  mean  to  say  in  the 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  385 

bad  times  of  our  history,  but  in  that  more  recent  period  which  is  called 
Constitutional.  It  is  very  true,  that  formerly  the  crown  sometimes 
issued  proclamations,  by  virtue  of  which  civil  offences  were  tried  before 
military  tribunals.  The  most  remarkable  instance  of  that  description, 
and  the  nearest  precedent  to  the  case  under  our  consideration,  was  the 
well  known  proclamation  of  that  august,  pious,  and  humane  pair, 
Philip  and  Mary,  of  happy  memory,  stigmatizing  as  rebellion,  and  as 
an  act  which  should  subject  the  offender  to  be  tried  by  a  court  martial, 
the  having  heretical,  that  is  to  say,  Protestant  books  in  one's  posses- 
sion, and  not  giving  them  up  without  previously  reading  them.  Simi- 
lar proclamations,  although  not  so  extravagant  in  their  character,  were 
issued  by  Elizabeth,  by  James  the  First,  and  (of  a  less  violent  nature) 
by  Charles  the  First;  until  at  length  the  evil  became  so  unbearable, 
that  there  arose  from  it  the  celebrated  Petition  of  Right,  one  of  the 
best  legacies  left  to  his  country  by  that  illustrious  lawyer,  Lord  Coke, 
to  whom  every  man  that  loves  the  constitution  owes  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude which  unceasing  veneration  for  his  memory  can  never  pay.  The 
petition  provides  that  all  such  proceedings  shall  thenceforward  be  put 
down:  it  declares,  "that  no  man  shall  be  forejudged  of  life  or  limb 
against  the  form  of  the  Great  Charter;"  "  that  no  man  ought  to  be 
adjudged  to  death  but  by  the  laws  established  in  this  realm,  either  by 
the  custom  of  the  realm,  or  by  acts  of  Parliament;"  and  "  that  the  com- 
missions for  proceeding  by  martial  law  should  be  revoked  and  annulled, 
lest,  by  colour  of  them,  any  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  be  destroyed  or 
put  to  death,  contrary  to  the  laws  and  franchise  of  the  land."  Since 
that  time,  no  such  thing  as  martial  law  has  been  recognised  in  this 
country;  and  courts  founded  on  proclamations  of  martial  law  have 
been  wholly  unknown.  And  here  I  beg  to  observe,  that  the  parti- 
cular grievances  at  which  the  Petition  of  Right  was  levelled,  were 
only  the  trials  under  martial  law  of  military  persons,  or  of  individuals 
accompanying,  or  in  some  manner  connected  with,  military  persons. 
On  the  abolition  of  martial  law,  what  was  substituted?  In  those  days, 
a  standing  army  in  time  of  peace  was  considered  a  solecism  in  the 
constitution.  Accordingly,  the  whole  course  of  our  legislation  pro- 
ceeded on  the  principle,  that  no  such  establishment  was  recognised. 
Afterwards  came  the  annual  Mutiny  Acts,  and  Courts  Martial  which 
were  held  only  under  those  acts.  These  courts  were  restricted  to  the 
trial  of  soldiers  for  military  offences:  and  the  extent  of  their  powers 
was  pointed  out  and  limited  by  law.  lint  I  will  not  go  further  into 
the  consideration  of  this  delicate  constitutional  question;  for  the  pre- 
sent case  does  not  rest  on  any  niceties — it  depends  not  on  any  fine- 
spun decisions  with  respect  to  the  law.  If  it  should  be  said,  that,  in 
the  conquered  colonies,  the  law  of  the  foreign  state  may  be  allowed  to 
prevail  over  that  of  England;  I  reply,  that  the  Crown  has  no  right  to 
conquer  a  colony,  and  then  import  into  its  constitution  all  manner  of 
strange  and  monstrous  usages.  If  the  contrary  were  admitted,  the 
Crown  would  only  have  to  resort  first  to  one  coast  of  Africa,  and  then 
to  another,  and  afterwards  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  and  import  the 
various  customs  of  the  barbarous  people  whom  it  might  subdue;  tor- 
VOL.  i.— 33 


386  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

ture  from  one;  the  scalping  knife  and  tomahawk  from  another;  from 
a  third,  the  regal  prerogative  of  paving  the  palace  courts  wilh  the 
skulls  of  the  subject.  All  the  prodigious  and  unutterable  practices  of 
the  most  savage  nations  might  thus  be  naturalized  by  an  act  of  the 
Crown,  without  the  concurrence  of  Parliament,  and  to  the  detriment 
of  all  British  subjects  born,  or  resident,  or  settling  for  a  season,  in  those 
new  dominions.  Nothing,  however,  is  more  clear,  than  that  no  prac- 
tice inconsistent  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  constitution — 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  recourse  to  torture  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing evidence — can  ever  be  imported  into  a  colony  by  an  act  of  con- 
quest. But  all  considerations  of  this  nature  are  unnecessary  on  the 
present  occasion:  for  this  court  was  an  English  court  martial.  The 
title  by  which  it  claimed  to  sit  was  the  Mutiny  Act,  and  the  law  of 
England.  The  members  of  the  court  are  estopped  from  pleading  the 
Dutch  law,  as  that  on  which  their  proceedings  are  founded.  They 
are  estopped,  because  they  relied  for  their  right  to  sit  on  our  own 
Mutiny  Act,  which  they  time  after  time  refer  to;  and  they  cannot  now 
pretend  that  they  proceeded  on  any  other  ground. 

Let  us  now  look  for  a  few  moments  at  the  operations  which  pre- 
ceded the  trial  of  this  poor  missionary.  He  was,  as  I  have  just  stated, 
tried  by  a  court  martial;  and  we  are  told  by  General  Murray,  in  his 
dispatch  of  October  21,  that  it  was  all  the  better  for  him, — for  that,  if 
he  had  been  tried  in  any  other  manner,  he  might  have  found  a  more 
prejudiced  tribunal.  Now,  sir,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  if 
I  had  been  the  party  accused,  or  of  counsel  for  the  party  accused,  I 
would  at  once  have  preferred  a  civil  jurisdiction  to  the  very  anomalous 
proceeding  that  took  place.  First  of  all,  I  should  have  gained  delay, 
which  in  most  cases  is  a  great  advantage  to  the  accused.  In  this  par- 
ticular case  it  must  have  proved  of  inestimable  benefit  to  him,  as  the 
fever  of  party  rage  and  personal  hostility  would  have  been  suffered 
gradually  to  subside.  By  proceeding  under  the  civil  jurisdiction,  the 
addition  of  the  Roman  law  to  that  of  the  common  law  necessarily  occa- 
sioned great  prolixity  in  the  trial.  Months  must  have  elapsed  during 
those  proceedings,  and  at  every  step  the  accused  would  have  had  a 
chance  of  escape.  All  this  would  have  been  of  incalculable  value; 
and  all  this  was  lost  to  the  accused,  by  his  being  summarily  brought 
before  a  military  tribunal.  The  evidence  of  slaves  was  admitted  by 
the  court  without  doubt  or  contest; — a  point,  however,  on  which  I  do 
not  much  rely;  for  I  understand  that  in  Demerara  the  usage  in  this  re- 
spect differs  from  the  usage  of  some  other  colonies,  and  that  the  evidence 
of  Negroes  against  Whites  is  considered  admissible,  although  it  is  not 
frequently  resorted  to.  Still,  however,  there  is  this  difference  as 
respects  such  evidence  between  a  civil  and  a  military  court;  in  the  lat- 
ter, it  is  received  at  once,  without  hesitation;  whereas,  if  the  matter  is 
brought  before  a  civil  jurisdiction,  a  preliminary  proceeding  must  take 
place  respecting  the  admissibility  of  each  witness.  His  evidence  is 
compared  with  the  evidence  of  Other  witnesses,  or  parts  of  his  evidence 
are  compared  with  other  parts,  and  on  the  occurrence  of  any  considera- 
ble discrepancy  the  evidence  of  that  witness  is  finally  refused.  There 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  387 

are  also  previous  proceedings,  had  the  subject  been  brought  before  a 
civil  jurisdiction,  which  might  have  had  this  effect:  a  discussion  takes 
place  before  the  Chief  Justice  and  two  assistants,  on  the  admissibility 
of  witnesses,  who  are  not  admitted  as  evidence  in  the  cause  until  after 
a  preliminary  examination;  and  I  understand,  that  the  circumstance  of 
a  witness  being  a  slave  whose  evidence  is  to  be  adduced  against  a 
white  man,  in  cases  of  doubt,  always  weighs  in  the  balance  against 
his  admissibility.  But  I  pass  all  this  over.  I  rest  the  case  only  on  that 
which  is  clear,  undeniable,  unquestioned.  By  the  course  of  the  civil 
law,  two  witnesses  are  indispensably  required  to  substantiate  any 
charge  against  the  accused.  Let  any  one  read  the  evidence  on  this 
trial,  and  say,  how  greatly  the  observance  of  such  a  rule  would  have 
improved  the  condition  of  the  prisoner.  Last  of  all,  if  the  accused  had 
been  tried  at  common  law,  he  would  have  had  the  advantage  of  a 
learned  person  presiding  over  the  court,  as  the  Chief  Justice,  who  must 
have  been  individually  and  professionally  responsible  for  his  conduct; 
who  would  have  acted  in  the  face  of  the  whole  bar  of  the  colony;  who 
would  also  have  acted  in  the  face  of  that  renowned  English  bar 
to  which  he  once  belonged,  to  which  he  might  return,  and  whose 
judgment,  therefore,  even  when  removed  from  them  by  the  breadth 
of  the  Atlantic,  he  would  not  have  disregarded,  while  he  retained  the 
feelings  of  a  man,  and  the  character  of  an  English  advocate.  He  would 
have  acted  in  the  face  of  the  whole  world  as  an  individual,  doubtless 
not  without  assistance,  but  still  with  the  assistance  of  laymen  only,  who 
could  not  have  divided  the  responsibility  with  him.  He  would,  in 
every  essential  particular,  have  stood  forth  single  and  supreme,  in  the 
eyes  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  as  the  Judge  who  tried  the  prisoner.  In 
such  circumstances,  he  must  have  conducted  himself  with  an  entire 
regard  to  his  professional  character,  to  his  responsibility  as  a  judge,  to 
his  credit  as  a  lawyer. 

Now,  sir,  let  us  look  at  the  constitution  of  the  court  before  which 
Mr.  Smith  was  actually  tried.  Upon  a  reference  to  the  individuals  of 
whom  it  was  composed,  I  find,  what  certainly  appears  most  strange, 
the  president  of  the  civil  court  taking  upon  himself  the  functions  of  a 
member  of  the  court  martial,  under  the  name  of  an  officer  of  the  militia 
start".  It  appears  to  be  the  fact,  that  this  learned  individual  was  in- 
vested with  the  rank  and  degree  of  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  militia,  a 
few  days  before  the  assembling  of  the  court  martial,  in  order  that  he,  a 
lawyer  and  a  civil  judge,  might  sit  as  a  military  judge  and  a  soldier! 
Sir,  he  must  have  done  this  by  compulsion.  Martial  law  was  estab- 
lished in  the  colony  by  the  power  to  which  he  owed  obedience.  He 
could  not  resist  the  mandate  of  the  governor.  He  was  bound,  in  com- 
pliance with  that  mandate,  to  hide  his  civic  garb,  to  cover  his  forensic 
robe  under  martial  armour.  As  the  aid-de-camp  of  the  governor,  he 
was  compelled  to  act  a  mixed  character — part  lawyer,  part  soldier.  He 
was  the  only  lawyer  in  a  court  where  a  majority  of  the  soldiery  over- 
whelmed him.  Having  no  responsibility,  he  abandoned — or  was  com- 
pelled lo  sit  helpless  and  unresisting,  and  see  others  abandoning — 
principles  and  forms  which  he  could  not,  which  he  would  not,  which 


388  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

he  durst  not,  have  abandoned,  had  he  been  sitting  alone  in  his  own 
court,  in  his  ermined  robe,  administering  the  civil  law.  After  this 
strange  fact  respecting  the  higher  members  of  the  court,  it  is  riot  sur- 
prising that  one  as  strange  should  appear  with  regard  to  its  subordi- 
nate officers.  The  Judge-Advocate  of  a  court  martial,  although  cer- 
tainly sometimes  standing  in  the  situation  of  a  prosecutor,  nevertheless, 
in  all  well  regulated  courts  martial,  never  forgets  that  he  also  stands 
between  the  prisoner  and  the  bench.  He  is  rather,  indeed,  in  the 
character  of  an  assessor  to  the  court.  On  this  point,  I  might  appeal  to 
the  highest  authority  present.  By  you,  sir,  these  important  functions 
were  long,  and  correctly,  and  constitutionally  performed;  and  in  a  man- 
ner equally  beneficial  to  the  army  and  to  the  country.  But  I  may 
appeal  to  another  authority,  from  which  no  one  will  be  inclined  to  dis- 
sent. A  revered  judge,  Mr.  Justice  Bathurst,  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  laid  it  down  as  clear  and  indisputable,  that  the  office  of  a 
Judge-Advocate  was  to  lay  the  proof  on  both  sides  before  the  court; 
and  that  whenever  the  evidence  was  at  all  doubtful,  it  was  his  duty  to 
incline  towards  the  prisoner.  No  such  disposition,  however,  appears 
in  this  Judge-Advocate,  I  should  rather  say  in  these  Judge-Advocates; 
for,  one  not  being  considered  enough,  two  deputies  were  appointed  to 
assist  him.  These  individuals  exercised  all  their  address,  their  caution, 
and  their  subtlety,  against  the  unfortunate  prisoner,  with  a  degree  of 
zeal  bordering  upon  acrimony.  Indeed,  the  vehemence  of  the  prose- 
cution was  unexampled.  I  never  met  with  anything  equal  to  it;  and 
I  am  persuaded,  that  if  any  such  warmth  had  been  exhibited  before  a 
civil  judge  by  a  prosecuting  counsel,  he  would  have  frowned  it  down 
with  sudden  indignation. 

In  the  first  instance,  the  Judge-Advocate  concealed  the  precise  na- 
ture of  the  accusation.  The  charges  were  drawn  up  so  artfully,  as  to 
give  no  notice  to  the  prisoner  of  the  specific  accusation  against  him. 
They  were  drawn  up  shortly,  vaguely,  and  obscurely;  but,  short, 
vague,  and  obscure  as  they  were,  they  were  far  from  being  as  short, 
as  vague,  and  as  obscure  as  the  opening  speech  of  the  prosecutor. 
That  speech  occupies  about  half  a  page  in  the  minutes  of  the  trial, 
which  yet  give  it  verbatim.  But  scarcely  had  the  prisoner  closed  his 
defence,  than  a  speech  was  pronounced,  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution, 
which  eighteen  pages  of  the  minutes  scarcely  contain.  In  this  reply 
the  utmost  subtlety  is  exhibited.  Topic  is  urged  after  topic  with  the 
greatest  art  and  contrivance.  Everything  is  twisted  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  a  conviction;  and,  which  is  the  most  monstrous  thing  of 
all,  when  the  prisoner  can  no  longer  reply,  new  facts  are  detailed, 
new  dates  specified,  and  new  persons  introduced,  which  were  never 
mentioned,  or  even  hinted  at,  on  any  one  of  the  twenty-seven  pre- 
ceding days  of  the  trial!  Again,  sir,  I  say,  that  had  I  been  the  accused 
person,  or  his  counsel,  I  would  rather  a  thousand-fold  have  been  tried 
by  the  ordinary  course  of  the  civil  law,  than  by  such  a  court.  To 
return,  however,  to  its  composition — I  rejoice  to  observe,  that  the 
president  of  the  supreme  civil  judicature,  although  he  was  so  unwise 
as  to  allow  his  name  to  be  placed  on  the  list  of  the  members,  or  so 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  389 

unfortunate  as  to  be  compelled  to  do  so,  refused  to  preside  over  the 
deliberations  of  this  court.  Although  he  was  the  person  of  the  high- 
est rank  next  to  the  governor,  and  although  in  a  judicial  inquiry  he 
must  naturally  have  been  more  skilful  and  experienced  than  any  man 
in  the  colony,  nevertheless  there  he  is  in  the  list  among  the  ordinary 
members  of  the  court;  and  as  he  must  have  been  appointed  to  pre- 
side, but  for  his  own  repugnance  to  the  office,  I  am  entitled  to  con- 
clude that  he  refused  it  with  a  firmness  not  to  be  overcome.  Against 
the  other  members  I  have  nothing  whatever  to  say.  The  president 
of  the  court,  however,  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  Goodman.  Now, 
that  gallant  officer,  than  whom  I  believe  no  man  bears  a  higher  cha- 
racter, unfortunately,  beside  bearing  his  Majesty's  commission,  holds 
an  office  in  the  colony  of  Demerara,  which  rendered  him  the  last  man 
in  the  world  who  ought  to  have  been  selected  as  president  of  such  a 
judicature.  Let  the  House,  sir,  observe,  that  the  reason  assigned  by 
Governor  Murray  for  subjecting  Mr.  Smith  to  a  trial  before  such  a 
tribunal,  was  not  only  that  he  might  have  in  reality  a  fair  trial,  but 
that  he  might  not  even  appear  to  be  the  victim  of  local  prejudice, 
which  it  seems  would  have  been  surmised,  had  his  case  been  submit- 
ted to  a  jury,  or  a  court,  of  planters.  How  is  it,  (hen,  that  with  this 
feeling  the  governor  could  name  Lieutenant-Colonel  Goodman  to  be 
president  of  the  court.  For  that  gallant  officer  does,  in  point  of  fact, 
happen  to  hold  the  situation  of  vendue-master  in  the  colony  of  Deme- 
rara, without  profit  to  whom  not  a  single  slave  can  be  sold  by  any 
sale  carried  on  under  the  authority  of  the  courts  of  justice.  Accord- 
ingly, it  did  so  turn  out,  that  a  few  days  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  revolt,  there  were  advertised  great  sales  of  Negroes  by  auction, 
which  most  naturally  excited  sorrow  and  discontent  among  many  of 
the  slaves.  There  was  one  sale  of  fifty-six  of  those  hapless  beings, 
who  were  to  be  torn  from  the  place  of  their  birth  and  residence,  and 
perhaps  separated  for  ever  from  their  nearest  and  dearest  connections. 
I  hold  in  rny  hand  a  Colonial  Gazette,  containing  many  advertise- 
ments of  such  sales,  and  to  every  one  of  them  I  find  attached  the  sig- 
nature "  S.  A.  Goodman."  One  of  the  advertisements,  that,  I  think, 
for  the  sale  of  fifty-six  Negroes,  states,  that  among  the  number  there 
are  many  "valuable  carpenters,  boat-builders,  &c.,  well  worthy  the 
attention  of  the  public."  Another  speaks  of  "  several  prime  single 
men."  One  party  of  slaves  consists  of  a  woman  and  her  three  chil- 
dren. Another  advertisement  offers  a  young  female  slave  who  is 
pregnant.  Upon  the  whole,  there  appear  to  have  been  seventy  or 
eighty  slaves  advertised  to  be  sold  by  auction  in  this  single  gazette,  in 
whose  sale  Lieutenant-Colonel  Goodman,  from  the  nature  of  his 
office,  had  a  direct  interest.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  affirm  that  this 
circumstance  was  likely  to  warp  his  judgment.  Probably,  indeed,  he 
was  not  personally  aware  of  it  at  the  time.  But  I  repeat,  that,  if  this 
proceeding  were  intended  to  be  free  from  all  suspicion,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Goodman  was  one  of  the  last  men  to  select  as  the  president 
of  the  court.  That,  however,  is  nothing  compared  to  the  appointment 
of  the  Chief  Justice  of  tho  colony  as  one  of  its  members.  He,  the 


390  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

civil  judge  of  the  colony,  to  be  forced  to  sit  as  member  of  a  court 
martial,  and  under  the  disguise  of  a  militia  officer  by  way  of  a  quali- 
fication !  He  to  whom  an  appeal  lay  against  any  abuse  of  which  that 
court  martial  might  be  guilty!  From  whom  but  from  him  could  Mr. 
Smith  have  obtained  redress  for  any  violation  of  the  law  committed 
in  his  person?  Yet,  as  if  for  the  express  purpose  of  shutting  the  door 
against  the  possibility  of  justice,  he  is  taken  by  the  governor  and  com- 
pelled to  be  a  member  of  the  court.  That  this  tribunal  might  at  once 
be  clothed  with  the  authority  of  the  laws  which  it  was  about  to  break, 
and  exempted  from  all  risk  of  answering  to  those  laws  for  breaking 
them,  the  only  magistrate  who  could  vindicate  or  enforce  them  is 
identified  with  the  court,  and  at  the  same  time  so  outnumbered  by 
military  associates,  as  to  be  incapable  of  controverting,  or  even  influ- 
encing, its  decision,  while  his  presence  gives  them  the  semblance  of 
lawful  authority,  and  places  them  beyond  the  reach  of  legal  revision. 
Sir,  one  word  more,  before  I  advert  to  the  proceedings  of  the  court, 
on  the  nature  of  its  jurisdiction.  Suppose  I  were  ready  to  admit,  that 
on  the  pressure  of  a  great  emergency,  such  an  invasion  or  rebellion, 
when  there  is  no  time  for  the  slow  and  cumbrous  proceedings  of  the 
civil  law,  a  proclamation  may  justifiably  be  issued  for  excluding  the 
ordinary  tribunals,  and  directing  that  offences  should  be  tried  by  a 
military  court — such  a  proceeding  might  be  justified  by  necessity;  but 
it  could  rest  on  that  alone.  Created  by  necessity,  necessity  must  limit 
its  continuance.  It  would  be  the  worst  of  all  conceivable  grievances 
— it  would  be  a  calamity  unspeakable — if  the  whole  law  and  consti- 
tution of  England  were  suspended  one  hour  longer  than  the  most  im- 
perious necessity  demanded.  And  yet  martial  law  was  continued  in 
Demerara  for  five  months.  In  the  midst  of  tranquillity,  that  offence 
against  the  constitution  was  perpetrated  for  months,  which  nothing 
but  the  most  urgent  necessity  could  warrant  for  an  hour.  An  indivi- 
dual in  civil  life,  a  subject  of  his  Majesty,  a  clergyman,  was  tried  at  a 
moment  of  perfect  peace,  as  if  rebellion  raged  in  the  country.  He 
was  tried  as  if  he  had  been  a  soldier.  I  know  that  the  proclamation 
of  martial  law  renders  every  man  liable  to  be  treated  as  a  soldier. 
But  the  instant  the  necessity  ceases,  that  instant  the  state  of  soldier- 
ship ought  to  cease,  and  the  rights,  with  the  relations,  of  civil  life  to 
be  restored.  Only  see  the  consequences  which  might  have  followed 
the  course  that  was  adopted.  Only  mark  the  dilemma  in  which  the 
governor  might  have  found  himself  placed  by  his  own  acts.  The  only 
justification  of  the  court  martial  was  his  proclamation.  Had  that 
court  sat  at  the  moment  of  danger,  there  would  have  been  less  ground 
for  complaint  against  it.  But  it  did  nM "assemble  until  the  emergency 
had  ceased;  and  it  then  sat  for  eight-and-twenty  days.  Suppose  a 
necessity  had  existed  at  the  commencement  of  the  trial,  but  that  in  the 
course  of  the  eight-and-twenty  days  it  had  ceased; — suppose  a  neces- 
sity had  existed  in  the  first  week,  who  could  predict  that  it  would  not 
cease  before  the  second?  If  it  had  ceased  with  the  first  week  of  the 
trial,  what  would  have  been  the  situation  of  the  governor?  The  sit- 
ting of  the  court  martial  at  all,  could  be  justified  only  by  the  procla- 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  391 

mation  of  martial  law;  yet  it  became  the  duty  of  the  governor  to  re- 
voke that  proclamation.  Either,  therefore,  the  court  martial  must  be 
continued  without  any  warrant  or  colour  of  law,  or  the  proclamation 
of  martial  law  must  be  continued  only  to  legalize  the  prolonged  exist- 
ence of  the  court  martial.  If,  at  any  moment  before  its  proceedings 
were  brought  to  a  close,  the  urgent  pressure  had  ceased  which  alone 
justified  their  being  instituted,  according  to  the  assumption  I  am 
making  in  favour  of  the  court,  and  for  argument's  sake;  then  to  con- 
tinue martial  law  an  hour  longer  would  have  been  the  most  grievous 
oppression,  the  plainest  violation  of  all  law;  and  to  abrogate  martial 
law  would  have  been  fatal  to  the  continuance  of  the  trial.  But  the 
truth  is,  that  the  court  has  no  right  even  to  this  assumption,  little  be- 
neficial as  it  proves;  for  long  before  the  proceedings  commenced,  all 
the  pressure,  if  it  ever  existed,  was  entirely  at  an  end. 

I  now,  sir,  beg  the  House  will  look  with  me,  for  a  moment,  at  the 
course  of  proceeding  which  the  court,  constituted  in  the  manner  and 
in  the  circumstances  that  I  have  described,  thought  fit  to  adopt.  If 
I  have  shown  that  they  had  no  authority,  and  that  they  tried  this 
clergyman  illegally,  not  having  any  jurisdiction,  I  think  I  can  prove 
as  satisfactorily  that  their  proceedings  were  not  founded  on  any 
grounds  of  justice,  or  principles  of  law,  as  I  have  proved  that  the 
court  itself  was  without  a  proper  jurisdiction.  And  here,  I  beg  leave 
to  observe,  that  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings  on  the  table  of  the 
House  are  by  no  means  full,  although  I  do  not  say  they  are  false. 
They  do  not  perhaps  misrepresent  what  occurred,  but  they  are  very 
far  indeed,  from  telling  all  that  did  occur;  and  the  omissions  are  of  a 
material  description.  For  instance,  there  is  a  class  of  questions  which 
it  is  not  usual  to  permit  in  courts  of  justice,  called  leading  questions; 
the  object  of  which  is  to  put  into  the  witness's  mouth  the  answers 
which  the  examiner  desires  he  should  make.  This  is  in  itself  objec- 
tionable; but  the  objection  is  doubled,  if,  in  a  report  of  the  examination, 
the  questions  are  omitted,  and  the  answers  are  represented  as  flowing 
spontaneously  from  the  witness,  and  as  being  the  result  of  his  own 
recollection  of  the  fact,  instead  of  the  suggestions  of  another  person. 
I  will  illustrate  what  I  mean  by  an  example.  On  the  fifth  day  of 
the  trial,  Bristol,  one  of  the  witnesses,  has  this  question  put  to  him: 
"  You  stated,  that,  after  the  service  was  over,  you  stayed  near  the 
chapel,  and  that  Quamina  was  there:  did  you  hear  Quamina  tell  the 
people  what  they  were  to  do?"  To  that  the  answer  is,  "  No,  sir." 
The  next  question  but  one  is,  "Did  you  hear  Quamina  tell  the  other 
Negroes,  that  on  the  next  Monday  they  were  all  to  lay  down  their 
tools  and  not  work?"  To  which  the  witness  (notwithstanding  his 
former  negative)  says,  "Yes,  I  heard  Quamina  say  so  a  week  before 
the  revolt  broke  out."  Now,  in  the  minutes  of  evidence  laid  on  the 
table  of  the  House,  both  the  questions  and  the  answer  to  the  first  are 
omitted,  and  the  witness  is  described  as  saying  without  any  previous 
prompting,  "  A  week  before  this  revolt  broke  out,  I  heard  Quamina  tell 
the  Negroes  that  they  were  to  lay  down  their  tools  and  not  work." 


392  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

The  next  instance  which  I  shall  adduce,  of  the  impropriety  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  court,  is  very  remarkable,  comprehending,  as  it  does, 
almost  all  that  I  can  conceive  of  gross  unfairness  and  irregularity:  I 
mean  the  way  in  which  the  court  attended  to  that  which,  for  want  of 
a  better  word,  I  shall  call  hearsay  evidence;  although  it  is  so  much 
worse  in  its  nature  than  anything  which,  in  the  civil  and  even  the 
military  courts  of  this  country  we  are  accustomed  to  stigmatize  and 
reject  under  this  title,  that  I  feel  I  am  calumniating  the  latter  by  the 
assimilation.  In  the  proceedings  before  this  court  at  Demerara,  the 
hearsay  is  three  or  four  deep.  One  witness  is  asked  what  he  has 
heard  another  person  say  was  imputed  to  a  third.  Such  evidence  as 
that  is  freely  admitted  by  the  court  in  a.  part  of  its  proceedings.  But 
before  I  show  where  the  line  was  drawn  in  this  respect,  I  must  quote 
a  specimen  or  t-wo  of  what  I  have  just  been  adverting  to.  In  the 
same  page  from  which  I  derived  my  last  quotation,  the  following 
questions  and  answers  occur: — "  How  long  was  it  that  Quamina 
remained  there? — Three  days:  they  said  some  of  the  people  had  gone 
down  to  speak  to  Mr.  Edmonstone;  that  Jack  had  gone  with  them." 
"Do  you  know  what  has  become  of  him  (Quamina)? — After  I  came 
here,  I  heard  he  was  shot  by  the  bucks,  and  gibbeted  about  Success 
middle  path."  And  this,  sir,  is  the  more  material,  as  the  whole  charge 
against  Mr.  Smith  rested  on  Quamina's  being  an  insurgent,  and  Mr. 
Smith's  knowing  it.  So  that  we  are  here  not  on  the  mere  outworks, 
but  in  the  very  centre  and  heart  of  the  case.  And  this  charge,  be  it 
observed,  was  made  against  Mr.  Smith  after  Quamina  was  shot.  It 
would  appear,  indeed,  that  in  these  colonies  it  was  sufficient  evidence 
of  a  man's  being  a  revolter  that  he  was  first  shot  and  afterwards  gib- 
beted. In  one  part  of  the  examination,  a  witness  is  asked,  "  Do  you 
know  that  Quamina  was  a  revolter?"  The  witness  answers  in  the 
affirmative.  The  next  question  is,  "  How  do  you  know  it?"  Now, 
mark,  the  witness  is  asked,  not  as  to  any  rumour,  but  as  to  his  own 
knowledge;  his  answer  is,  "  I  know  it  because  I  heard  they  took  him 
up  before  the  revolt  began!"  This  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  pages 
twenty-four  and  twenty-five  of  the  London  Missionary  Society's 
Report  of  the  proceedings.  In  page  thirty-five  of  the  same  publica- 
tion. I  find  the  following  questions  and  answers  in  the  evidence  of 
Mr.  M'Turk: — "Where  were  you  on  that  day  (the  18th  of  August)? 
On  plantation  Felicity,  until  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon."  "  Did 
anything  particular  occur  on  that  day? — I  was  informed,  (mark  in- 
formed^) I  was  informed  by  a  coloured  man,  about  four  o'clock,  that 
the  Negroes  intended  revolting  that  evening;  and  he  gave  me  the 
names  of  two  said  to  be  ringleaders,  viz.  Cato  and  Quamina  of  planta- 
tion Success."  Here,  sir,  we  have  a  specimen  of  the  nature  of  the 
evidence  adduced  upon  this  most  extraordinary  trial. — In  pages  101 
and  102  of  the  Missionary  Society's  Report,  I  find  the  following  passage 
in  the  evidence  of  John  Stewart,  the  manager  of  plantation  Success; 
and  be  it  in  the  recollection  of  the  House,  that  the  questions  were 
put  by  the  court  itself  before  which  this  unfortunate  man  was  tried:  — 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  393 

"Did  Quamina,  Jack,  Bethney,  Britton,  Dick,  Frank,  Hamilton, 
Jessamine,  Quaco,  Ralph,  and  Windsor,  belong  to  plantation  Success 
at  the  time  of  the  revolt? — Yes. 

"Did  any  of  these  attend  the  chapel? — The  whole  of  these,  except 
Ralph. 

"  Have  the  whole,  or  any  of  these,  except  Qnamina,  been  tried  by  a 
court  martial,  and  proved  to  have  been  actually  engaged  in  the  re- 
bellion?— I  have  been  present  at  the  trial  of  Ralph  and  Jack;  and  I  have 
seen  Ralph,  Jack,  Jessamine,  Bethney,  and  Dick,  but  have  heard  only 
of  the  others." 

"  Who,"  again  asks  the  Court,  "  was  the  most  active  of  the  insur- 
gents in  the  revolt  on  plantation  Success? — Richard  was  the  most  des- 
perate and  resolute;  Bethney  and  Jessamine  were  very  active,  and  all 
those  mentioned,  except  Quamina  and  Jack,  whom  I  did  not  see  do 
any  harm;  they  were  keeping  the  rest  back,  and  preventing  them  doing 
any  injury  to  me." 

The  Court  goes  on  to  ask,  "  Was  not  Quamina  a  reputed  leader  (I 
beg  the  House  to  mark  the  word  reputed,  and  in  a  question  put  by  the 
Court)  in  the  revolt? — I  heard  him  to  be  siich;  but  1  did  not  see  him." 

Here,  then,  we  have  hearsay  evidence  with  a  vengeance;  reputation 
proved  by  rumour;  what  a  man  is  reputed  to  be — which  would  be  no 
evidence  of  his  being  so  if  you  had  it  at  first  hand — proved  by  what 
another  has  heard  unknown  persons  say, — which  would  be  no  evi- 
dence of  his  being  reputed  so,  if  reputation  were  proof.  There  are 
here  at  least  two  stages  distance  from  any  thing  like  evidence;  but  there 
may  be  a  great  many  more.  The  witness  had  heard  that  Quamina 
had  been  a  reputed  leader:  but  how  many  removes  there  were  in  this 
reputed  charge  we  are  unable  to  learn.  I  next  come  to  the  evidence 
of  the  Rev.  William  Austin;  and  I  find,  in  page  112,  that  on  the  cross- 
examination  by  the  Judge- Advocate, ample  provision  is  made  for  letting 
in  this  evidence  of  reputation  and  hearsay.  The  Judge-Advocate  says, — 

"  Did  any  of  these  Negroes  ever  insinuate  that  their  misfortunes  were 
occasioned  by  the  prisoner's  influence  on  them, or  the  declines  he  taught 
them? — I  have  been  sitting  for  some  time  as  a  member  of  the  Committee 
of  Inquiry;  the  idea  occurs  to  me  that  circumstances  have  been  detailed 
there  against  the  prisoner,  but  never  to  myself  individually  in  my  min- 
isterial capacity." 

This  line  of  examination  is  too  promising,  too  likely  to  be  fruitful  in 
irregularity,  for  the  Court  to  pass  over:  they  instantly  take  it  up,  and, 
very  unnecessarily  distrusting  the  zeal  of  the  Judge-Advocate,  pursue 
it  themselves. 

By  the  Court. — "  Can  you  take  upon  yourself  to  sivear  that  you  do 
not  recollect  any  insinuations  of  that  sort  at  the  Board  of  Evidence?" 

The  witness  here  objected  to  the  question;  because  he  did  not  con- 
ceive himself  at  liberty  to  divulge  what  had  passed  before  the  Board 
of  Inquiry,  but  particularly  to  the  form  or  wording  of  the  question, 
which  he  considered  highly  injurious  to  him.  The  President  insisted 
(for  it  was  too  much  to  expect  that  even  the  chaplain  of  the  govern- 
ment should  find  favour  before  that  tribunal)  upon  the  reverend  wit- 


394  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

ness's  answering  the  question;  observing,  that  the  Court  was  the  best 
judge  of  its  propriety.  The  witness  then  respectfully  requested  the 
opinion  of  the  Court,  and  it  was  cleared.  Upon  re-entering,  the  As- 
sistant Judge-Advocate  said,  "The  Court  is  of  opinion  that  you  are 
bound  to  answer  questions  put  by  the  Court,  even  though  they  relate 
to  matters  stated  before  the  Board  of  Evidence."  And,  again,  the 
opportunity  is  eagerly  seized  of  letting  in  reputation  and  hearsay  evi- 
dence. The  Court  itself  asks — 

"  Did  you  hear  before  the  Board  of  Evidence,  any  Negro  imputing 
the  cause  of  the  revolt  to  the  prisoner? — Yes,  I  have." 

I  shall  now  state  to  the  House  some  facts  with  which  they  are,  per- 
haps, unacquainted,  as  it  was  not  until  late  on  Saturday  that  the  papers 
were  delivered.  Among  the  many  strange  things  which  took  place, 
not  the  least  singular  was,  that  the  prisoner  had  no  counsel  allowed, 
until  it  was  too  late  to  protect  him  against  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court. 
Most  faithfully  and  most  ably  did  that  learned  person  perform  his  duty 
when  he  was  appointed;  but  had  he  acted  from  the  beginning,  he, 
doubtless,  would  have  objected  at  once  to  the  power  of  the  court,  as  I 
should  have  done,  had  I  been  the  Missionary's  defender.  I  should 
have  protested  against  the  manner  in  which  the  court  was  constituted; 
I  should  have  objected,  that  the  men  who  sat  in  judgment  in  that  case 
had  previously  sat  upon  many  other  cases,  where  the  same  evidence, 
mixed  with  different  matter  not  now  produced,  but  all  confounded 
together  in  their  recollection,  had  been  repeated  over  and  over  for  the 
conviction  of  other  persons.  I  ask  this  House  whether  it  was  probable 
that  the  persons  who  formed  that,  court,  should  have  come  to  the  present 
inquiry  with  pure,  unprejudiced, and  impartial  judgments,  or  even  with 
their  memories  tolerably  clear  and  distinct?  I  say  it  was  impossible; 
and,  therefore,  that  they  ought  not  to  have  sat  in  judgment  upon  this 
poor  Missionary  at  all.  But  is  this  the  only  grievance?  Have  I  not 
also  to  complain  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Judge-Advocate  and  the 
Court  allowed  hearsay  evidence  to  be  offered  to  the  third,  the  fourth, 
ay,  even  to  the  fifth  degree?  Look,  sir,  to  what  was  done  with 
respect  to  the  confession,  as  they  called  it,  of  the  Negro  Paris.  I  do 
not  wish  to  trouble  the  House  by  reading  that  confession,  as  I  have 
already  trespassed  at  some  length  upon  their  attention.  It  will  be  suffi- 
cient to  state,  that  finding  his  conviction  certain,  and  perhaps  judging 
but  too  truly  from  the  spirit  of  the  court,  that  his  best  chance  of  safety 
lay  in  impeaching  Mr.  Smith,  he  at  once  avows  his  guilt,  makes  what 
is  called  a  full  confession,  and  throws  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  the 
court.  This  done,  he  goes  on  with  one  of — I  will  say  not  merely  the 
falsest — but  one  of  the  wildest  and  most  impossible  tales  that  ever  en- 
tered into  the  mind  of  man,  or  that  could  be  put  to  the  credulity  even 
of  this  court  of  soldiers.  And  yet,  upon  the  trial  of  Mr.  Smith,  the 
confession  of  this  man  was  kept  back  by  the  prosecutors;  that  is  to  say, 
it  was  not  allowed  to  be  directly  introduced,  but  was  introduced  by 
means  of  the  questions  I  have  last  read,  as  matter  of  hearsay,  which 
had  reached  different  persons  through  various  and  indirect  channels. 
In  that  confession,  Paris  falsely  says,  that  Mr.  Smith  administered  the 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  395 

sacrament  to  them  (the  form  of  which  he  describes)  on  the  day  preced- 
ing the  revolt;  and  that  he  then  exhorted  them  to  be  of  good  heart, 
and  exert  themselves  to  regain  their  freedom;  for  if  they  failed  then, 
they  would  never  succeed  in  obtaining  it.  He  says,  in  another  place, 
that  Mr.  Smith  asked  him  whether,  if  the  Negroes  conquered  the  colony, 
they  would  do  any  harm  to  him?  to  which  Paris  replied  in  the  negative. 
Now,  sir,  only  mark  the  inconsistency  of  this  man's  confession.  In 
one  place,  Mr.  Smith  is  represented  as  anxious  for  his  personal  safety, 
and  yet,  in  almost  the  same  breath,  it  is  said  that  this  very  Mr.  Smith 
was  the  ringleader  of  the  revolt — the  adviser  and  planner  of  the  insur- 
rection— the  man  who  joined  Mr.  Hamilton  in  recommending  that  the 
Negroes  should  destroy  the  bridges,  to  prevent  the  Whites  from  bring- 
ing up  cannon  to  attack  them.  This  Negro  is  made  to  swear,  "  I 
heard  Mr.  Hamilton  say,  that  the  president's  wife  should  be  his  in  a 
few  days;  then  Jack  said  the  governor's  wife  was  to  be  his  father's 
wife;  and  that  if  any  young  ladies  were  living  with  her,  or  she  had  a 
sister,  he  would  take  one  for  his  wife."  Mr.  Smith  is  pointed  out  as 
the  future  emperor;  Mr.  Hamilton  was  to  be  a  general,  and  several 
others  were  to  hold  high  offices  of  different  descriptions.  Again;  Mr. 
Smith  is  made  to  state;  that,  unless  the  Negroes  fought  for  their  liberty 
upon  that  occasion,  their  children's  children  would  never  attain  it. 
Now,  I  ask,  is  this  story  probable?  Is  there  anything  like  the  shadow 
of  truth  in  it?  I  said  just  now,  that  there  was  no  direct  mention  of 
Paris's  evidence  on  the  trial:  it  was  found  too  gross  a  fabrication  to  be 
produced.  There  were  several  others  who,  before  the  Board  of  Evi- 
dence, had  given  testimony  similar  to  this,  though  somewhat  less 
glaringly  improbable;  but  their  testimony  also  was  kept  back;  and  they 
themselves  were  sent  to  speedy  execution.  The  evidence  of  Sandy 
was  not  quite  so  strong;  but  he,  as  well  as  Paris,  was  suddenly  put  out 
of  the  way.  The  tales  of  these  witnesses  bear  palpable  and  extrava- 
gant perjury  upon  the  face  of  them;  they  were  therefore  not  brought 
forward;  but  the  prosecutors,  or  rather  the  Court,  did  that  by  insinua- 
tion and  side-wind,  which  they  dared  not  openly  to  attempt. 

I  say  that  the  court  did  this;  the  court,  well  knowing  that  no  such 
witnesses  as  Paris  and  Sandy  could  be  brought  forward — men,  the 
excesses  of  whose  falsehoods  utterly  counteracted  the  effect  of  their 
statements — contrived  to  obtain  the  whole  benefit  of  those  statements, 
unexposed  to  the  risk  of  detection,  by  the  notable  device  of  asking 
one  who  had  heard  them,  a  general  question  as  to  their  substance; 
the  prisoner  against  whom  this  evidence  was  given,  having  no  know- 
ledge of  the  particulars,  and  no  means  of  showing  the  falsehood  of 
what  was  told,  by  questioning  upon  the  part  which  was  suppressed, 
"  Did  you  hear  any  Negro,  before  the  Hoard  of  Evidence,  impute  the 
cause  of  the  revolt  to  the  prisoner?"  When,  compelled  to  answer 
this  monstrous  question,  the  witness  could  only  say,  Yes;  he  had 
heard  Negroes  impute  the  cause  to  the  prisoner;  but  they  were  the 
Negroes  Paris  and  Sandy  (and  those  who  put  this  unheard-of  ques- 
tion knew  it,  but  he  against  whom  the  answer  was  levelled  knew  it 
not) — Paris  and  Sandy,  whose  whole  tale  was  such  a  tissue  of  cnor- 


396  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

mous  falsehoods  as  only  required  to  be  heard  to  be  rejected  in  an 
instant;  and  whose  evidence  for  that  reason  had  been  carefully  sup- 
pressed. 

Having  said  so  much  with  respect  to  the  nature  of  the  evidence 
offered  against  the  prisoner,  and  having  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the 
confessions,  I  shall  now  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  a  letter 
which  has  been  received  from  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  respecta- 
bility, and  entitled  to  the  most  implicit  credit,  but  whose  name  I  omit 
to  mention  because  he  is  still  a  resident  in  the  colony.  If,  however, 
any  doubt  should  attach  to  his  statement,  I  shall  at  once  remove  it, 
by  mentioning  the  name  of  a  gentleman  to  whom  reference  can  be 
made  on  the  subject — I  mean  the  Rev,  Mr.  Austin.  He  is  a  man 
who  had  no  prejudices  or  prepossessions  on  the  subject:  he  is  a  cler- 
gyman of  the  Church  of  England,  chaplain  of  the  colony,  and  I  be- 
lieve the  curate  of  the  only  English  Established  Church  to  which 
77,000  slaves  can  have  recourse  for  religious  instruction.  I  mention 
this  in  passing,  only  for  the  purpose  of  showing,  that  if  the  slaves  are 
to  receive  instruction  at  all,  they  must  receive  it  in  a  great  degree 
from  members  of  the  Missionary  Society.  [Mr.  Brougham  here 
read  a  letter,  in  which  it  was  stated  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Austin  had 
received  the  last  confession  of  Paris,  who  stated  that  Mr.  Smith  was 
innocent,  and  he  (Paris)  prayed  that  God  would  forgive  him  the  lies 

that  Mr. had  prevailed  upon  him  to  tell.]     I  shall  not  mention 

the  name  of  the  person  alluded  to  by  Paris  as  having  put  the 
lies  into  his  mouth:  it  is  sufficient  at  present  to  say,  that  he  took  a 
most  active  part  in  getting  up  the  prosecution  against  this  poor  Mis- 
sionary. The  letter  goes  on  to  state,  that  similar  confessions  had  been 
made  by  Jack  and  Sandy.  The  latter  had  been  arrested  and  sent 
along  the  coast  to  be  executed,  without  Mr.  Austin's  knowledge  (as 
it  appeared,  from  a  wish  to  prevent  him  from  receiving  the  confes- 
sion); but  that  gentleman,  hearing  of  the  circumstance,  proceeded 
with  all  speed  to  the  spot,  and  received  his  confession  to  the  above 
effect.  He  also  went  to  see  Jack,  who  informed  him  that  Mr.  Smith 
was  innocent,  and  that  he  (Jack)  had  said  nothing  against  him  but 
what  he  had  been  told  by  others.  Now  I  beg  the  House  to  attend 
to  what  Jack,  at  his  trial,  said  against  Mr.  Smith;  giving  a  statement 
which  had  been  put  into  his  mouth  by  persons  who  wished  to  injure 
Mr.  Smith,  and  bring  the  character  of  missionaries  generally  into  dis- 
repute. This  poor  wretch  said  that  he  had  lived  thirty  years  on 
Success  Estate,  and  that  he  would  not  have  acted  as  he  had  done,  if 
he  had  not  been  told  that  the  Negroes  were  entitled  to  their  freedom, 
but  that  their  masters  kept  it  from  them.  He  went  on  to  say,  that 
not  only  the  deacons  belonging  to  Bethel  Chapel,  but  even  Mr.  Smith 
himself,  had  affirmed  this,  and  were  acquainted  with  the  fact  of  the 
intended  revolt;  and  this  he  stated  as  if,  instead  of  being  on  his  own 
trial,  he  was  a  witness  against  Mr.  Smith.  He  also  threw  himself  on 
the  mercy  of  the  court.  Now  what  did  the  court  do?  They  imme- 
diately examined  a  Mr.  Herbert,  and  another  gentleman,  as  to  this 
confession.  The  former  stated,  that  he  took  the  substance  of  the 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  397 

confession  down  in  the  Negro's  own  language  to  a  certain  point;  the 
rest  was  taken  down  by  a  gentleman  whom  I  refrain  from  naming, 
but  who,  I  am  bound  to  say,  deserves  no  great  credit  for  the  part 
which  he  acted  in  this  unhappy  scene.  Jack,  in  this  defence,  thus 
prepared  and  thus  anxiously  certified,  says,  or  is  made  to  say — "  I  am 
satisfied  I  have  had  a  fair  trial.  I  have  seen  the  anxiety  with  which 
every  member  of  this  court  martial  has  attended  to  the  evidence,  and 
the  patience  with  which  they  have  listened  to  my  cross-examination 
of  the  witnesses.  From  the  hour  I  was  made  prisoner  by  Captain 
M'Turk  up  to  this  time,  I  have  received  the  most  humane  treatment 
from  all  the  whites;  nor  have  I  had  a  single  insulting  expression  from 
a  white  man,  either  in  prison  or  anywhere  else.  Before  this  court,  I 
solemnly  avow  that  many  of  the  lessons  and  discourses  taught,  and 
the  parts  of  Scripture  selected  for  us  in  chapel,  tended  to  make  us 
dissatisfied  with  our  situation  as  slaves;  and,  had  there  been  no  Me- 
thodists on  the  east  coast,  there  would  have  been  no  revolt,  as  you 
must  have  discovered  by  the  evidence  before  you:  the  deepest  con- 
cerned in  the  revolt  were  the  Negroes  most  in  Parson  Smith's  confi- 
dence. The  half  sort  of  instruction  we  received  I  now  see  was 
highly  improper:  it  put  those  who  could  read  on  examining  the  Bible, 
and  selecting  passages  applicable  to  our  situation  as  slaves;  and  the 
promises  held  out  therein  were,  as  we  imagined,  fit  to  be  applied  to 
our  situation,  and  served  to  make  us  dissatisfied  and  irritated  against 
our  owners,  as  we  were  not  always  able  to  make  out  the  real  mean- 
ing of  these  passages:  for  this  I  refer  to  my  brother-in-law,  Bristol,  if 
I  am  speaking  the  truth  or  not.  I  would  not  have  avowed  this  to 
you  now,  were  I  not  sensible  that  I  ought  to  make  every  atonement 
for  my  past  conduct,  and  put  you  on  your  guard  in  future."  Won- 
derful indeed  are  the  effects  of  prison  discipline  within  the  tropics!  I 
would  my  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Shrewsbury,  were  here 
to  witness  them.  Little  indeed  does  he  dream  of  the  sudden  change 
which  a  few  weeks  of  a  West  Indian  dungeon  can  effect  upon  a  poor, 
rude,  untutored  African!  How  swiftly  it  transmutes  him  into  a 
reasoning,  speculating  creature;  calmly  philosophizing  upon  the  evils 
of  half  education,  and  expressing  himself  in  all  but  the  words  of  our 
poet,  upon  the  dangers  of  a  liitle  learning;  yet  evincing  by  his  own 
example,  contrary  to  the  poet's  maxim,  how  wholesome  a  shallow 
draught  may  prove  when  followed  by  the  repose  of  the  gaol!  Sir,  I 
defy  the  most  simple  of  mankind  to  be  for  an  instant  deceived  by  this 
mean  and  clumsy  fabrication.  Every  line  of  it  speaks  its  origin,  and 
demonsirates  the  base  artifices  to  which  the  missionary's  enemies  had 
recourse,  by  putting  charges  against  him  into  the  month  of  another 
prisoner,  trembling  upon  his  own  trial,  and  crouching  beneath  their 
remorseless  power. 

I  have  stated  that,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  court  received  hearsay 
evidence,  and  with  unrestricted  liberality.  But  the  time  was  soon  to 
come  when  a  new  light  should  break  in — the  eyes  of  those  just  judges 
be  opened  to  the  strict  rules  of  evidence, — and  everything  like  hear- 
say be  rejected.  In  page  116  I  find,  that,  when  the  prisoner  was 
VOL.  i. — 34 


398  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

questioning  Mr.  Elliott  as  to  what  another  person,  Mr.  Hopkinson,had 
said,  an  objection  was  taken,  the  court  was  cleared,  and,  on  its  being 
re-opened,  the  Assistant  Judge-Advocate  thus  addressed  Mr.  Smith  : — 
"  The  Court  has  ordered  me  to  say,  that  you  must  confine  yourself  to 
the  strict  rules  of  evidence  ;  and  that  hearsay  evidence  will  not  IN 
FUTURE  be  received."  Will  not  IN  FUTURE  be  received  !  ! !  UP  TO 
THAT  PERIOD  IT  HAD  BEEN  RECEIVED  ;  nay,  the  judges  themselves 
had  put  the  very  worst  questions  of  that  description.  I  say,  that  great 
as  had  been  the  blame  due  to  the  Judge- Advocate  upon  this  occasion  ; 
violent,  partial,  unjust,  and  cruel  as  had  been  his  conduct  towards  the 
prisoner ;  much  as  he  had  exceeded  the  limits  of  his  duty  ;  flagrantly 
as  he  had  throughout  wronged  the  prisoner  in  the  discharge — I  was 
about  to  say  iu  the  breach — of  his  official  duty  ;  and  grievously  cul- 
pable as  were  some  other  persons  to  whom  I  have  alluded, — their 
conduct  was  decorous  in  itself,  and  harmless  in  its  consequences,  com- 
pared with  the  irregularity,  the  gross  injustice,  of  the  judges  who  pre- 
sided. Well,  then,  when  the  prosecutor's  case  was  closed,  and  suf- 
ficient matter  was  supposed  to  have  been  obtained  by  the  most 
unblushing  contempt  of  all  rules,  from  the  cross-examination  of  the 
prisoner's  witnesses,  those  same  judges  suddenly  clothed  themselves 
with  the  utmost  respect  for  those  same  rules,  in  order  to  hamper  the 
prisoner  in  his  defence,  which  they  had  systematically  violated  in 
order  to  assist  his  prosecution.  After  admitting  all  hearsay,  however 
remote, — after  labouring  to  overwhelm  him  with  rumour,  and  repu- 
tation, and  reports  of  reputation,  and  insinuation  at  second  hand, — 
they  strictly  prohibited  everything  like  hearsay  where  it  might  avail 
him  for  his  defence.  Nay,  in  their  eagerness  to  adopt  the  new  course 
of  proceeding,  and  strain  the  strict  rules  of  law  to  the  uttermost  against 
him,  they  actually  excluded,  under  the  name  of  hearsay,  that  which 
was  legitimate  evidence.  The  very  next  question  put  by  Mr.  Smith 
went  to  show  that  he  had  not  concealed  the  movements  of  the  slaves 
from  the  manager  of  the  estate  ;  the  principal  charge  against  him  being 
concealment  from  "  the  owners,  managers,  and  other  authorities." 
"  Did  any  conversation  pass  on  that  occasion  between  Mr.  Stewart, 
yourself,  and  the  prisoner,  relative  to  Negroes;  and  if  so,  will  you 
relate  it  ?" — Rejected.  "  Did  the  prisoner  tell  Mr.  Stewart,  that  seve- 
ral of  the  Negroes  had  been  to  inquire  concerning  their  freedom,  which 
they  found  had  come  out  for  them  ?" — Rejected.  These  questions, 
and  several  others,  which  referred  to  the  very  essence  of  the  charge 
against  him,  were  rejected.  How  then  can  any  effrontery  make  men 
say  that  this  poor  missionary  had  an  impartial  trial?  To  crown  so 
glaring  an  act  of  injustice  can  anything  be  wanting?  But  if  it  were, 
we  have  it  here.  The  court  resolved  that  its  worst  acts  should  not 
appear  on  the  minutes:  it  suppressed  those  questions;  and  expunged 
also  the  decision,  forbidding  hearsay  evidence  FOR  THE  FUTURE!  But 
the  rule  having,  to  crush  the  prisoner,  been  laid  down,  we  might  at 
least  have  expected  that  it  would  be  adhered  to.  No  such  thing. 
The  moment  that  an  occasion  presents  itself,  when  the  rule  would 
hamper  the  prosecutor  and  the  judges,  they  abandon  it,  and  recur  to 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  399 

their  favourite  hearsay.  In  the  very  next  page,  we  find  this  question 
put  by  the  Court, — "  Previous  to  your  going  to  chapel,  were  you  fold 
that  plenty  of  people  were  there  on  that  day?"  If  hearsay  evidence 
was  thus  received  or  rejected  as  best  suited  the  purpose  of  compassing 
the  prisoner's  destruction,  other  violations  of  law,  almost  as  flagrant, 
were  resorted  to,  with  the  same  view.  Conversations  with  Mrs. 
Smith,  in  her  husband's  absence,  were  allowed  to  be  detailed  :  the 
sentences  passed  upon  five  other  persons  previously  tried,  were  put 
in,  and  I  should  suppose  privately  read  by  the  court,  as  I  find  no  al- 
lusion to  them  in  the  prisoner's  most  able  and  minute  defence,  which 
touches  on  every  other  particular  of  the  case;  and  all  mention  of  those 
sentences  is  suppressed  in  the  minutes  transmitted  by  the  court.  For 
the  manifest  purpose  of  blackening  him  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and 
with  no  earthly  reference  to  the  charges  against  him,  a  long  examina- 
tion is  permitted  into  the  supposed  profits  he  made  by  a  sale  of  Bibles, 
Prayer  and  Psalm-books,  and  Catechisms;  and  into  donations  he  re- 
ceived from  his  Negro  flock,  and  the  contributions  he  levied  upon 
them  for  church  dues:  every  one  tittle  of  which  is  satisfactorily  answer- 
ed and  explained  by  the  evidence,  but  every  one  tittle  of  which  was 
wholly  beside  the  question. 

I  find,  sir,  that  many  material  circumstances  which  occurred  on  the 
trial  are  altogether  omitted  in  the  House  copy.  I  find  that  the  evi- 
dence is  garbled  in  many  places,  and  that  passages  of  the  prisoner's 
defence  are  omitted;  some  because  they  were  stated  to  be  offensive  to 
the  government, — others  because  they  were  said  to  be  of  a  dangerous 
tendency, — others,  again,  because  the  court  entertained  a  different 
opinion  on  certain  points  from  the  prisoner,  or  because  they  might 
seem  to  reflect  upon  the  court  itself.  Mr.  Smith  was  charged  with 
corrupting  the  minds  of  the  slaves,  and  enticing  them  to  a  breach  of 
their  duty,  and  of  the  law  of  the  land,  because  he  recommended  to 
them  not  to  violate  the  Sabbath.  It  was  objected  against  him  also  by 
some,  that  he  selected  passages  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  by  others, 
that  he  did  not,  as  he  ought,  confine  himself  to  certain  parts  of  the 
New  Testament:  others,  again,  found  fault  with  him  for  teaching  the 
Negroes  to  read  the  Bible.  And  when,  in  answer  to  these  charges, 
he  cited  passages  from  the  Bible  in  his  defence,  he  was  told  that  he 
must  not  quote  Scripture,  as  it  was  supposed  that  every  member  of 
the  court  was  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  Sacred  Writings — a  sup- 
position which  certainly  does  not  occur  to  one  on  reading  their  pro- 
ceedings. By  others,  again,  this  poor  man  was  held  up  as  an  enthu- 
siast, who  performed  his  functions  in  a  wild  and  irregular  manner. 
It  was  said  that  his  doctrines  were  of  a  nature  to  be  highly  injurious 
in  any  situation,  but  peculiarly  so  amongst  a  slave  population.  In 
proof  of  this  assertion,  it  was  stated,  that  the  day  before  the  revolt  he 
preached  from  Luke  xix,  41,42 — "And  when  He  was  come  near, 
He  beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it;  saying,  If  thou  hadst  known, 
even  thou,  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  which  belong  uuio  thy  peace-! 
but  now  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes."  Thus  was  this  passage, 
which  has  been  truly  described  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Austin  as  a  text  of 


400  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

singular  beauty,  turned  into  matter  of  accusation  and  reproach  against 
this  unfortunate  missionary.  But  if  this  text  was  held  to  be  so  dan- 
gerous— so  productive  of  insubordination  and  rebellion — what  would 
be  said  of  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church,  of  whose  doctrines  no 
fear  was  entertained?  The  text  chosen  by  Mr.  Smith  on  this  occasion 
appeared,  to  the  heated  imagination  of  his  judges,  to  be  one  which 
endangered  the  peace  of  a  slave  community.  Very  different  was  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  Austin,  the  colonial  chaplain,  who  could  not  be  con- 
sidered as  inflamed  with  any  daring,  enthusiastic,  and  perilous  zeal. 
But  what,  I  ask,  might  not  the  same  alarmists  have  said  of  Mr.  Aus- 
tin, who,  on  that  very  day,  the  17th  of  August,  had  to  read,  as  indeed 
he  was  by  the  rubric  bound  to  do,  perhaps  in  the  presence  of  a  large 
body  of  black,  white,  and  coloured  persons,  such  passages  as  the  fol- 
lowing, which  occur  in  one  of  the  lessons  of  that  day,  the  14th  chapter 
of  Ezekiel.  "  When  the  land  sinneth  against  rne  by  trespassing 
grievously,  then  I  will  stretch  out  mine  hand  upon  it,  and  will  break 
the  staff  of  the  bread  thereof,  and  will  send  famine  upon  it,  and  will 
cut  off  man  and  beast  from  it."  "  Though  these  three  men"  (who 
might  easily  be  supposed  to  be  typical  of  Mr.  Austin,  Mr.  Smith,  and 
Mr.  Elliott,)  "  were  in  it,  they  shall  deliver  neither  sons  nor  daughters; 
they  only  shall  be  delivered,  but  the  land  shall  be  desolate.  Or  if  I 
bring  a  sword  upon  that  land,  and  say,  Sword,  go  through  the  land, 
so  that  I  cut  off  man  and  beast  from  it;  Though  these  three  men  were 
in  it,  as  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  they  shall  deliver  neither  sons  or 
daughters;  but  they  only  shall  be  delivered  themselves."  Let  me  ask 
any  impartial  man  if  this  is  not  a  text  much  more  likely  to  be  mis- 
taken than  the  other?  And  yet  every  clergyman  of  the  Established 
Church  was  bound  to  read  it  on  that  day  in  that  colony. 

The  charges  against  Mr.  Smith  are  four.  The  first  states,  that,  long 
before  the  18th  of  August,  he  had  promoted  discontent  and  dissatis- 
faction amongst  the  slaves  against  their  lawful  masters.  This  charge 
was  clearly  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court;  for  it  refers  to  mat- 
ters before  martial  law  was  proclaimed,  and  consequently  before  Mr. 
Smith  could  be  amenable  to  that  law.  Supposing  that,  as  a  court 
martial,  they  had  a  right  to  try  a  clergyman  for  a  civil  offence,  which 
I  utterly  deny,  it  could  only  be  on  the  principle  of  martial  law  having 
been  proclaimed  that  they  were  entitled  to  do  so.  The  proclamation 
might  place  him,  and  every  other  man  in  the  colony,  in  the  situation 
of  a  soldier;  but  if  he  was  to  be  considered  as  a  soldier,  it  could  only 
be  after  the  19th  of  August.  Admitting,  then,  that  the  Rev.  John 
Smith  was  a  soldier, under  the  proclamation,  he  was  not  such  on  the 
18th,  on  the  17th,  rior  at  any  time  before  the  transactions  which  are 
called  the  revolt  of  Demerara;  and  yet  it  was  upon  such  a  charge  that 
the  court  martial  thought  proper  to  try  him,  and  upon  which  alone  it 
could  try  him,  if  it  tried  him  at  all.  But  they  had  no  more  right,  I 
contend,  to  try  him  for  things  done  before  the  19th,  in  the  character  of 
a  soldier  liable  to  martial  law,  than  they  would  have  to  try  a  man, 
who  had  enlisted  to-day,  for  acts  which  he  had  committed  the  day 
before  yesterday,  according  to  the  same  code  of  military  justice.  The 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  401 

same  reasoning  applies  (o  three  of  the  four  charges.  There  is  only 
one  charge,  that  of  communicating  with  Quamina  touching  the  revolt, 
which  is  in  the  least  entitled  to  consideration;  yet  this  very  communi- 
cation might  have  been  to  discourage,  and  not  to  excite  or  advise  the 
revolt.  In  fact,  it  was  clearly  proved  to  have  been  undertaken  for 
that  purpose,  notwithstanding  the  promises  of  the  Judge- Advocate  to 
prove  the  contrary.  There  are  three  things  necessary  to  be  established 
before  the  guilt  of  this  unfortunate  man  can  be  maintained  on  this 
charge;  first,  that  Quamina  was  a  revolter;  secondly,  that  Mr.  Smith 
knew  him  to  be  a  revolter;  and  thirdly,  that  he  had  advised  and  en- 
couraged him  in  the  revolt; — for  the  misprision,  the  mere  conceal- 
ment, must  be  abandoned  by  those  who  support  the  sentence,  inasmuch 
as  misprision  is  not  a  capital  offence.  But  all  the  evidence  shows  that 
Quamina  did  not  appear  in  such  a  character — that  Mr.  Smith  was 
ignorant  of  it  even  if  he  did — and  that  his  communication  was  directed 
to  discourage,  and  not  to  advise  any  rash  step  into  which  the  sufferings 
of  the  slaves  might  lead  them.  As  to  his  not  having  seized  on  Qua- 
mina, which  is  also  made  a  charge,  the  answer  which  the  poor  man 
himself  gave  was  a  sufficient  reply  to  any  imputation  of  guilt  that 
might  be  founded  on  this  omission.  "  Look,"  said  he,  "  on  these 
limbs,  feeble  with  disease,  and  say  how  was  it  possible  for  me  to  seize 
a  powerful  robust  man,  like  Quamina,  inflamed  with  the  desire  of 
liberty,  as  that  slave  must  have  been  if  he  were  a  revolter,  even  if  I 
had  been  aware  that  he  was  about  to  head  a  revolt."  But,  in  truth, 
there  is  not  a  title  of  evidence  that  Mr.  Smith  knew  of  the  revolt; 
while  there  is  abundant  proof  that  he  took  especial  measures  and 
watchful  care  to  tell  all  he  did  know  to  the  proper  authorities,  the 
managers  of  the  estate.  If,  again,  the  defenders  of  the  court  martial 
retreat  from  this  to  the  lower  ground  of  mere  concealment,  and  thus 
admit  the  illegality  of  the  sentence  in  order  to  show  something  like 
matter  of  blame  in  the  conduct  of  the  accused,  I  meet  them  here  as 
fearlessly  upon  the  fact,  as  I  have  already  done  upon  the  law  of  their 
case;  and  I  affirm,  that  lie  went  the  full  length  of  stating  to  Mr. 
Stewart,  the  manager  of  the  estate,  his  apprehensions  with  respect  to 
the  impending  danger;  that  "the  lawful  owners,  proprietors,  and 
managers"  were  put  upon  their  guard  by  him,  and  were  indebted  to 
his  intelligence,  instead  of  having  a  right  to  complain  of  his  remissness 
or  disaffection;  that  he  told  all  he  knew,  all  he  was  entitled  to  consider 
as  information  (and  no  man  is  bound  to  tell  mere  vague  suspicions, 
which  cross  his  mind,  and  find  no  abiding  place  in  it ;)  and  that  he  only 
knew  anything  precise  respecting  the  intentions  of  the  insurgents  from 
the  letter  delivered  to  him  half  an  hour  before  the  Negroes  were  up  in 
arms,  and  long  after  the  movement  was  known  to  every  manager  in 
the  neighbourhood.  The  court,  then,  having  no  jurisdiction  to  sit  at 
all  in  judgment  upon  this  preacher  of  the  Gospel — their  own  existence 
as  a  court  of  justice  being  wholly  without  the  colour  of  lawful  autho- 
rity— tried  him  for  things  which,  had  they  ever  so  lawful  a  title  to  try 
him,  were  wholly  beyond  their  commission;  and  of  those  things  no 
evidence  was  produced  upon  which  any  man  could  even  suspect  his 

3-1  • 


402  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

guilt,  if  the  jurisdiction  had  been  ever  so  unquestionable,  and  the 
accused  had  been  undeniably  within  its  range.  But  in  spite  of  all  the 
facts — in  spite  of  his  well-known  character  and  upright  conduct  — it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  be  made  an  example  for  certain  pur- 
poses; it  was  necessary  that  the  missionaries  should  be  taught  in  what 
an  undertaking  they  had  embarked;  that  they  should  be  warned  that 
it  was  at  their  peril  they  preached  the  Gospel;  that  they  should  know 
it  was  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives  that  they  opened  the  Bible  to  their 
flocks;  and  therefore  it  was  that  the  court  martial  deemed  it  expedient 
to  convict  Mr.  Smith,  and  to  sentence  him  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck 
until  he  was  dead! 

But  the  Negroes,  it  seems,  had  grumbled  at  the  reports  which  went 
abroad  respecting  their  liberation  by  an  act  of  his  Majesty,  and  the 
opposition  said  to  be  given  to  it  by  their  proprietors.  Who  propa- 
gated those  reports?  Certainly  not  Mr.  Smith.  It  is  clear  that  they 
originated  in  one  instance,  from  a  servant  who  attended  at  the  gover- 
nor's table,  and  who  professed  to  have  heard  them  in  the  conversa- 
tions which  took  place  between  the  governor  and  his  guests.  Another 
account  was,  that  a  kept  woman  had  disclosed  the  secret,  having 
learnt  it  from  her  keeper,  Mr.  Hamilton.  The  Negroes  naturally 
flocked  together  to  inquire  whether  the  reports  were  true  or  not;  and 
Mr.  Smith  immediately  communicated  to  their  masters  his  apprehen- 
sions of  what  he  had  always  supposed  possible,  seeing  the  oppression 
under  which  the  slaves  laboured,  and  knowing  that  they  were  men. 
But  it  is  said,  that  at  six  o'clock  on  the  Monday  evening,  one  half  hour 
before  the  rebellion  broke  out,  he  did  not  disclose  what  he  could  not 
have  known  before — namely,  that  a  revolt  was  actually  about  to 
commence.  Now,  taking  this  fact,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  to  be 
proved  to  its  fullest  extent,  I  say  that  a  man  convicted  of  misprision 
cannot  by  the  law  be  hanged.  The  utmost  possible  vengeance  of 
the  law,  according  to  the  wildest  dream  of  the  highest  prerogative 
lawyer,  could  not  amount  to  anything  like  a  sanction  of  this.  Such 
I  assert  the  law  to  be.  I  defy  any  man  to  contradict  my  assertion, 
that  up  to  the  present  hour,  no  English  lawyer  ever  heard  of  misprision 
of  treason  being  treated  as  a  capital  offence;  and  that  it  would  be  just 
as  legal  to  hang  a  man  for  a  common  assault.  But  if  it  be  said  that 
the  punishment  of  death  was  awarded  for  having  aided  the  revolt,  I 
say  the  court  did  not,  could  not,  believe  this;  and  I  produce  the  con- 
duct of  the  judges  themselves  to  confirm  what  I  assert.  They  were 
bold  enough  in  trying,  and  convicting,  and  condemning  the  victim 
whom  they  had  lawlessly  seized  upon;  but  they  trembled  to  execute 
a  sentence  so  prodigiously  illegal  and  unjust;  and  having  declared 
that,  in  their  consciences  and  on  their  oaths,  they  deemed  him  guilty 
of  the  worst  of  crimes,  they  all  in  one  voice  add,  that  they  also  deem 
him  deserving  of  mercy  in  respect  of  his  guilt!  Is  it  possible  to  draw 
any  other  inference  from  this  marvellous  recommendation,  than  that 
they  distrusted  the  sentence  to  which  it  was  attached?  When  I  see 
them  affrighted  by  their  own  proceedings — starting  back  at  the  sight 
of  what  they  had  not  scrupled  to  do — can  I  give  them  credit  for  any 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  403 

fear  of  doing  injustice:  they  who  from  the  heginning  to  the  end  of 
their  course  had  done  nothing  else?  Can  I  believe  that  they  paused 
upon  the  consummation  of  their  work  from  any  motive  but  a  dread 
of  its  consequences  to  themselves;  a  recollection  tardy,  indeed,  but 
appalling,  that  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood 
be  shed?"  And  not  without  reason,  not  without  irrefragable  reason 
did  they  take  the  alarm;  for  verily  if  they  HAD  perpetrated  the  last 
act — if  they  had  DARED  to  take  this  innocent  man's  life  (one  hair  of 
whose  head  they  durst  not  touch,)  they  must  THEMSELVES  have  died 
the  death  of  the  murderer?  Monstrous  as  the  whole  proceedings  were, 
and  horrid  as  the  sentence  that  closed  them,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
trial  from  first  to  last  so  astounding  as  this  recommendation  to  mercy, 
coming  from  persons  who  affected  to  believe  him  guilty  of  such  enor- 
mous crimes.  If  he  was  proved  to  have  committed  the  offence  of 
exciting  the  slaves  to  acts  of  bloodshed — if  his  judges  believed  him  to 
have  done  what  their  sentence  alleged  against  him — how  unspeaka- 
bly aggravated  was  his  guilt,  compared  with  that  of  the  poor  untutored 
slaves,  whom  he  had  misled  from  their  duty  under  the  pretext  of 
teaching  them  religion!  How  justly  might  all  the  blood  that  was  shed 
be  laid  upon  his  hend!  How  fitly,  if  mercy  was  to  prevail,  might  his 
deluded  instruments  be  pardoned,  and  himself  alone  singled  out  for 
vengeance,  as  the  author  of  their  crimes!  Yet  they  are  cut  off  in 
hundreds  by  the  hand  of  justice,  and  he  is  deemed  an  object  of  com- 
passion! 

How  many  victims  were  sacrificed  we  know  not  with  precision. 
Such  of  them  as  underwent  a  trial  before  being  put  to  death,  were 
judged  by  this  court  martial.  Let  us  hope  that  they  had  a  fair  and 
impartial  trial,  more  fair  and  more  impartial  than  the  violence  of  poli- 
tical party  and  the  zeal  of  religious  animosity  granted  to  their  ill-fated 
pastor.  But  without  nicely  ascertaining  how  many  fell  in  the  field,  or 
by  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  I  fear  we  must  admit  that  far  more 
blood  was  thus  spilt  than  a  wise  and  a  just  policy  required.  Making 
every  allowance  for  the  alarms  of  the  planters,  and  the  necessity  of 
strong  measures  to  quell  a  revolt,  it  must  be  admitted,  that  no  more 
examples  should  have  been  made  than  were  absolutely  necessary  for 
this  purpose.  Yet,  making  every  allowance  for  the  agitation  of  men's 
minds  at  the  moment  of  danger,  and  admitting  (which  is  more  difficult) 
that  it  extended  to  the  colonial  government,  and  did  not  subside  when 
tranquillity  was  restored,  no  man  can  avoid  suspecting,  that  the  mea- 
sure of  punishment  inflicted  considerably  surpassed  the  exigencies  of 
the  occasion.  By  the  Negroes,  indeed,  little  blood  had  been  shed  at 
any  period  of  the  revolt,  and  in  its  commencement  none  at  all:  alto- 
gether only  one  person  was  killed  by  them.  In  this  remarkable  cir- 
cumstance, the  insurrection  stands  distinguished  from  every  other 
movement  of  this  description  in  the  history  of  colonial  society.  The 
slaves,  inflamed  by  false  hopes  of  freedom,  agitated  by  rumours,  and 
irritated  by  the  suspense  and  ignorance  in  which  they  were  kept,  ox- 
asperated  by  ancient  as  well  as  more  recent  wrongs  (for  a  sale  of  fifty 
or  sixty  of  them  had  just  been  announced,  and  they  were  about  to  be 


404  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE, 

violently  separated  and  dispersed,)  were  satisfied  with  combining  not  to 
work;  and  thus  making  their  managers  repair  to  the  town,  and  ascertain 
the  precise  nature  of  the  boon  reported  to  have  arrived  from  England. 
The  calumniated  minister  had  so  far  humanized  his  poor  flock — his 
dangerous  preaching  had  so  enlightened  them — the  lessons  of  himself 
and  his  hated  brethren  had  sunk  so  deep  in  their  minds,  that,  by  the 
testimony  of  the  clergyman,  and  even  of  the  overseers,  the  maxims 
of  the  Gospel  of  peace  were  upon  their  lips  in  the  midst  of  rebel- 
lion, and  restrained  their  hands  when  no  other  force  was  present  to 
resist  them.  "  We  will  take  no  life,"  said  they;  "  for  our  Pastors  have 
taught  us  not  to  take  that  which  we  cannot  give;" — a  memorable 
peculiarity,  to  be  found  in  no  other  passage  of  Negro  warfare  within 
the  West  Indian  seas,  and  which  drew  from  the  truly  pious  minister 
of  the  Established  Church  the  exclamation,  that  "  He  shuddered  to 
write  that  they  were  seeking  the  life  of  the  man  whose  teaching  had 
saved  theirs!"  But  it  was  deemed  fitting  to  make  tremendous  exam- 
ples of  those  unhappy  creatures.  Considerably  above  a  hundred  fell 
in  the  field,  where  they  did  not  succeed  in  putting  one  soldier  to  death. 
A  number  of  the  prisoners  also,  it  is  said,  were  hastily  drawn  out,  at  the 
close  of  the  affray,  and  instantly  shot.  How  many,  in  the  whole,  have 
since  perished  by  sentences  of  the  court,  does  not  appear;  but  up  to  a 
day  in  September,  as  I  learn  by  the  Gazette  which  I  hold  in  my  hand, 
forty-seven  had  been  executed.  A  more  horrid  tale  of  blood  yet 
remains  to  be  told.  Within  the  short  space  of  a  week,  as  appears  by 
the  same  document,  ten  had  been  torn  in  pieces  by  the  lash:  some  of 
these  had  been  condemned  to  six  or  seven  hundred  lashes;  five  to  one 
thousand  each;  of  which  inhuman  torture  one  had  received  the  whole; 
and  two  almost  the  whole  at  once.  In  deploring  this  ill-judged 
severity,  I  speak  far  more  out  of  regard  to  the  masters  than  the  slaves. 
Yielding  thus  unreservedly  to  the  influence  of  alarm,  they  have  not 
only  covered  themselves  with  disgrace,  but  they  may,  if  cooler  heads 
and  steadier  hands  control  them  not,  place  in  jeopardy  the  life  of  every 
white  man  in  the  Antilles.  Look  now  to  the  incredible  inconsistency 
of  the  authorities  by  whom  such  retribution  was  dealt  out,  while  they 
recommend  him  to  mercy,  whom  in  the  same  breath  they  pronounced 
a  thousand  times  more  guilty  than  the  slaves.  Can  any  man  doubt 
for  an  instant  that  they  knew  him  to  be  innocent,  but  were  minded  to 
condemn,  stigmatise,  and  degrade  him,  because  they  durst  not  take  his 
life,  and  yet  were  resolved  to  make  an  example  of  him  as  a  preacher? 
The  whole  proceedings  demonstrate  the  hatred  of  his  persecutors 
to  be  levelled  at  his  calling  and  his  ministry.  He  is  denounced  for 
reading  the  Old  Testament;  charged  with  dwelling  upon  parts  of  the 
New;  accused  of  selling  religious  tracts;  blamed  for  collecting  his 
hearers  to  the  sacrament  and  catechism;  all  under  various  pretences, 
as  that  the  texts  were  ill  chosen — the  books  sold  too  dear — the  com- 
municants made  to  pay  high  dues.  Nay,  for  teaching  obedience  to 
the  law  which  commands  to  keep  holy  the  Sabbath,  ho  is  directly  and 
without  any  disguise,  branded  as  the  sower  of  sedition.  Upon  this 
overt  act  of  rebellion  against  all  law,  human  and  divine,  a  large  por- 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  405 

tion  of  the  prosecutor's  invectives  and  of  his  evidence  is  bestowed. 
What  though  the  reverend  defendant  showed  clearly,  out  of  the 
mouths  of  his  adversary's  witnesses,  that  he  had  uniformly  taught  the 
Negroes  to  obey  their  masters,  even  if  ordered  by  them  to  break  the 
rest  of  the  Sabbath;  that  he  had  expressly  inculcated  the  maxim,  No- 
thing is  wrong  in  you  which  your  master  commands;  and  nothing 
amiss  in  him  which  necessity  prescribes?  What  though  he  reminded 
the  court,  that  the  seventh  day,  which  he  was  charged  with  taking 
from  the  slaves,  was  not  his  to  give  or  to  withhold;  that  it  had  been 
hallowed  by  the  Divine  Lawgiver  to  his  own  use,  and  exempted  in 
terms  from  the  work  of  slave  as  well  as  master — of  beast  as  well  as 
man?  He  is  arraigned  as  a  promoter  of  discontent,  because  he,  the 
religious  instructor  of  the  Negroes,  enjoins  them  to  keep  the  Sabbath 
holy,  when  their  owners  allow  them  no  other  day  for  working;  be- 
cause he,  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  preaches  a  duty  prescribed  by  the 
laws  of  religion  and  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  while  the  planters  live 
in  the  contempt  of  it.  In  short,  no  man  can  cast  his  eye  upon  this 
trial,  without  perceiving  that  it  was  intended  to  bring  on  an  issue  be- 
tween the  system  of  the  slave-law  and  the  instruction  of  the  Negroes. 
The  exemplar  which  these  misguided  men  seem  to  have  set  before 
them  is  that  of  their  French  brethren  in  St.  Domingo:  one  of  whom,  ex- 
ulting in  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  enumerates  the  mischiefs  occa- 
sioned by  their  labours.  "  They  preached,"  says  he,  "they  assem- 
bled the  Negroes,  made  the  masters  relax  in  their  exactions,  catechized 
the  slaves,  sung  psalms,  and  confessed  them."  "  Since  their  banish- 
ment," he  adds,  "  marriages  are  rare;  the  Negroes  no  longer  make 
houses  for  themselves  apart:  it  is  no  longer  allowable  for  two  slaves 
to  separate  for  ever  their  interest  and  safety  from  that  of  the  gang" 
(a  curious  circumlocutory  form  of  speech  to  express  the  married  state.) 
"No  more  public  worship!"  he  triumphantly  exclaims,  "no  more 
meetings  in  congregation!  no  psalm-singing,  nor  sermons,  for  them!" 
"  But  they  are  still  catechized;  and  may,  on  paying  for  it,  have  them- 
selves baptized  three  or  four  times"  (upon  the  principle,  I  suppose, 
that,  like  inoculation,  it  is  safer  to  repeat  it.)  In  the  self-same  spirit 
the  Demerara  public  meeting  of  the  24th  of  February  1824,  resolved 
forthwith  to  petition  the  Court  of  Policy  "  to  expel  all  missionaries 
from  the  colony,  and  to  pass  a  law  prohibiting  their  admission  for  the 
future."  Nor  let  it  be  said,  that  this  determination  arose  out  of  ha- 
tred towards  sectaries,  or  was  engendered  by  the  late  occurrences.  In 
1803,  the  Royal  Gazette  promulgated  this  doctrine,  worthy  of  all  at- 
tention: "  He  that  chooses  to  make  slaves  Christians,  let  him  give  them 
their  liberty.  What  will  be  the  consequence  when  to  that  class  of  men 
is  given  the  title  of  BELOVED  BUETHKEN  as  actually  is  done?  Assem- 
bling Negroes  in  places  of  worship  gives  a  momentary  feeling  of  inde- 
pendence both  of  thinking  and  acting,  and  by  frequent  meetings  of 
this  kind  a  spirit  of  remark  is  generated;  neither  of  which  are  sensa- 
tions at  all  proper  to  be  excited  in  the  minds  of  slaves."  Again,  in 
1823,  says  the  government  paper,  "To  address  a  promiscuous  au- 
dience of  black  or  coloured  people,  bond  and  free,  by  the  endearing 


406  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

appellation  of  '  My  brethren  and  sisters/  is  what  can  nowhere  be 
heard  except  in  Providence  Chapel;" — a  proof  how  regularly  this  ad- 
versary of  sectarian  usages  had  attended  the  service  of  the  church. 
And,  in  February  last,  the  same  judicious  authority,  in  discussing  the 
causes  of  the  discontents,  and  the  remedy  to  be  applied,  thus  proceeds: 
— "  It  is  most  unfortunate  for  the  cause  of  the  planters,  that  they  did 
not  speak  out  in  time.  They  did  not  say,  as  they  ought  to  have  said, 
to  the  first  advocates  of  missions  and  education,  We  shall  not  tolerate 
your  plans  till  you  prove  to  us  that  they  are  safe  and  necessary;  we 
shall  not  suffer  you  to  enlighten  our  slaves,  who  are.  by  law  our  pro- 
perty, till  you  can  demonstrate  that  when  they  are  made  religious  and 
knowing  they  will  still  continue  to  be  our  slaves." — "In  what  a  per- 
plexing predicament  do  the  colonial  proprietors  now  stand!  Can  the 
march  of  events  be  possibly  arrested!  Shall  they  be  allowed  to  shut 
up  the  chapels,  and  banish  the  preachers  and  schoolmasters,  and  keep 
the  slaves  in  ignorance?  This  would,  indeed,  be  an  effectual  remedy; 
but  there  is  no  hope  of  its  being  applied!  !  /" — "  The  obvious  con- 
clusion is  this — Slavery  must  exist  as  it  now  is,  or  it  will  not  exist 
at  all."  "If  we  expect  to  create  a  community  of  reading,  moral, 
church-going  slaves,  we  are  woefully  mistaken." — Ignorant!  oh,  pro- 
foundly ignorant,  of  the  things  that  belong  to  their  PEACE!  may  we 
truly  say,  in  the  words  of  the  missionary's  beautiful  text — to  that 
peace,  the  disturbance  of  which  they  deem  the  last  of  evils.  Were 
there  not  dangers  enough  besetting  them  on  every  side  without  this? 
The  frame  of  West  Indian  society,  that  monstrous  birth  of  the  accur- 
sed slave  trade,  is  so  feeble  in  itself,  and,  at  the  same  time,  surrounded 
with  such  perils  from  without,  that  barely  to  support  it  demands  the 
most  temperate  judgment,  the  steadiest  and  the  most  skilful  hand; 
and,  with  all  our  discretion  and  firmness,  and  dexterity,  its  continued 
existence  seems  little  less  than  a  miracle.  The  necessary  hazards,  to 
which,  by  its  very  constitution,  it  is  hourly  exposed,  are  sufficient,  one 
should  think,  to  satiate  the  most  greedy  appetite  for  difficulties — to 
quench  the  most  chivalrous  passion  for  dangers.  Enough  that  a  hand- 
ful of  slave-owners  are  scattered  among  myriads  of  slaves — enough, 
that  in  their  nearest  neighbourhood  a  commonwealth  of  those  slaves 
is  now  seated  triumphant  upon  the  ruined  tyranny  of  their  slaughtered 
masters — enough,  that,  exposed  to  this  frightful  enemy  from  within 
and  without,  the  planters  are  cut  off  from  all  help  by  the  ocean.  But 
to  odds  so  fearful,  these  deluded  men  must  needs  add  new  perils  abso- 
lutely overwhelming!  By  a  bond,  which  nature  has  drawn  with  her 
own  hand,  and  both  hemispheres  have  witnessed,  they  find  leagued 
against  them  every  shade  of  the  African  race,  every  description  of 
those  swarthy  hordes,  from  the  peaceful  Eboe  to  the  fiery  Koroman- 
tyn.  And  they  must  now  combine  in  the  same  hatred  the  Christians 
of  the  Old  world  with  the  Pagans  of  the  New!  Barely  able  to  re- 
strain the  natural  love  of  freedom,  they  must  mingle  it  with  the  enthu- 
siasm of  religion — vainly  imagining  that  spiritual  thraldom  will  make 
personal  subjection  more  bearable;  wildly  hoping  to  bridle  the  strong- 
est of  the  human  passions,  in  union  and  in  excess — the  desire  of  liberty 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  407 

irritated  by  despair,  and  the  fervour  of  religious  zeal  by  persecution 
exasperated  to  frenzy.  But  I  call  upon  Parliament  to  rescue  the  West 
Indies  from  the  horrors  of  such  a  policy;  to  deliver  those  misguided 
men  from  their  own  hands.  I  call  upon  you  to  interpose  while  it  is 
yet  time  to  save  the  West  Indies;  first  of  all,  the  Negroes,  the  most 
numerous  class  of  our  fellow-subjects,  and  entitled  beyond  every  other 
to  our  care  by  a  claim  which  honourable  minds  will  most  readily  ad- 
mit— their  countless  wrongs,  borne  with  such  forbearance, such  meek- 
ness, while  the  most  dreadful  retaliation  was  within  their  grasp;  next, 
their  masters,  whose  short-sighted  violence  is,  indeed,  hurtful  to  their 
slaves,  but  to  themselves  is  fraught  with  fearful  and  speedy  destruc- 
tion, if  you  do  not  at  once  make  your  voice  heard  and  your  authority 
felt,  where  both  have  been  so  long  despised. 

I  move  you  "That  an  Humble  Address  be  presented  to  his  Majesty, 
setting  forth,  that  the  House,  having  taken  into  their  most  serious  con- 
sideration the  proceedings  which  had  taken  place  on  the  trial  of  the 
Reverend  John  Smith,  at  Demerara,  contemplated  with  the  most 
serious  alarm  the  violation  of  law  and  justice  which  had  there  been 
committed;  and  they  did  earnestly  pray,  that  his  Majesty  would  be 
most  graciously  pleased  to  give  orders  for  such  an  impartial  and  hu- 
mane administration  of  the  law  in  that  colony  as  may  secure  the 
rights  not  only  of  the  Negroes,  but  of  the  Planters  themselves." 


SPEECH, 

IN  REPLY, 

IN   THE    CASE    OF   THE 

REV.    JOHN    SMITH, 

THE    MISSIONARY. 

DELIVERED   IN  THE  HOUSE   OF  COMMONS, 
JUNE  11,  1824. 


I  DO  assure  the  House,  that  I  feel  great  regret  at  having  to  address 
them  again  so  late  in  the  night;  but,  considering  the  importance  of 
the  case,  I  cannot  be  satisfied  to  let  it  rest  where  it  is  without  trespass- 
ing upon  their  patience  for  a  short  time — and  it  shall  be  for  as  short  a 
time  as  possible:  indeed,  that  I  rise  at  all  is  chiefly  in  consequence  of 
the  somewhat  new  shape  into  which  the  proposition  of  the  right  hon- 
ourable gentleman  opposite*  has  thrown  the  question.  For,  sir,  as  to 
the  question  itself,  on  the  merits  of  which  I  before  presumed  at  such 
length  on  the  indulgence  of  the  House,  not  only  have  I  heard  nothing 
to  shake  the  opinion  which  I  originally  expressed,  or  to  meet  the  argu- 
ments which  I  feebly  endeavoured  to  advance  to  its  support,  but  I  am 
seconded  by  the  admissions  of  those  who  would  resist  the  motion:  for, 
beside  the  powerful  assistance  I  have  had  the  happiness  of  receiving 
from  my  honourable  and  learned  friends  on  the  benches  around  me, 
and  who,  one  after  another,  have  distinguished  themselves  in  a  man- 
ner never  to  be  forgotten  in  this  House,  or  by  their  country!—  men  of 
all  classes,  and  of  all  parties,  without  regard  to  difference  of  political 
sentiments  or  of  religious  persuasion,  will  hold  them  in  lasting  remerri- 

*  Mr.  Canning1. 

f  Mr.  (now  Lord  Chief  Justice)  Denman;  Mr.  (now  Mr.  Justice)  Williams;  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  and  Dr.  Lushington.  The  speeches  of  the  two  former  have 
already  been  mentioned.  Dr.  Lushington's  was  of  the  very  highest  merit.  Sir  J. 
Mackintosh's  was  excellent  also. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  409 

brance,  and  pronounce  their  honoured  names  with  unceasing  gratitude, 
for  the  invaluable  service  which  their  brilliant  talents  and  honest 
zeal  have  rendered  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice. — Beside  this, 
what  have  I  on  the  other  side?  Great  ability,  no  doubt  displayed — 
much  learning  exhibited — men  of  known  expertness  and  high  official 
authority  put  in  requisition — others  for  the  first  time  brought  forward 
in  debate — an  honourable  and  learned  friend  of  mine,  for  whom  I  have 
the  most  sincere  esteem,  and  the  best  grounded,  because  it  rests  on  a 
long  and  intimate  knowledge  of  his  worth,  and  of  those  talents  and 
accomplishments  of  which  I  did  not  for  the  first  time  to-night  witness 
the  exhibition,  although  they  have  now  first  met  the  universal  admira- 
tion of  this  House;* — yet  with  all  those  talents,  and  all  that  research 
from  him  and  from  others  who  followed  him,  instead  of  an  answer, 
instead  of  anything  to  controvert  the  positions  I  set  out  with,  I  find 
support.  I  have  an  admission — for  it  amounts  to  nothing  less  than 
an  admission— a  confession — a  plea  of  guilty,  with  a  recommendation 
to  mercy. 

We  have  an  argument  in  mitigation  of  the  punishment  of  this  court 
martial,  and  of  the  government  who  put  their  proceedings  in  motion 
— nothing  against  Mr.  Smith,  nothing  on  the  merits  or  in  favour  of 
those  proceedings.  An  attempt,  no  doubt,  was  made  by  my  honour- 
able and  learned  friend  the  Attorney  General,!  to  go  a  little  further  than 
any  other  gentleman  who  has  addressed  the  House.  He  would  fain 
have  slept  beyond  the  argument  which  alone  has  been  urged  from  all 
other  quarters  against  this  poor  missionary,  and  would  have  attempted 
to  show  that  there  was  some  foundation  for  the  charge  which  makes 
him  an  accomplice,  as  well  as  guilty  of  misprision:  all  others,  as  well 
of  the  legal  profession  as  laymen,  and  particularly  the  Secretary  of 
State, J  who  spoke  last  but  one,  have  at  once  abandoned,  as  utterly 
desperate,  each  and  every  of  the  charges  against  Mr.  Smith,  except 
that  of  misprision;  and  even  this  they  do  not  venture  very  stoutly  to 
assert.  "  It  is  something  like  a  misprision,"  says  the  right  honourable 
Secretary; — for  the  House  will  observe,  that  he  would  not  take  upon 
himself  to  say  that  the  party  had  been  guilty  of  misprision  of  treason, 
strictly  so  called.  He  would  not  attempt  to  say  there  was  any  treason 
in  existence  of  which  a  guilty  concealment  could  take  place;  still  less 
would  he  undertake  to  affirm  (which  is,  however,  necessary,  in  order 
to  made  it  misprision  at  all)  that  Mr.  Smith  had  known  a  treason  to 
exist  in  a  specific  and  tangible  shape,  and  that  after  this  knowledge 
was  conveyed  to  him,  he  had  sunk  it  in  his  own  breast  instead  of  di- 
vulging it  to  the  proper  authorities. 

All  the  charge  was  this — in  this  it  began,  in  this  it  centered,  in  tin's  it 
ended  :  "  I  cannot  help  thinking,"  said  the  rk'ht  honourable  gentleman, 
"when  I  take  everything  into  consideration,  whatever  may  be  the 
facts  as  to  the  rest  of  the  case  —  I  cannot  get  out  of  my  mind  the  im- 

*  Mr.  (now  Lord  Chief  Justice)  Tind.il,  who  then  first  spoke  in  Parliament. 
|  Sir  J.  Copley,  now  Lord  Lyndhurst,  who  spoke  with  his  accustomed  -ahility. 
^  Mr  Canning,  who  moved  the  previous  question  after  Mr.  (now  ISir  H.)  \\  iliuot 
Ilorlon  had  met  the  motion  with  a  negative. 
VOL.  1. — 35 


410  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

pression,  that,  somehow  or  other,  he  must  have  known  that  all  was 
not  right;  must  have  suspected  that  there  might  be  somethmg  wrong\ 
and  knowing,  or  suspecting,  there  was  something  ivrong,  he  did  not 
communicate  that  something  to  the  lawful  authorities!"  My  honour- 
able and  learned  friend,*  indeed,  went  a  little  further:  he  felt,  as  a  law- 
yer, that  this  was  not  enough,  and  particularly  when  we  are  talking, 
not  merely  of  a  crime,  but  of  a  capital  crime — not  merely  of  a  charge 
of  guilty,  and  of  "  something  ivrong"  and  of  having  a  misgiving  in 
your  mind  that  that  "  something  wrong,"  was  known  to  him,  and,  be- 
ing known  to  him,  was  concealed  by  him; — but  that  on  this  something 
was  to  be  founded,  not  barely  an  accusation  of  wrong  doing,  but  a 
charge  of  criminality;  and  not  merely  a  charge,  but  a  conviction;  and 
not  merely  a  conviction  of  guilt,  but  a  conviction  of  the  highest  guilt 
known  to  the  law  of  this  or  of  any  country;  and  a  sentence  of  death 
following  that  capital  conviction:  and  that  ignominious  sentence  stand- 
ing unrepealed,  though  unexecuted;  sanctioned,  nay  adopted,  by  the 
government  of  this  country,  because  suffered  to  remain  unrescinded; 
and  carried  into  effect,  as  far  as  its  authors  durst  themselves  give  it 
operation,  by  treating  its  object  as  a  criminal,  and  making  him  owe 
his  escape  to  mercy,  who  was  entitled  to  absolute  acquittal.  Accord- 
ingly, what  says  my  honourable  friend,t  in  order  to  show  that  there 
was  some  foundation  for  those  proceedings?  He  feels  that  English 
law  will  not  do  ;  that  is  quite  out  of  the  question  ;  so  does  the  Attorney 
General.  Therefore  forth  comes  their  Dutch  code;  and  upon  it  they 
are  fain,  at  least  for  a  season,  to  rely.  They  say,  "  True  it  is,  all  this 
would  have  been  too  monstrous  to  be  for  one  instant  endured  in  any 
court  in  England; — true,  there  is  nothing  like  a  capital  crime  commit- 
ted here; — certain  it  is,  if  treason  had  been  committed  by  some  men 
conspiring  the  death  of  the  king;  if  an  overt  act  had  been  proved;  if  the 
very  bond  of  the  conspirators  had  been  produced,  with  their  seals,  in 
court,  to  convict  them  of  this  treason;  and  if  another  man,  namely, 
Smith,  had  been  proved  to  have  known  it,  to  have  seen  the  bond  with 
the  seals  and  the  names  of  the  conspirators  upon  it,  had  been  the  con- 
fidential depositary  of  their  secret  treasons,  and  had  done  all  but  make 
himself  their  accomplice,  he  might  have  known  it,  he  might  have  seen 
its  details  in  black  and  white,  he  might  have  had  it  communicated  to 
him  by  word  or  by  writing,  he  might  have  had  as  accurate  knowledge 
of  it  as  any  man  has  of  his  own  household,  and  he  might  have  buried 
the  secret  in  his  own  breast,  so  that  no  one  should  learn  it  until  the 
design,  well  matured,  was  at  length  carried  openly  into  execution;  and 
yet  that  knowledge  and  concealment,  that  misprision  of  treason,  could 
not  by  possibility  have  subjected  him  to  capital  punishment  in  any 
English  court  of  justice!" 

This  they  know,  and  this  they  admit;  and  the  question  being,  What 
shall  we  do,  and  how  shall  we  express  our  opinion  on  the  conduct  of  a 
court  martial,  which,  having  no  jurisdiction  with  respect  to  the  offence, 
even  if  the  person  of  the  prisoner  had  been  under  their  authority,  chose 

*  The  Attorney  General.  |  Mr.  Tindal. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  411 

to  try  him  over  whom  they  had  no  jurisdiction  of  whatever  offence  he 
might  be  accused; — and,  moreover,  to  try  him  capitally  for  an  offence 
for  which  no  capital  sentence  could  be  passed,  even  if  the  party  had 
been  amenable  to  their  jurisdiction,  and  if,  when  put  upon  his  trial,  he 
had  at  once  pleaded  guilty,  and  confessed  that  he  had  committed  all  ho 
was  accused  of  a  hundred  times  over — this  being  the  question  before 
the  House, — my  honourable  and  learned  friends  being  called  upon  to 
say  how  we  shall  deal  with  those  who  first  arrogate  to  themselves  an 
authority  utterly  unlawful,  and  then  sentence  a  man,  whom  they  had 
no  pretence  for  trying,  to  be  hanged  for  that  which  he  never  did,  but 
which,  had  he  done  it,  is  not  a  capital  crime: — such  being  the  question, 
the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  feeling  the  pinch  of  it,  and  aware  that 
there  is  no  warrant  for  such  a  sentence  in  the  English  law,  betake  them- 
selves to  the  Dutch, contending  that  it  punishes  misprision  with  death! 

But  here  my  honourable  friend*  gets  into  a  difficulty,  which  all  his 
acuteness  only  enables  him  to  see  the  more  clearly  that  there  is  no 
struggling  against,  and  from  which  the  whole  resources  of  his  learning 
have  no  power  to  extricate  him.  Nay — I  speak  it  with  the  most  sin- 
cere respect  for  him — I  was  not  the  only  person  who  felt,  as  he  was 
going  on,  that  in  this  part  of  his  progress  he  seemed  oppressed  with 
the  nature  of  his  task,  and,  far  from  getting  over  the  ground  with  as 
easy  a  pace  and  as  firm  a  footstep  as  usual,  he  hesitated  and  even 
stumbled;  as  if  unaware  beforehand  of  the  slipperiness  of  the  path,  and 
only  sensible  of  the  kind  of  work  he  had  undertaken  when  already  in 
the  midst  of  it.  The  difficulty,  the  insurmountable  difficulty,  is  this: 
You  must  choose  between  jurisdiction  to  try  at  all,  and  power  to  punish 
misprision  capitally;  both  you  cannot  have  by  the  same  law.  If  the 
Dutch  law  make  the  crime  capital,  which  the  English  does  not,  the 
Dutch  law  gives  you  no  right  to  try  by  a  military  tribunal.  The  Eng- 
lish law  it  was  that  alone  could  make  the  court  martial  legal;  so,  at 
least,  the  court  and  the  prosecutor  say.  "Necessity,"  they  assert, 
"has  no  law — proclaim  martial  law,  every  man  is  a  soldier,  and 
amenable  to  a  military  court."  They  may  be  right  in  this  position,  or 
they  may  be  wrong;  but  it  is  their  only  defence  of  the  jurisdiction 
which  they  assumed.  By  the  law  of  England,  then,  not  of  Holland, 
was  the  court  assembled.  According  to  English  forms  it  sate;  to  Eng- 
lish law-principles  it  affected  to  square  its  modes  of  proceeding;  to 
authorities  of  English  law  it  constantly  appealed.  Here  indeed,  this 
night,  we  have  heard  Dutch  jurists  cited  in  ample  profusion;  the  eru- 
dite Van  Schooten,  the  weighty  Voetius,  the  luminous  Huber,  orna- 
ments to  the  Batnvian  school — and  Dommfit,  who  is  neither  Dutch  nor 
English,  but  merely  French,  and  therefore  has  as  much  to  do  with  the 
question,  in  any  conceivable  view,  as  if  he  were  a  Mogul  doctor;  yet 
his  name  too  is  brandished  before  us,  as  if  to  show  the  exuberance  and 
variety  of  the  stores  at  the  command  of  my  honourable  and  learned 
friends. 

But  was  any  whisper  of  all  this  Hollandish  learning  ever  heard  in 

*  Mr.  Tindal. 


412  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

the  court  ilself?  Was  it  on  those  worthies  that  the  parties  themselves 
relied,  for  whom  the  fertile  and  lettered  invention  of  the  gentlemen 
opposite  is  now  so  nimbly  forging  excuses?  No  such  thing.  They 
appealed  to  the  Institutes  of  that  far-famed  counsellor  of  justice,  Black- 
stone;  the  edict  of  the  States-General,  commonly  called  the  "Mutiny 
Act;"  the  Crown  Law  of  that  elaborate  commentator  of  Rotterdam, 
Hawkins;  and  the  more  modern  tractate  upon  evidence  of  my  excel- 
lent friend,  the  very  learned  professor  Phillips  of  Leyden.  It  is  to 
these  authorities  that  the  Judge  Advocate,  or  rather  the  many  Judge 
Advocates  who  were  let  loose  upon  the  prisoner,  constantly  make 
their  appeal;  with  quotations  from  these  laws  and  these  text- writers 
that  they  garnish  their  arguments;  and  Voet,  and  Van  Schooten,  and 
Huber,  are  no  more  mentioned  than  if  they  had  never  existed,  or 
Guiana  had  never  been  a  colony  of  the  Dutch.  Thus,  then,  in  order 
to  get  jurisdiction,  without  which  you  cannot  proceed  one  step,  be- 
cause the  whole  is  wrong  from  the  beginning  if  you  have  it  not,  you 
must  abandon  your  Dutch  authors,  leave  your  foreign  codes,  and  be 
content  with  that  rude,  old-fashioned  system,  part  written,  part  tradi- 
tional, the  half-Norman  half-Saxon  code,  which  we  are  wont  (and  no 
man  more  than  my  honourable  and  learned  friend,  himself  one  of  its 
choicest  expounders)  to  respect,  under  the  name  of  the  eld  every-day 
law  of  England.  Without  that  you  cannot  stir  one  step.  Having  got- 
ten your  foot  on  that,  you  have  something  like  a  jurisdiction,  or  at 
least  a  claim  to  a  jurisdiction,  for  the  court  martial.  But,  then, 
what  becomes  of  your  capital  punishment?  Where  is  your  power 
of  putting  to  death  for  misprision?  Because,  the  instant  you  aban- 
don the  Dutch  law,  away  goes  capital  punishment  for  misprision; 
and  if  you  acquit  this  court  martial  of  the  monstrous  solecism 
(I  purposely  avoid  giving  it  a  worse  name)  of  having  pronounced 
sentence  of  death  for  a  clergyable  offence,  you  can  only  do  so  by  hav- 
ing recourse  to  the  Dutch  law,  and  then  away  goes  the  jurisdiction: — 
so  that  the  one  law  takes  from  you  the  jurisdiction — the  authority  to 
try  at  all; — and  the  other  takes  away  the  right  to  punish  as  you  have 
punished.  Between  the  horns  of  this  dilemma  I  leave  my  honourable 
and  learned  friend,  as  I  must  of  necessity  leave  him  where  he  has 
chosen  to  plant  himself;  suspended  in  such  a  fashion  that  he  can  never, 
by  any  possibility,  quit  the  one  point,  without  being  instantly  trans- 
fixed upon  the  other. 

Now,  this  is  no  immaterial  part  of  the  argument;  on  the  contrary, 
it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  whole;  and  I  cannot  help  thinking,  that 
the  practised  understanding  of  my  other  learned  friend*  perceived  its 
great  importance,  and  had  some  misgivings  that  it  must  prove  decisive 
of  the  question;  for  he  applied  himself  to  strengthen  the  weak  part,  to 
find  some  way  by  which  he  might  steer  out  of  the  dilemma — some  mid- 
dle course,  which  might  enable  him  to  obtain  the  jurisdiction  from  one 
one  law,  and  the  capital  punishment  from  the  other.  Thus,  according 
to  him,  you  must  neither  proceed  entirely  by  the  Dutch,  nor  yet  en- 

*  The  Attorney  General. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  413 

tirely  by  the  English  law,  but  just  take  from  each  what  suits  your 
immediate  purpose,  pursuing  it  no  further  than  the  necessities  of  your 
case  require,  and  the  flaws  in  that  case  render  safe.  The  English  law 
gives  you  jurisdiction;  use  it  then  to  open  the  doors:  but,  having  them 
thus  flung  open,  allow  not  to  enter  the  gracious  figure  of  English  jus- 
tice, with  those  forms,  the  handmaids  that  attend  her.  Make  way  for 
the  body  of  Dutch  jurisprudence,  and  enthrone  her,  surrounded  with 
her  ministers,  the  Hubers,  and  Voets,  and  Van  Schootens.  Now  this 
mode  of  treating  a  diificulty  is  one  of  the  most  ordinary,  and  among 
the  least  excusable,  of  all  sophisms;  it  is  that  by  which,  in  order  to 
get  rid  of  an  absurdity  inherent  in  any  proposition,  we  arbitrarily  and 
gratuitously  alter  its  terms,  as  soon  as  we  perceive  the  contradictory 
results  to  which  it  necessarily  leads;  carving  and  moulding  our  data 
at  pleasure;  not  before  the  argument  begins,  but  after  the  consequences 
are  perceived.  The  alteration  suddenly  made  arises,  not  out  of  the 
argument,  or  the  facts,  or  the  nature  of  things;  but  is  made  violently, 
and  because  there  is  no  doing  without  it;  and  it  is  never  thought  of 
till  this  necessity  is  discovered.  Thus,  no  one  ever  dreamt  of  calling 
in  the  Dutch  code,  till  better  lawyers  than  the  court  martial  found 
that  the  English  law  condemned  half  their  proceedings;  and  then  the 
English  was  abandoned,  until  it  was  perceived  that  the  other  half 
stood  condemned  by  the  Dutch.  Therefore  a  third  expedient  is  re- 
sorted to,  that  of  a  party-coloured  code;  the  law  under  which  they 
claim  their  justification  is  to  be  part  Dutch,  when  that  will  suit;  part 
English,  when  they  can't  get  on  without  it;  something  compounded  of 
both,  and  very  little  like  either; — showing  to  demonstration  that  they 
acted  without  any  law,  or  only  set  about  discovering  by  what  law  they 
acted  after  their  conduct  was  impeached;  and  then  were  forced  to  fabri- 
cate a  new  law  to  suit  their  proceedings,  instead  of  having  squared 
those  proceedings  to  any  known  rule  of  any  existing  law  on  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

To  put  all  such  arbitrary  assumptions  at  once  to  flight,  I  need  only 
remind  the  House  how  the  jurists  of  Demerara  treated  the  Dutch  law. 
Admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  that  the  doois  of  the  court  were  opened 
by  the  English  law  giving  them  jurisdiction,  then  that  by  violence  the 
Dutch  law  was  forced  through  the  door,  and  made  to  preside,  of  course 
we  shall  find  all  appeal  to  English  statutes,  and  forms,  and  common 
law,  cease,  from  the  instant  that  they  have  served  their  purpose  of 
giving  jurisdiction,  and  everything  will  be  conducted  upon  Dutch 
principles.  Was  it  so?  Was  any  mention  made,  from  beginning  to 
end,  of  Dutch  rules  or  Dutch  forms?  Was  there  a  word  quoted  of 
those  works  now  so  glibly  referred  to?  Was  there  a  single  name  pro- 
nounced of  those  authorities,  for  the  first  time  cited  in  this  House 
to-night?  Nothing  of  the  kind.  All  was  English,  from  first  to  last: 
all  the  laws  appealed  to  on  either  side,  all  the  writers  quoted,  all 
the  principles  laid  down,  without  a  single  exception,  were  the  same 
that  would  have  been  resorted  to  in  any  court  silting  in  this  country; 
and  the  court  martial  were  content  to  rest  their  proceedings  upon  our 
own  law,  and  to  be  an  English  judicature,  or  to  be  nothing  at  all. 

35* 


414  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

Sir,  I  rejoice  (well  knowing  that  a  legal  argument,  whether  Dutch 
or  English,  or,  like  the  doctrine  I  have  been  combating,  made  up  of 
both,  is  at  all  times  very  little  of  a  favourite  with  this  House,  and  less 
than  ever  at  the  hour  of  the  morning  to  which  we  are  now  approach- 
ing,) I  rejoice  greatly  that  what  I  have  said,  coupled  with  the  far  more 
luminous  and  cogent  reasons  which  have  been  urged  by  my  honoura- 
ble and  learned  friends  around  me,  may  suffice  to  settle  the  point  of 
law,  and  relieve  me  from  the  necessity  of  detaining  you  longer  upon 
so  dry  a  part  of  the  question.  My  only  excuse  for  having  gone  so  far 
into  it,  is  its  intimate  connection  with  the  defence  of  the  court  martial, 
of  whose  case  it  indeed  forms  the  very  corner-stone.  And  now,  in 
passing  to  the  merits  of  the  inquiry,  before  that  court,  I  have  to  wish 
that  my  honourable  and  learned  friend,  the  member  for  Peterborough* 
was  here  in  his  place;  that,  after  the  example  of  others  who  have  gone 
before  me,  I  too  might  in  my  turn  have  taken  the  opportunity  of  pay- 
ing my  respects  to  him.  But,  if  he  has  gone  himself,  he  has  left  a 
worthy  representative  in  the  honourable  Under  Secretary  for  Colonial 
Affairst,  by  whom,  in  the  quality  for  which  his  very  remarkable 
speech  the  other  night  shone  conspicuous — I  mean,  an  entire  ignorance 
of  the  facts  of  the  case — he  is,  I  will  not  say  out  done,  because  that 
may  safely  be  pronounced  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  any  man,  but 
almost,  if  not  altogether,  equalled.  There  was,  however,  this  difference 
between  the  two,  that  the  honourable  Under  Secretary,  with  a  gravity 
quite  imposing,  described  the  great  pains  he  had  taken  to  master  the 
details  of  the  subject,  whereas  my  honourable  friend  avowed  that  he 
considered  it  as  a  matter  which  any  one  might  take  up  at  an  odd 
moment  during  the  debate;  that,  accordingly,  he  had  come  down  to  the 
House  perfectly  ignorant  of  the  whole  question, and  been  content  to  pick 
up  what  he  could,  while  the  discussion  went  on,  partly  by  listening, 
partly  by  reading.  I  would  most  readily  have  taken  his  word  for  this, 
as  I  would  for  anything  else  he  chose  to  assert;  but  if  that  had  not 
been  sufficient,  his  speech  would  have  proved  it  to  demonstration.  If, 
as  he  says,  he  came  down  in  a  state  of  entire  ignorance,  assuredly  he 
had  not  mended  his  condition  by  the  sort  of  attention  he  might  have 
given  to  the  question  in  his  place, — unless  a  man  can  be  said  to  change 
his  ignorance  for  the  better,  by  gaining  a  kind  of  half-blind,  left-handed 
knowledge,  which  is  worse  than  ignorance,  as  it  is  safer  to  be  unin- 
formed than  misinformed. 

In  this  respect,  too,  the  right  honourable  Secretary  of  StateJ  is  his 
worthy  successor;  for  the  pains  which  he  has  taken  to  inform  himself, 
seem  but  to  have  led  him  the  more  widely  astray.  I  protest  I  never 
in  my  life  witnessed  such  an  elaborate  neglect  of  the  evidence  as  per- 
vaded the  latter  part  of  his  speech,  which  affected  to  discuss  it.  He 
appeared  to  have  got  as  far  wrong,  without  the  same  bias,  as  my  hon- 
ourable and  learned  friend  was  led  by  the  jaundiced  eye  with  which  he 
naturallyenough  views  such  questions,fromhis\VestIndian  connections 
and  the  recollections  associated  with  the  place  of  his  birth  and  the  scene 

*  Mr.  Scarlett.          |  Mr.  (now  Sir  R.)  Wilmot  Horton.        £  Mr.  Canning. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  415 

of  his  earliest  years.  Without  any  such  excuse  from  nature,  the  right 
honourable  Secretary  labours  to  be  in  the  wrong,  and  is  eminently  suc- 
cessful. His  argument  against  Mr.  Smith  rests  upon  the  assumption  that 
he  had  an  accurate  knowledge  of  a  plot,  which  the  right  honourable  Sec- 
retary by  another  assumption  supposes  to  have  been  proved;  and  he 
assumes  that  Mr. Smith  had  this  knowledge  twenty-four  hours  before  he 
could  possibly  have  known  anything  of  the  matter.  Everything  turns 
upon  this;  and  whoever  has  read  the  evidence  with  attention,  is  perfectly 
aware  that  this  is  the  fact.  Tell  me  not  of  Jacky  Reed's  letter,  which 
was  communicated  to  him  on  Monday  evening  at  six  o'clock,  or  later! 
Talk  not  to  me  of  going  to  the  constituted  authorities  as  soon  as  he 
knew  of  a  revolt !  If  he  had  known  it  the  night  before ;  if  he  had  been 
aware  of  the  design  before  the  insurrection  broke  out — then,  indeed, 
there  might  have  been  some  ground  for  speaking  about  concealment. 
If  he  had  obtained  any  previous  intelligence,  though  nothing  had  been 
confided  to  him,  by  a  figure  of  speech  we  might  have  talked  of  con- 
cealment— hardly  of  misprision.  But  when  did  the  note  reach  him? 
The  only  discrepancy  in  the  evidence  is,  that  one  witness  says  it  was 
delivered  at  six  o'clock,  and  he  was  the  bearer  of  it;  while  another, 
ascertaining  the  time  by  circumstances,  which  are  much  less  likely  to 
deceive  than  the  vague  recollection  of  an  hour,  fixes  the  moment,  by 
saying  that  it  was  at  night-fall,  half  an  hour  later.  But  take  it  at 
the  earliest  period,  and  let  it  be  six  o'clock.  When  did  the  revolt 
break  out?  I  hear  it  said,  at  half-past  six.  No  such  thing:  it  broke 
out  at  half-past  three:  ay,  and  earlier.  Look  at  the  fifteenth  page  of 
the  evidence,  and  you  will  find  one  witness  speaking  to  what  happened 
at  half-past  three,  and  another  at  half-past  four.  A  most  important 
step  had  then  been  taken.  Quamina  and  Jack,  the  two  alleged  ring- 
leaders— one  of  them,  Jack,  unquestionably  was  the  contriver  of  the 
whole  movement,  or  resolution  to  strike  work,  or  call  it  what  you  will; 
and  Quamina  was  suspected — and  I  believe  the  suspicion  to  have 
been  utterly  groundless;  nor  have  I  yet  heard,  throughout  the  whole 
proceedings,  a  word  to  confirm  it — but  both  these  men,  the  real  and  the 
supposed  ringleader,  had  been  actually  in  custody  for  the  revolt,  nay, 
had  been  both  arrested  for  the  revolt  and  rescued  by  the  revolters,  two 
or  three  hours  before  the  letter  came  into  Mr.  Smith's  hands!  It  is 
for  not  disclosing  this,  which  all  the  world  knew  better  than  himself — 
for  not  telling  them  at  night  what  they  knew  in  the  afternoon — that 
he  is  to  be  blamed!  Why  go  and  communicate  to  a  man  that  the  sun 
is  shining  at  twelve  o'clock  in  the  day?  Why  tell  this  House  that 
these  candles  are  burning;  that  we  are  sitting  in  a  great  crowd,  in  no 
very  pleasant  atmosphere,  and  listening  to  a  tedious  speech?  Why 
state  things  which  were  as  plain  as  the  day  light,  and  which  every  one 
knew  better  and  earlier  than  Mr.  Smith  himself?  He  was  walking 
with  his  wife  under  his  arm,  say  the  witnesses:  he  should  have  walked 
away  with  her,  or  hired  a  horse  and  rode  to  Georgetown,  says  the 
right  honourable  Secretary.  Why,  this  would  have  been,  at  the  least, 
only  doing  what  was  manifestly  superfluous,  and,  because  superfluous, 
ridiculous.  But  in  the  feeling  which  then  prevailed;  in  the  irritation 


416  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE, 

of  men's  minds;  in  (he  exasperation  to  wards  himself,  which,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  had  been  too  plainly  manifested;  I  believe  such  a  folly  would 
not  have  been  considered  as  superfluous  only:  he  would  have  been 
asked,  "  Why  are  you  meddling?  what  are  you  interfering  about?  keep 
you  quiet  at  your  own  house:  if  you  are  indeed  a  peaceable  missionary, 
don't  enter  into  quarrels  you  have  no  concern  in,  or  busy  yourself  with 
other  people's  matters."  Answers  of  that  kind  he  had  received  before: 
rebuffs  had  been  given  him  of  a  kind  which  might  induce  him  to  take 
an  opposite  course:  not  a  fortnight  previous  to  that  very  night  he  had 
been  so  treated.  I,  for  one,  am  not  the  man  to  marvel  that  he  kept 
himself  still  at  his  house,  instead  of  going  forth  to  tell  tales  which  all 
the  world  knew,  and  to  give  information,  extremely  unlike  that  which 
the  evidence  would  have  communicated  to  the  honourable  Under 
Secretary,  if  he  had  read  it  correctly;  and  to  the  member  for  Peterbo- 
rough, if  he  had  read  it  at  all.  It  would  have  informed  no  one,  because 
all  knew  it. 

But,  says  the  right  honourable  gentleman,*  why  did  not  this  mis- 
sionary, if  he  would  not  fly  to  the  destruction  of  his  friends  upon  some 
vague  surmise — if  he  would  not  make  haste  to  denounce  his  flock  upon 
rumour  or  suspicion — if  he  would  not  tell  that  which  he  did  not  know; 
if  he  would  not  communicate  a  treason  which  probably  had  no  exist- 
ence, which  certainly  did  not  to  his  knowledge  exist — if  he  would  not 
disclose  secrets  which  no  man  had  entrusted  to  him — if  he  would  not 
betray  a  confidence  which  no  mortal  had  ever  reposed  in  him — (for 
that  is  the  state  of  the  case  up  to  the  delivery  of  Jacky  Reed's 
letter;  that  is  the  precise  state  of  the  case  at  the  time  of  receiving  the 
letter;) — if  he  did  not  please  to  do  all  these  impossibilities,  there  was 
one  possibility,  it  seems,  and  that  mentioned  for  the  first  time  to-night 
(I  know  not  when  it  was  discovered,)  which  he  might  do:  Why  did 
he  not  go  forth  into  the  field,  when  the  Negroes  were  all  there,  rebel- 
lious and  in  arms— some  arrested  and  rescued,  others  taken  by  the 
insurgents  and  carried  back  into  the  woods— why  did  he  not  proceed 
where  he  could  not  take  a  step,  according  to  the  same  authority  that 
suggests  such  an  operation,  without  seeing  multitudes  of  martial  slaves; 
why  not,  in  this  favourable  state  of  things,  at  this  very  opportune 
moment,  at  a  crisis  so  auspicious  for  the  exertions  of  a  peaceful  mis- 
sionary among  his  enraged  flock — why  not  greedily  seize  such  a 
moment,  to  reason  with  them,  to  open  his  Bible  to"  them,  to  exhort 
them,  and  instruct  them,  and  catechize  them,  and,  in  fine,  take  all  those 
steps  for  having  pursued  which,  in  a  season  of  profound  tranquillity,  he 
was  brought  into  peril  of  his  life! — wherefore  not  now  renew  that 
teaching  and  preaching  to  them,  for  which,  and  for  nothing  else,  he 
was  condemned  to  death,  his  exhausted  frame  subjected  to  lingering 
torture,  and  his  memory  blighted  with  the  name  of  traitor  and  felon! 
Why,  he  was  wise  in  not  doing  this!  If  he  had  made  any  such  un- 
seasonable and  wild  attempts,  we  might  now  think  it  only  folly,  and 
might  be  disposed  to  laugh  at  the  ridiculous  project;  but  at  that  moment 

*  Mr.  Canning. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  417 

of  excitement,  when  the  exasperation  of  his  enemies  had  waxed  to 
such  a  height  as  lie  knew  it  to  have  reached  against  him,  and  men's 
minds  were  in  a  state  of  feverish  alarm  that  made  each  one  deem  every 
other  he  met  his  foe,  and  all  who  were  in  any  manner  of  way  con- 
nected with  plantations  fancied  they  saw  the  very  head  and  ringleader 
of  their  common  enemy  in  whatever  bore  the  shape  of  a  Christian  pas- 
tor— (this  Mr.  Smith  knew,  independent  of  Ins  personal  experience, 
independent  of  experience  the  most  recent — experience  within  the  last 
fortnight  from  the  time  when  such  courses  are  pointed  out  as  rational, 
nay,  obvious  and  necessary;) — but  if,  with  only  his  own  general  know- 
ledge of  the  state  of  society,  the  recollection  of  what  had  happened  to 
him  in  former  times,  and  the  impression  which  every  page  of  his  journal 
proves  to  have  been  the  genuine  result  of  all  he  saw  daily  passing  be- 
fore his  eyes — if,  in  such  a  crisis,  and  with  this  knowledge,  he  had 
fared  forth  upon  the  hopeless  errand  of  preaching  peace,  when  the 
cutlasses  of  the  insurgents  were  gleaming  in  his  eyes,  I  say  he  would 
not  merely  have  exposed  himself  to  the  just  imputation  of  insanity 
from  the  candid  and  reflecting,  but  have  encountered,  and  for  that 
reason  encountered  the  persecutions  of  those  who  now,  with  mon- 
strous inconsistency,  blame  him  for  not  employing  his  pastoral  authority 
to  restrain  a  rebellious  multitude,  and  who  pursued  him  to  the  death 
for  teaching  his  flock  the  lessons  of  forbearance  and  peace! 

Sir,  I  am  told  that  it  is  unjust  to  censure  the  court  martial  so  vehe- 
mently as  I  propose  doing  in  the  motion  before  you:  and  really  to  hear 
gentlemen  talk  of  it,  one  would  imagine  it  charged  enormous  crimes 
in  direct  terms.  Some  have  argued  as  if  murder  were  plainly  im- 
puted to  the  court:  They  have  confounded  together  the  different  parts 
of  the  argument  urged  in  support  of  the  motion,  and  then  imported 
into  the  motion  itself  that  confusion,  the  work  of  their  own  brains. 
But  even  if  the  accusations  of  which  they  complain  had  been  pre- 
ferred in  the  speeches  that  introduced  or  supported  the  proposition, 
could  anything  be  conceived  more  grossly  absurd  than  to  decide  as  if 
you  were  called  upon  to  adopt  or  reject  the  speeches,  and  not  the 
motion,  which  alone  is  the  subject  of  the  vole?  Truly  this  would  be 
a  mode  of  reasoning  surpassing  anything  the  most  unfair  and  illogical 
that  I  have  ever  heard  attempted  even  in  this  place,  where  I  have  cer- 
tainly heard  at  times  reasonings  not  to  be  met  with  elsewhere.  The 
motion  conveys  a  censure,  I  admit;  but  in  my  humble  opinion,  a  tem- 
perate and  a  mitigated  censure.  The  law  has  been  broken;  justice 
lias  been  outraged.  Whoso  believes  not  in  this,  let  him  not  vote  for 
the  motion.  But  whosoever  believes  that  a  gross  breach  of  the  law 
has  been  committed;  that  a  flagrant  violation  of  justice  has  been  per- 
petrated; is  it  asking  too  much  at  the  hands  of  that  man,  to  demand 
that  he  honestly  speak  his  mind,  and  record  his  sentiments  by  his 
vote?  In  former  times,  be  it  remembered,  this  House  of  Parliament 
has  not  scrupled  to  express,  in  words  far  more  stringent  than  any  you 
are  now  required  to  adopt,  its  sense  of  proceedings  displaying  the 
triumph  of  oppression  over  the  law.  When  there  came  before  the 
legislature  a  case  remarkable  in  itself;  for  its  consequences  yet  moro 


418  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

momentous;  resembling  the  present  in  many  points;  to  the  very  letter 
in  some  things  resembling  it — I  mean,  the  trial  of  Sydney — did  our 
illustrious  predecessors  within  these  walls  shrink  back  from  the  honest 
and  manly  declaration  of  their  opinion  in  words  suited  to  the  occasion, 
and  screen  themselves  behind  such  tender  phrases  as  are  to-night 
resorted  to, — "  Don't  be  too  violent — pray  be  civil — do  be  gentle — 
there  has  only  been  a  man  murdered,  nothing  more — a  total  breach 
of  all  law  to  be  sure;  an  utter  contempt,  no  doubt,  of  justice,  and 
everything  like  it,  in  form  as  well  as  in  substance;  but  that's  all ; 
surely,  then,  you  will  be  meek,  and  patient,  and  forbearing,  as  were 
the  Demerara  judges  to  this  poor  missionary;  against  whom,  if  some- 
what was  done,  a  great  deal  more  was  meditated  than  they  durst 
openly  perpetrate;  but  who,  being  condemned  to  die  in  despite  of  law 
and  evidence,  was  only  put  to  death  by  slow  and  wanton  seventy!" 
— In  those  days  no  such  language  was  holden.  On  that  memorable 
occasion,  plain  terms  were  not  deemed  too  strong  when  severe  truth 
was  to  be  recorded.  The  word  "murder"  was  used  because  the 
deed  of  blood  had  been  done.  The  word  "  murder  "  was  not  reck- 
oned too  uncourtly  in  a  place  where  decorum  is  studied  somewhat 
more  scrupulously  than  even  here:  on  the  journals  of  the  other  House 
stands  the  appointment  of  Lords  Committees,  "  to  inquire  of  the 
advisers  and  prosecutors  of  the  murder  of  Lord  Russell  and  Colonel 
Sydney;"  and  their  lordships  make  a  report,  upon  which  the  statute 
is  passed  to  reverse  those  execrable  attainders.  I  will  not  enter  into 
any  detailed  comparison  of  the  two  cases,  which  might  be  thought 
fanciful;  but  I  would  remind  the  House,  that  no  legal  evidence  was 
given  of  Mr.  Smith's  handwriting  in  his  journal,  any  more  than  of 
Sydney's  in  his  manuscript  Discourse  on  Government,  Every  lawyer, 
who  reads  the  trial,  must  at  once  perceive  this.  The  witness  who 
swears  to  Mr.  Smith's  hand,  cannot  say  that  he  ever  saw  him  write; 
and  when  asked  how  he  knows,  the  court  say  "that  question  is  un- 
necessary, because  he  has  said  he  knows  the  hand!"  although  all  the 
ground  of  knowledge  he  had  stated  was  having  received  letters  from 
him,  without  a  syllable  of  having  afterwards  seen  him  to  ascertain  that 
they  were  his,  or  having  written  in  answer  to  them,  or  otherwise  acted 
upon  them.  Now,  in  Sydney's  case  there  was  an  endorsement  on 
bills  of  exchange  produced,  and  those  bills  had  been  paid;  neverthe- 
less, Parliament  pronounced  his  conviction  murder,  for  this,  among 
other  reasons,  that  such  evidence  had  been  received.  The  outrageous 
contempt  of  the  most  established  rules  of  evidence,  to  which  I  am 
alluding,  was  indeed  committed  by  a  court  of  fourteen  military  officers, 
ignorant  of  the  law;  but,  that  their  own  deficiencies  might  be  sup- 
plied, they  had  joined  with  them  the  first  legal  authority  of  the  colony. 
Why  then  did  they  not  avail  themselves  of  Mr.  President  Wray's 
knowledge  and  experience?  Why  did  they  overrule  by  their  num- 
bers what  he  MUST  have  laid  down  to  them  as  the  law?  I  agree  en- 
tirely with  my  honourable  and  learned  friend*  that  the  President  must 

*  Mr,  Scarlett. 


THE  MISSIONARY  S  CASE.  419 

have  protested  strenuously  against  such  proceedings.  J  take  for 
granted,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  he  resisted  them  to  the  utmost  of 
his  power.  My  honourable  friend  and  I  have  too  good  an  opinion 
of  that  learned  judge,  and  are  too  well  persuaded  of  his  skill  in  our 
common  profession,  to  have  a  doubt  in  our  minds  of  his  being  as  much 
astonished  at  those  strange  things  as  any  man  who  now  hears  of  them; 
and  far  more  shocked,  because  they  were  done  before  his  eyes;  and, 
though  really  in  spite  of  his  efforts  to  prevent  them,  yet  clothed  in  out- 
ward appearance  with  the  sanction  of  his  authority. 

In  Sydney's  case,  another  ground  of  objection  at  the  trial  and  of 
reprobation  ever  afterwards,  was  the  seizure  and  production  of  his 
private  manuscript,  which  he  described,  in  eloquent  and  touching 
terms,  as  containing  "  sacred  truths  and  hints  that  came  into  his  mind, 
and  were  designed  for  the  cultivation  of  his  understanding,  nor  intended 
to  be  as  yet  made  public."  Recollect  the  seizure  and  production  of 
the  missionary's  journal;  to  which  the  same  objection  and  the  same 
reprobation  is  applicable;  with  this  only  difference,  that  Sydney 
avowed  the  intention  of  eventually  publishing  his  Discourse,  while 
Mr.  Smith's  papers  were  prepared  to  meet  no  mortal  eye  but  his  own. 
In  how  many  other  particulars  do  these  two  memorable  trials  agree! 
The  Preamble  of  the  Act  rescinding  the  attainder  seems  almost  framed 
to  describe  the  proceedings  of  the  court  at  Dcmerara.  Admission  of 
hearsay  evidence;  allowing  matters  to  be  law  for  one  party,  and  re- 
fusing to  the  other  the  benefit  of  the  same  law;  wresting  the  evidence 
against  the  prisoner;  permitting  proof  by  comparison  of  hands — all 
these  enormities  are  to  be  found  in  both  causes. 

But,  sir,  the  demeanour  of  the  judges  after  the  close  of  the  proceed- 
ings, I  grieve  to  say  it,  completes  the  parallel.  The  Chief  Justice  who 
presided,  and  whom  a  profligate  government  made  the  instrument  of 
Sydney's  destruction,  it  is  stated  in  our  most  common  books — Collins, 
and  I  believe  also  Rapin — "  when  he  allowed  the  account  of  the  trial 
to  be  published,  carefully  made  such  alterations  and  suppressions  as 
might  show  his  own  conduct  in  a  more  favourable  light."  That  judge 
was  Jeffries,  of  immortal  memory!  who  will  be  known  to  all  ages  as 
the  chief — not  certainly  of  ignorant  and  inexperienced  men,  for  he 
was  an  accomplished  lawyer,  and  of  undoubted  capacity — but  as  the 
chief  and  head  of  unjust,  and  cruel,  and  corrupt  judges!  There,  in 
that  place,  shall  Jeffries  stand  hateful  to  all  posterity,  while  England 
stands;  but  there  he  would  not  have  stood,  and  his  name  have  come 
down  to  us  with  far  other  and  less  appropriate  distinction,  if  our  fore- 
fathers, who  sat  in  this  House,  had  consented  to  fritter  away  the  ex- 
pression of  their  honest  indignation,  to  miligate  the  severity  of  that 
record  which  should  carry  their  hatred  of  injustice  to  their  children's 
children — if,  instead  of  deeming  it  their  most  sacred  duty,  their  highest 
glory,  to  speak  the  truth  of  privileged  oppressors,  careless  whom  it 
might  strike,  or  whom  offend,  they  had  only  studied  how  to  give  the 
least  annoyance,  to  choose  the  most  courtly  language,  to  hold  the 
kindest  and  most  conciliating  tone  towards  men  who  showed  not  a 
gleam  of  kindness,  conciliation,  courtesy,  no,  nor  bare  justice,  nor  any 


420  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

semblance  or  form  of  justice,  when  they  had  their  victim  under  their 
dominion.  Therefore  it  is  that  I  cannot  agree  to  this  previous  ques- 
tion. Rather  let  me  be  met  by  a  direct  negative:  it  is  the  manlier 
course.  I  could  have  wished  that  the  government  had  still  "  screwed 
up  their  courage  to  the  sticking-place,"  where  for  a  moment  it  perched 
the  first  night  of  the  debate,  when  by  the  honourable  gentleman  from 
the  Colonial  Department  we  were  told  that  he  could  not  consent  to 
meet  this  motion  in  any  way  but  the  most  triumphant — a  decided 
negative. 

Mr.  Wilmot  Horton.— "No!" 

Mr.  Brougham. — I  beg  the  honourable  member's  pardon.  I  was 
not  present  at  the  time,  but  took  my  account  of  what  passed  from 
others,  and  from  the  usual  channels  of  intelligence.  I  understood  that 
he  had  given  the  motion  a  direct  negative. 

Mr.  Wilmot  Horton. — "  I  said  no  such  thing;  I  said  I  should  give 
my  dissent  to  the  motion  without  any  qualification." 

Mr.  Brougham. — Sir,  I  was  not  bred  up  in  the  Dutch  schools,  nor 
have  practised  in  the  courts  of  Demerara;  and  I  confess  my  inability 
to  draw  the  nice  distinction,  so  acutely  taken  by  the  honourable  gen- 
tleman, between  a  direct  negative  and  a  dissent  without  any  qualifi- 
cation. In  my  plain  judgment,  unqualified  dissent  is  that  frame  of 
mind  which  begets  a  direct  negative.  Well,  then,  call  it  which  you 
will,  I  prefer,  as  more  intelligible  and  more  consistent,  the  direct  nega- 
tive, or  unqualified  dissent.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  "  previous 
question,"  which  the  right  honourable  Secretary*  has  to-night  substi- 
tuted for  it?  Plainly  this:  there  is  much  to  blame  on  both  sides;  and, 
for  fear  of  withholding  justice  from  either  party,  we  must  do  injustice 
to  both.  That  is  exactly  the  predicament  in  which  the  right  honour- 
able gentleman's  proposition  would  place  the  government  and  the 
House,  with  respect  to  West  Indian  interests. 

But  what  can  be  the  reason  of  all  this  extraordinary  tenderness 
towards  the  good  men  of  Demerara!  Let  us  only  pause  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  consider  what  it  can  mean.  How  striking  a  contrast  does 
this  treatment  of  those  adversaries  of  his  Majesty's  ministers  afford  to 
the  reception  which  we  oftentimes  meet  with  from  them  here!  I  have 
seen,  in  my  short  experience,  many  motions  opposed  by  the  gentlemen 
opposite,  and  rejected  by  the  House,  merely  because  they  were  ac- 
companied by  speeches  unpalatable  to  them  and  their  majorities.  I 
have  seen  measures  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  to  which  no  other 
objection  whatever  was  made,  flung  out,  only  because  propounded  by 
opposition  men,  and  recommended  by  what  were  called  factious  argu- 
ments. I  remember  myself  once  moving  certain  resolutions  upon  the 
commercial  policy  of  the  country,  all  of  which  have,  I  think,  either 
been  since  adopted  by  the  ministers  (and  I  thank  them  for  it,)  or  are 
in  the  course  of  being  incorporated  with  the  law  of  the  state.  At  the 
time,  there  was  no  objection  urged  to  the  propositions  themselves — 
indeed,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  professed  his  entire  concur- 

*  Mr.  Canning. 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  421 

rcncc  with  my  doctrines — and  as  I  then  said  I  had  much  rather  see 
his  good  works  than  hear  his  profession  of  faith,  I  am  now  happy  that 
he  has  appealed  to  this  test  of  his  sincerity,  and  given  me  what  I  asked, 
— the  best  proof  that  the  government  entirely  approved  of  the  mea- 
sures I  recommended.  But,  upon  what  grounds  were  they  resisted 
at  the  time?  Why,  nine  parts  in  ten  of  the  arguments  I  was  met  by, 
consisted  of  complaints  that  I  had  introduced  them  with  a  factious 
speech,  intermixed  them  with  party  topics,  and  combined  with  the 
commercial  part  of  the  subject  a  censure  upon  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
government,  which  has  since  been,  I  think,  also  well-nigh  given  up 
by  themselves.  Now,  then,  how  have  the  Demerara  men  entitled 
themselves  to  the  especial  protection  and  favour  of  those  same  minis- 
ters? Have  they  shown  any  signal  friendship,  or  courtesy,  or  decent 
respect,  towards  his  Majesty's  government?  Far  enough  from  it.  I 
believe  the  gentlemen  opposite  have  very  seldom  had  to  bear  such 
violence  of  attack  from  this  side  of  the  House,  bad  though  we  be,  as 
from  their  Guiana  friends.  I  suspect  they  have  not  in  any  quarter 
had  to  encounter  so  much  bitterness  of  opposition  as  from  their  new 
favourites,  whom  they  are  so  fearful  of  displeasing.  Little  tender- 
ness, or  indeed  forbearance,  have  they  shown  towards  the  government 
which  anxiously  cherishes  them.  They  have  held  public  meetings  to 
threaten  all  but  separation;  they  have  passed  a  vote  of  censure  upon 
one  minister  by  name;  and,  that  none  might  escape,  another  upon  the 
whole  administration  in  a  mass;  and  the  latest  accounts  of  their  pro- 
ceedings left  them  contriving  plans  in  the  most  factious  spirit,  in  the 
very  teeth  of  the  often-avowed  policy  of  the  government,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  prohibiting  all  missions  and  expelling  all  missionaries  from  the 
settlement.  Sir,  missions  and  missionaries  may  divide  the  opinions  of 
men  in  any  other  part  of  our  dominions  except  the  slave  colonies,  and 
the  most  opposite  sentiments  may  honestly  and  conscientiously  be  en- 
tertained upon  their  expediency;  but  in  those  countries  it  is  not  the 
question,  whether  you  will  have  missionary  teachers  or  no,  but,  whe- 
ther you  will  have  teachers  at  all  or  no.  The  question  is  not,  shall 
the  Negroes  be  taught  by  missionaries,  but,  shall  they  be  taught  at  all? 
For  it  is  the  unvarying  result  of  all  men's  experience  in  those  parts, 
members  of  the  Establishment  as  well  as  Dissenters — nay,  the  most 
absolute  opinions  on  record,  and  the  most  strongly  expressed,  have 
come  from  Churchmen — that  there  is  but  this  one  way  practicable  of 
attempting  the  conversion  of  these  poor  heathens.  With  what  jea- 
lousy, then,  ought  we  to  regard  any  efforts,  but  especially  by  the  con- 
stituted authorities  who  bore  a  part  in  those  proceedings,  to  frustrate 
the  positive  orders  for  the  instruction  of  the  slaves,  not  only  given  by 
his  Majesty's  government,  but  recommended  by  this  House, — a  far 
higher  authority  as  it  is,  higher  still  as  it  might  be,  if  it  but  dared  now 
and  then  to  have  a  will  of  its  own,  and,  upon  questions  of  paramount 
importance,  to  exercise  fearlessly  an  unbiassed  judgment?  To  obtain 
the  interposition  of  this  authority  for  the  protection  of  those  who  alone 
will,  or  can,  teach  the  Negroes,  is  one  object  of  the  motion  upon  which 
I  shall  now  take  the  sense  of  the  House.  The  rest  of  it  relates  to  the 
VOL.  i. — 3G 


42.2  THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE. 

case  of  the  individual  who  has  been  persecuted.  The  right  honoura- 
ble gentleman  seems  much  disposed  to  quarrel  with  the  title  of  mar- 
tyr, which  has  been  given  him.  For  my  own  part,  I  have  no  fault  to 
find  with  it;  because  I  deem  that  man  to  deserve  the  name,  as  in 
former  times  he  would  have  reaped  the  honours  of  martyrdom,  who 
willingly  suffers  for  conscience.  Whether  I  agree  with  him  or  not  in 
his  tenets,  I  respect  his  sincerity,  I  admire  his  zeal;  and  when,  through 
that  zeal,  a  Christian  minister  has  been  brought  to  die  the  death,  I 
would  have  his  name  honoured  and  holden  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance. His  blood  cries  from  the  ground — but  not  for  vengeance! 
He  expired,  not  imprecating  curses  upon  his  enemies,  but  praying  for 
those  who  had  brought  him  to  an  untimely  grave.  It  cries  aloud  for 
justice  to  his  memory,  and  for  protection  to  those  who  shall  tread  in 
his  footsteps,  and — tempering  their  enthusiasm  by  discretion;  uniting 
with  their  zeal  knowledge;  forbearance  with  firmness;  patience  to 
avoid  giving  offence,  with  courage  to  meet  oppression,  and  to  resist 
when  the  powers  of  endurance  are  exhausted — shall  prove  themselves 
worthy  to  follow  him,  and  worthy  of  the  cause  for  which  he  suffered. 
If  theirs  is  a  holy  duty,  it  is  ours  to  shield  them,  in  discharging  it,  from 
that  injustice  which  has  persecuted  the  living,  and  has  sought  to  blast 
the  memory  of  the  dead. 

Sir,  it  behoves  this  House  to  give  a  memorable  lesson  to  the  men 
who  have  so  demeaned  themselves.  Speeches  in  a  debate  will  be  of 
little  avail.  Arguments  on  either  side  neutralize  each  other.  Plain 
speaking  on  the  one  part,  met  by  ambiguous  expressions — half  cen- 
sure, half  acquittal,  betraying  the  wish  to  give  up,  but  with  an  attempt 
at  an  equivocal  defence — will  carry  out  to  the  West  Indies  a  motley 
aspect;  conveying  no  definite  or  intelligible  expression,  incapable  of 
commanding  respect,  and  leaving  it  extremely  doubtful  whether  those 
things,  which  all  men  are  agreed  in  reprobating,  have  actually  been 
disapproved  of  or  not.  Upon  this  occasion,  most  eminently,  a  discus- 
sion is  nothing,  unless  followed  up  by  a  vote  to  promulgate  with  au- 
thority what  is  admitted  to  be  universally  felt.  That  vote  is  called 
for,  in  tenderness  to  the  West  Indians  themselves — in  fairness  to  those 
other  colonies  which  have  not  shared  the  guilt  of  Demcrara.  Out  of 
a  just  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  West  Indian  body,  who,  I  rejoice 
to  say,  have  kept  aloof  from  this  question,  as  if  desirous  to  escape  the 
shame  when  they  bore  no  part  in  the  crime,  this  lesson  must  now  be 
taught  by  the  voice  of  Parliament, — that  the  mother  country  will  at 
length  make  her  authority  respected;  that  the  rights  of  property  are 
sacred,  but  the  rules  of  justice  paramount  and  inviolable;  that  the 
claims  of  the  slave  owner  are  admitted,  but  the  dominion  of  Parlia- 
ment indisputable;  that  we  are  sovereign  alike  over  the  white  and  the 
black;  and  though  we  may  for  a  season,  and  out  of  regard  for  the 
interests  of  both,  suffer  men  to  hold  property  in  their  fellow  creatures, 
we  never,  for  even  an  instant  of  time,  forget  that  they  are  men,  and 
the  fellow  subjects  of  their  masters;  that,  if  those  masters  shall  still 
hold  the  same  perverse  course — if,  taught  by  no  experience,  wrarncd 
by  no  auguries,  scared  by  no  menaces  from  Parliament,  or  from  the 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  CASE.  423 

Crown  administering  those  powers  which  Parliament  invoked  it  to 
put  forth — but,  blind  alike  to  the  duties,  the  interests,  and  the  perils 
of  their  situation,  they  rush  headlong  through  infamy  to  destruction; 
breaking  promise  after  promise  made  to  delude  ns;  leaving  pledge 
after  pledge  unredeemed,  extorted  by  the  pressure  of  the  passing  oc- 
casion; or  only,  by  laws  passed  to  be  a  dead  letter,  for  ever  giving 
such  an  elusory  performance  as  adds  mockery  to  breach  of  faith;  yet 
a  little  delay;  yet  a  little  longer  of  this  unbearable  trifling  with  the 
commands  of  the  parent  state,  and  she  will  stretch  out  her  arm,  in 
mercy,  not  in  anger,  to  those  deluded  men  themselves;  exert  at  last 
her  undeniable  authority;  vindicate  the  just  rights,  and  restore  the 
tarnished  honour  of  the  English  name!* 

*  It  was  in  this  memorable  debate  that  Mr.  Wilberforce  spoke  in  Parliament  for 
the  last  time.  His  journals  show  how  intensely  he  felt  on  the  subject.  The  mo- 
tion was  lost,  and  the  previous  question  carried  by  193  to  146, 


SPEECH 


ON 


NEGRO    SLAVERY. 

DELIVERED   IN   THE   HOUSE   OF   COMMONS, 
JULY  13,  1830. 


[The  following  Speech  was  delivered  on  the  13th  of  July  1830.  It  is  believed  to 
have  mainly  contributed  towards.  Mr.  Brougham's  election  as  member  for  the 
county  of  York,  which  took  place  a  few  weeks  after.] 

SIR, — In  rising  to  bring  before  the  House  a  subject  more  momen- 
tous, in  the  eyes  both  of  this  country  and  of  the  world,  than  any  that 
has  occupied  our  attention  during  the  whole  of  a  long  protracted  ses- 
sion, I  am  aware  that  I  owe  some  apology  for  entering  upon  it  at  so 
late  a  day.  I  know,  too,  that  I  am  blamed  in  many  quarters,  for  not 
postponing  it  till  another  season.  But  the  apology  which  I  am  about 
to  offer  is,  not  for  bringing  it  forward  to-day,  but  for  having  delayed 
it  so  long;  and  I  feel  that  I  should  be  indeed  without  excuse,  that  I 
should  stand  convicted  of  a  signal  breach  of  public  duty,  to  the  cha- 
racter and  the  honour  of  the  House,  to  the  feelings  and  principles  of 
the  people,  nay,  to  the  universal  feelings  of  mankind  at  large,  by  what- 
ever names  they  may  be  called,  into  whatever  families  distributed,  if 
I  had  not  an  ample  defence  to  urge  for  having  so  long  put  off  the  agi- 
tation of  this  great  question.  The  occurrences  which  happened  at  the 
commencement  of  the  session,  and  the  matters  of  pressing  interest 
which  have  just  attended  its  close,  must  plead  my  justification. 

Early  in  the  year  I  had  hoped  that  the  government  would  redeem 
the  pledges  which  they  gave  me  last  session,  and  which  then  stayed 
my  steps.  I  had  expected  to  have  the  satisfaction  of  seconding  a 
measure  propounded  by  the  ministers  of  the  Crown  for  improving  the 
administration  of  justice  in  the  Colonies,  and  especially  for  amending 
the  law  which  excludes  the  testimony  of  slaves.  That  those  expecta- 
tions have  been  frustrated,  that  those  pledges  remain  unredeemed,  I 
may  lament;  but  in  fairness  I  am  bound  to  say  I  cannot  charge  this 
as  matter  of  severe  blame  on  the  government,  because  I  know  the  ob- 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  425 

stacles  of  a  financial  nature,  which  have  stood  in  the  way  of  inten- 
tions sincerely  entertained,  to  provide  a  pure  and  efficient  system  of 
judicature  for  the  West  India  Islands.  Until  I  saw  that  no  such  re- 
forms could  he  looked  for  in  that  high  quarter,  I  was  precluded  from 
undertaking  the  suhject,  lest  my  etforts  might  mar  the  work  in  hands 
far  more  able  to  execute  it. 

This  is  my  defence  for  now  addressing  you  at  the  end  of  the  parlia- 
mentary year.  But  to  imagine  that  I  can  hold  my  peace  a  moment 
longer,  that  I  can  suffer  the  Parliament  to  be  prorogued,  and  above  all 
to  be  dissolved,  and  the  country  to  be  assembled  for  the  choice  of  new 
representives,  without  calling  on  the  House  for  a  solemn  pledge,  which 
may  bind  its  successors  to  do  their  duty  by  the  most  defenceless  and 
wretched  portion  of  their  fellow  subjects,  is  so  manifestly  out  of  the 
question,  that  I  make  no  apology  for  the  lateness  of  the  day,  and  dis- 
regard even  the  necessary  absence  of  many  fast  friends  of  the  cause, 
and  a  general  slackness  of  attendance,  incident  to  the  season,  as 
attested  by  the  state  of  these  benches,  which  might  well  dissuade  me 
from  going  on.  And  now,  after  the  question  of  Colonial  Slavery  has  for 
so  many  years  been  familiar  to  the  House,  and  I  fear  still  more  familiar 
to  the  country,  I  would  fain  hope  that  I  may  dispense  with  the  irk- 
some task  of  dragging  you  through  its  details,  from  their  multiplicity 
so  overwhelming,  from  their  miserable  nature  so  afllicting.  But  I  am 
aware  that  in  the  threshold  of  the  scene,  and  to  scare  me  from  entering 
upon  it,  there  stands  the  phantom  of  colonial  independence,  resisting 
parliamentary  interference,  fatiguing  the  ear  with  the  thrice-told  tale 
of  their  ignorance  who  see  from  afar  off,  and  pointing  to  the  fatal  issue 
of  the  American  war.  There  needs  but  one  steady  glance  to  brush 
all  such  spectres  away.  That  the  colonial  legislatures  have  rights — 
that  their  privileges  are  to  be  respected — that  their  province  is  not  to 
be  lightly  invaded — that  the  Parliament  of  the  mother  country  is  not, 
without  necessity,  to  trench  on  their  independence — no  man  more  than 
myself  is  willing  to  allow.  But  when  those  local  assemblies  utterly 
neglect  their  first  duties  —  when  we  see  them,  from  the  circumstances 
of  their  situation,  prevented  from  acting — struggling  in  these  trammels 
for  an  independent  existence — exhausted  in  the  effort  to  stand  alone, 
and  to  move  one  step  wholly  unable — when  at  any  rate  we  wait  for 
years,  and  perceive  that  they  advance  not  by  a  hair's  breadth,  either 
because  they  cannot,  or  because  they  dare  not,  or  because  they  will 
not — then  to  contend  that  we  should  not  interfere — that  we  should  fail 
in  our  duty  because  they  do  not  do  theirs — nay,  that  we  have  no  right 
to  act,  because  they  have  no  power  or  inclination  to  obey  us — would 
be,  not  an  argument,  but  an  abomination,  a  gross  insult  to  Parliament, 
a  mnckcry  of  our  privileges — for  I  trust  that  we  too  have  some  left — 
a  shameful  abandonment  of  our  duty,  and  a  portentous  novelty  in  the 
history  of  the  Parliament,  the  plantations,  and  the  country. 

Talk  not  of  the  American  contest,  and  the  triumph  of  the  colonists. 

Who  that  has  read  the  sad  history  of  that  event  (and  I  believe  among 

the  patriarchs  of  this  cau-e  whom  I  now  address  there  are  sonic  who 

an  remember  that  disgrace  of  our  councils  and  our  anus)  will  say, 


426  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

that  either  the  Americans  triumphed  or  we  quailed  on  one  inch  of  the 
ground  upon  which  the  present  controversy  stands?  Ignorance  the 
most  gross,  or  inattention  the  most  heedless,  can  alone  explain,  but 
cannot  at  all  justify,  the  use  of  such  a  topic.  Be  it  remembered — and 
to  set  at  rest  the  point  of  right,  I  shall  say  no  more — let  it  not  once  be 
forgotten,  that  the  supremacy  of  the  mother  country  never  for  an  in- 
stant was  surrendered  at  any  period  of  that  calamitous  struggle.  Nay, 
in  the  whole  course  of  it,  a  question  of  her  supremacy  never  once  was 
raised;  the  whole  dispute  was  rigorously  confined  to  the  power  of 
taxing.  All  that  we  gave  up,  as  we  said  voluntarily,  as  the  Ameri- 
cans more  truly  said,  by  compulsion,  was  the  power  to  tax;  and  by 
the  very  act  which  surrendered  this  power,  we  solemnly,  deliberately, 
and  unequivocally  reasserted  the  right  of  the  Parliament  to  give  laws 
to  the  plantations  in  all  other  respects  whatever.  Thus  speaks  the 
record  of  history  and  the  record  of  our  statute-book.  But  were  both 
history  and  the  laws  silent,  there  is  a  fact  so  plain  and  striking,  that  it 
would  of  itself  be  quite  sufficient  to  establish  the  doctrine  of  parlia- 
mentary supremacy. 

I  believe  it  may  safely  be  affirmed,  that  on  neither  side  of  the  water 
was  there  a  man  more  distinguished  for  steady  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  colonial  independence,  or  who  made  his  name  more  renowned  by 
firm  resistance  to  the  claims  of  the  mother  country,  than  Mr.  Burke. 
He  was,  in  truth,  throughout  that  memorable  struggle,  the  great  leader 
in  Parliament  against  the  infatuated  ministry,  whose  counsels  ended 
in  severing  the  empire;  and  far  from  abating  in  his  opposition  as  the 
contest  advanced,  he  sacrificed  to  those  principles  the  favour  of  his 
constituents,  and  was  in  consequence  obliged  to  withdraw  from  the 
representation  of  Bristol,  which,  till  then,  he  had  held.  His  speech  on 
the  occasion  of  his  retirement  reaffirms  the  doctrines  of  American  in- 
dependence. But  neither  then,  nor  at  any  other  time,  did  he  ever 
think  of  denying  the  general  legislative  supremacy  of  Parliament;  he 
only  questioned  the  right  of  taxing  the  unrepresented  colonies.  But 
another  fact  must  at  once  carry  conviction  to  every  mind.  During  the 
heat  of  the  controversy,  he  employed  himself  in  framing  a  code  for  the 
government  of  our  sugar  colonies.  It  was  a  bill  to  be  passed  into  a 
law  by  the  legislature  of  the  mother  country;  and  it  has  fortunately 
been  preserved  among  his  invaluable  papers.  There  is  no  minute 
detail  into  which  its  provisions  do  not  enter.  The  rights  of  the  slave 
— the  duties  of  the  master — the  obligation  to  feed  and  clothe — the  re- 
striction of  the  power  of  coercion  and  punishment — all  that  concerns 
marriage  and  education  and  religious  instruction — all  that  relates  to 
the  hours  of  labour  and  rest — everything  is  minutely  provided  for, 
with  an  abundance  of  regulation  which  might  well  be  deemed  exces- 
sive, were  not  the  subject  that  unnatural  state  of  things  which  subjects 
man  to  the  dominion  of  his  fellow-creatures,  and  which  can  only  be 
rendered  tolerable  by  the  most  profuse  enactment  of  checks  and  con- 
trols. This  measure  of  most  ample  interference  was  devised  by  the 
most  illustrious  champion  of  colonial  rights,  the  most  jealous  watch- 
man of  English  encroachments.  With  his  own  hand  he  sketched  the 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  427 

bold  outline;  with  his  own  hand  he  filled  up  its  details;  with  his  own 
hand,  long  after  the  American  contest  had  terminated,  after  the  con- 
troversy on  Negro  freedom  had  begun,  and  when  his  own  principles, 
touching  the  slave  trade  arid  slavery,  had  bent  before  certain  West 
India  prejudices,  communicated  by  the  party  of  planters  in  Paris,  with 
whom  lie  made  common  cause  on  French  revolutionary  politics, — 
even  then,  instead  of  rejecting  all  idea  of  interference  with  the  rights 
of  the  colonial  assemblies,  he  delivered  over  his  plan  of  a  slave  code  to 
Mr.  Dundas,  the  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  for  the  patronage  and 
adoption  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  himself.  I  offer  this  fact  as  a  striking  proof 
that  it  is  worse  than  a  jest,  it  is  an  unpardonable  delusion,  to  fancy 
that  there  ever  has  existed  a  doubt  of  the  right  of  Parliament  to  give 
the  colonies  laws. 

But  I  am  told,  that,  granting  the  right  to  be  ours,  we  ought  to  shrink 
from  the  exercise  of  it,  when  it  would  lead  to  an  encroachment  upon 
the  sacred  rights  of  property.  I  desire  the  House  to  mark  the  short 
and  plain  issue  to  which  I  am  willing  to  bring  this  matter.  I  believe 
there  is  no  man,  either  in  or  out  of  the  profession  to  which  I  have  the 
honour  of  belonging,  and  which,  above  all  others,  inculcates  upon  its 
members  an  habitual  veneration  for  civil  rights,  less  disposed  than  I 
am,  lightly  to  value  those  rights,  or  rashly  to  inculcate  a  disregard  of 
them.  But  that  renowned  profession  has  taught  me  another  lesson 
also;  it  has  imprinted  on  my  mind  the  doctrine  which  all  men,  the 
learned  and  the  unlearned,  feel  to  be  congenial  with  the  human  mind, 
and  to  gather  strength  with  its  growth — that  by  a  law  above  and  prior 
to  all  the  laws  of  human  lawgivers,  for  it  is  the  law  of  God — there  are 
some  things  which  cannot  be  holden  in  property,  and  above  everything 
else,  that  man  can  have  no  property  in  his  fellow-creature. 

But  I  willingly  avoid  those  heights  of  moral  argument,  where,  if  we 
go  in  search  of  first  principles,  we  see  eternal  fogs  reign,  and  "  find  no 
end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost."  I  had  rather  seek  the  humbler  regions, 
and  approach  the  level  plain,  where  all  men  see  clear,  where  their 
judgments  agree,  and  common  feelings  knit  their  hearts  together;  and 
standing  on  that  general  level,  I  ask,  what  is  the  right  which  one  man 
claims  over  the  person  of  another,  as  if  he  were  a  chattel,  and  one  of 
the  beasts  that  perish?  Is  this  that  kind  of  property  which  claims 
universal  respect,  and  is  clothed  in  the  hearts  of  all  with  a  sanctity  that 
makes  it  inviolable?  I  resist  the  claim;  I  deny  the  title;  as  a  lawyer 
I  demur  to  the  declaration  of  the  right;  as  a  man  I  set  up  a  law  supe- 
rior in  point  of  antiquity,  higher  in  point  of  authority,  than  any  which 
men  have  framed — the  law  of  nature;  and,  if  you  appeal  from  that,  I 
set  up  the  law  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  which  holds  all  men  equal, 
and  commands  that  you  treat  every  man  as  a  brother!  Talk  to  me 
not  of  such  monstrous  pretensions  being  decreed  by  Acts  of  Parliament, 
and  recognised  by  treaties!  do  bark  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  a  kin- 
dred contest,  when  a  long  and  painful  struggle  ended  in  an  immortal 
triumph.  The  self-same  arguments  were  urged  in  defence  of  the 
slave  trade.  Its  vindication  was  rested  upon  the  rights  of  property,  as 
established  by  laws  and  treaties;  the  ri^ht  to  trade  in  men  was  held 


428  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

to  be  as  clear  then,  as  the  right  to  hold  men  in  properly  is  held  to  be 
clear  now.  For  twenty-five  years,  I  am  ashamed  to  repeat,  for  twenty- 
five  years,  to  the  lasting  disgrace  of  the  Parliament,  the  African  slave 
traffic  was  thus  defended;  and  that  which  it  was  then  maintained  every 
one  had  a  right  to  do,  is  now  denounced  by  our  laws  as  piracy,  and 
whoso  doeth  it  shall  surely  die  the  death  of  a  felon. 

But  I  am  next  told,  that,  be  the  right  as  it  may,  the  facts  are  against 
me;  that  the  theory  may  be  with  those  who  object  to  slavery,  but  the 
practice  is  in  favour  of  the  system.  The  Negroes  are  well  off,  it  seems; 
they  are  inured  to  the  state  in  which  they  have  been  born  and  grown 
up;  they  are  happy  and  contented,  and  we  shall  only  hurt  them  by 
changing  their  condition,  which  the  peasantry  of  England  are  desired 
to  regard  with  envy.  I  will  not  stoop  to  answer  such  outrageous  asser- 
tions by  facts  or  by  reasons.  I  will  not  insult  your  understanding,  by 
proving,  that  no  slave  can  taste  happiness  or  comfort;  that  where  a 
man  is  at  the  nod  of  another,  he  can  know  nothing  of  real  peace  or 
repose.  But  I  will  at  once  appeal  to  two  tests;  to  these  I  shall  confine 
myself,  satisfied  that  if  they  fail  to  decide  the  question,  I  may  resort  in. 
vain  to  any  argument  which  philosophers  can  admit,  or  political  econ- 
omists entertain,  or  men  of  ordinary  common  sense  handle.  The  two 
tests  or  criteria  of  happiness  among  any  people,  which  I  will  now 
resort  to,  are  the  progress  of  population,  and  the  amount  of  crime. 
These,  but  the  first  especially,  are,  of  all  others,  the  most  safely  to  be 
relied  on.  Every  one  who  has  studied  the  philosophy  of  human  na- 
ture, and  every  one  who  lias  cultivated  statesman-like  wisdom,  which 
indeed  is  only  that  philosophy  reduced  to  practice,  must  admit,  that 
the  principle  implanted  in  our  nature,  which  ensures  the  continuance 
of  the  species,  is  so  powerful  that  nothing  can  check  its  operation  but 
some  calamitous  state  of  suffering,  which  reverses  the  natural  order  of 
things.  Wherever,  then,  we  see  the  numbers  of  men  stationary,  much 
more  when  we  perceive  them  decreasing,  we  may  rest  assured  that 
there  is  some  fatal  malady,  some  fundamental  vice  in  the  community, 
which  makes  head  against  the  most  irresistible  of  all  the  impulses  of 
our  physical  constitution.  Now,  look  to  the  history  of  the  black  popu- 
lation, both  free  and  slave,  in  the  Antilles.  In  the  British  islands, 
including  Barbadoes,  on  a  population  of  670,000  slaves,  there  was  a 
decrease  of  31,500  in  the  six  years  which  elapsed  between  ISIS  and 
1824;  in  Jamaica  alone,  upon  the  number  of  330,000,  a  decrease  of 
between  8,000,  and  9,000.  But  not  so  with  the  free  coloured  men; 
although  placed  in  circumstances  exceedingly  unfavourable  to  increase 
of  numbers,  yet  such  is  the  natural  fruitfnlness  of  the  Negro  race  that 
they  rapidly  multiplied.  The  Maroons  doubled  between  1749  and 
17S2;  and  when  great  part  of  them  were  removed  after  the  rebellion 
of  1796,  those  who  remained  increased  in  six  years,  from  1810  to  1S16, 
no  less  than  eighteen  per  cent.:  and  in  five  years,  from  1S16  to  1S21, 
fourteen  per  cent.  In  North  America,  where  they  are  better  fed,  the 
Negroes  have  increased  in  thirty  years  no  less  than  1 30  per  cent.  Look 
next  to  Trinidad:  in  four  years,  from  1S25  to  1S29,  the  slaves  have 
fallen  off  from  23,117  to  22,436,  notwithstanding  a  considerable  impor- 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  429 

tation  under  an  order  in  council,  being  a  decrease  of  at  least  a  thirty- 
fourth,  but  probably  of  a  twentieth.  Hut  what  has  happened  to  the 
same  race,  and  circumstanced  alilco  as  to  climate,  soil,  food — in  short, 
everything  save  liberty?  Nature  lias  with  them  upheld  her  rights: 
her  first  great  law  has  been  obeyed;  the  passions  and  the  vigour  of 
man  have  had  their  course  unrestrained;  and  the  increase  of  his  num- 
bers has  attested  his  freedom.  They  have  risen  in  the  same  four  years 
from  13,995  to  16,412,  or  at  a  rate  which  would  double  their  numbers 
iu  twenty  years;  the  greatest  rate  at  which  population  is,  in  any  cir- 
cumstances, known  to  increase.  There  cannot  be  a  more  appalling 
picture  presented  to  the  reflecting  mind  than  that  of  a  people  decreas- 
ing in  numbers.  To  him  who  can  look  beyond  the  abstract  numbers, 
whose  eye  is  not  confined  to  the  mere  tables  and  returns  of  population, 
but  ranges  over  the  miseries  of  which  such  a  diminution  is  the  infalli- 
ble symptom;  it  offers  a  view  of  all  the  forms  of  wretchedness,  suffer- 
ing in  every  shape,  privations  in  unlimited  measure — whatever  is  most 
contrary  to  the  nature  of  human  beings,  most  alien  to  their  habits,  most 
adverse  to  their  happiness  and  comfort — all  beginning  in  slavery,  the 
state  most  unnatural  to  man;  consummated  through  various  channels 
in  his  degradation,  and  leading  to  one  common  end,  the  grave.  Show 
me  but  the  simple  fact,  that  the  people  in  any  country  are  regularly 
decreasing,  so  as  in  half  a  century  to  be  extinct;  and  I  want  no  other 
evidence  that  their  lot  is  that  of  the  bitterest  wretchedness;  nor  will 
any  other  facts  convince  me  that  their  general  condition  can  be  favour- 
able or  mild.  The  second  general  test  to  which  I  would  resort  for  the 
purpose  of  trying  the  state  of  any  community,  without  the  risk  of  those 
deceptions  to  which  particular  facts  are  liable,  is  the  number  of  crimes 
committed.  In  Trinidad,  I  find  that  the  slaves  belonging  to  planta- 
tions, in  number  16,580,  appear,  by  the  records  printed,  to  have  been 
punished  in  two  years  for  11,131  offences,  that  is  to  say,  deducting  the 
number  of  infants  incapable  of  committing  crimes,  every  slave  had 
committed  some  offence  in  the  course  of  those  two  years.  It  is  true 
that  the  bulk  of  those  offences,  7611,  were  connected  with  their  con- 
dition of  bondage — refusing  to  work,  absconding  from  the  estate,  inso- 
lence to  the  owner  or  overseer,  all  incidental  to  their  sad  condition,  but 
all  visited  with  punishment  betokening  its  accompanying  debasement. 
Nevertheless,  other  crimes  were  not  wanting:  713  were  punished  for 
theft,  or  above  350  in  a  year,  on  a  number  of  about  12,000,  deducting 
persons  incapacitated  by  infancy,  age,  or  sickness,  from  being  the  sub- 
jects of  punishment.  Let  any  one  consider  what  this  proportion  would 
give  in  England:  it  would  amount  to  3  ~>0,000  persons  punished  in  one 
year  for  larceny.  In  Herbice,  on  a  population  of  21,000  plantation 
slaves,  there  were  9000  punishments;  no  record  being  kept  of  those  in 
plantations  of  six  slaves  or  under:  and  in  Uemerara,  of  61,000,  there 
were  20,567  punished,  of  whom  S161  were  women. 

I  cannot  here  withhold  from  thu  House,  the  testimony  of  the  Pro- 
tector of  Slaves  to  tht!  happiness  of  their  condition.  ••  I  cannot,"  says 
that  judicious  officer,  "  refrain  from  remarking  on  the  contented  appear- 
ance of  the  Negroes;  and,  from  the  opportunities  of  judging  which  I 


430  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

have,  I  think  that  generally  they  have  every  reason  to  be  so."  I 
would  not  have  this  Protector  placed  in  the  condition  of  the  very  hap- 
piest of  this  contented  tribe,  whose  numbers  are  hourly  lessening,  and 
whose  lives  are  spent  in  committing  crime  and  in  receiving  punish- 
ments. No,  not  for  a  day  would  I  punish  his  error  in  judgment,  by 
condemning  him  to  taste  the  comforts  which  he  describes,  as  they  are 
enjoyed  by  the  luckiest  of  those  placed  under  his  protection.  But  such 
testimony  is  not  peculiar  to  this  officer.  Long  before  his  protectorate 
commenced,  before  he  even  came  into  this  world  of  slavery  and  bliss, 
of  bondage  and  contentment,  the  like  opinion  had  been  pronounced  in 
favour  of  West  Indian  felicity.  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  evidence  of  Lord 
Rodney,  who  swore  before  the  Privy  Council  that  he  never  saw  an 
instance  of  cruel  treatment,  that  in  all  the  islands,  "  and,"  said  his 
lordship,  "I  know  them  all,"  the  Negroes  were  better  off  in  clothing, 
lodging,  and  food,  than  the  poor  at  home,  and  were  never  in  any  case 
at  all  overworked.  Admiral  Barrington,  rising  in  ardour  of  expression 
as  he  advanced  in  knowledge,  declares  that  he  has  often  wished  him- 
self in  the  condition  of  the  slaves.  Neither  would  I  take  the  gallant 
Admiral  at  his  rash  word,  sanctioned  though  it  be  by  an  oath.  I  would 
not  punish  his  temerity  so  severely  as  to  consign  him  to  a  station,  com- 
pared with  which  he  would  in  four-and-twenty  hours  have  become 
reconciled  to  the  hardest  fare  in  the  most  crazy  bark  that  ever  rocked 
on  the  most  perilous  wave;  or  even  to  the  lot  which  our  English  sea- 
men are  the  least  inured  to — the  most  disastrous  combat  that  ever 
lowered  his  flag  in  discomfiture  and  disgrace.  But  these  officers  con- 
fined not  their  testimony  to  the  condition  of  slavery ;  they  cast  its  pano- 
ply around  the  slave  trade  itself.  They  were  just  as  liberal  in  behalf 
of  the  Guineaman,  as  of  those  whom  his  toils  were  destined  to  enrich. 
They  gave  just  as  Arcadian  a  picture  of  the  slaver's  deck  and  hold,  as 
of  the  enviable  fields  whither  she  was  fraught  with  a  cargo  of  happy 
creatures,  designed  by  their  felicitous  destiny  to  become  what  are  call- 
ed the  cultivators  of  those  romantic  regions.  "  The  slaves  on  board 
are  comfortably  lodged,"  says  one  gallant  officer,  "in  rooms  fitted  up 
for  them."  "  They  are  amused  with  instruments  of  music:  when  tired 
of  music,  they  then  go  to  games  of  chance."  Let  the  inhabitants  or 
the  frequenters  of  our  club-houses  hear  this  and  envy — those  "  famous 
wits,"  to  whom  St.  James's  purlieus  are  "  native  or  hospitable:"  let 
them  cast  a  longing  look  on  the  superior  felicity  of  their  sable  brethren 
on  the  middle  passage.  They  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin,  yet  have 
they  found  for  them  all  earthly  indulgences;  food  and  raiment  for 
nothing;  music  to  charm  the  sense;  and  when,  sated  with  such  enjoy- 
ment, the  mind  seeks  a  change,  games  of  chance  are  kindly  provided 
by  boon  traffic  to  stimulate  the  lazy  appetite.  "  The  slaves,"  adds  the 
Admiral,  "are  indulged  in  all  their  little  humours."  Whether  one  of 
these  caprices  might  be  to  have  themselves  tied  up  from  time  to  time, 
and  lacerated  with  a  scourge,  he  has  omitted  to  mention.  "  He  had 
frequently,"  he  says,  "  seen  them,  and  as  happy  as  any  of  the  crew,  it 
being  the  interest  of  the  officers  and  men  to  make  them  so."  But  it 
is  Admiral  Evans  who  puts  the  finishing  stroke  to  this  fairy  picture. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  431 

'•'The  arrival  of  a  Guineamnn,"  he  says,  "  is  known  in  the  West  In- 
dies by  the  dancing  and  singing  of  the  Negroes  on  board." 

It  is  thus  that  these  cargoes  of  merry,  happy  creatures,  torn  from 
their  families,  their  native  fields,  and  their  cottages,  celebrate  their 
reaching  the  land  of  promise,  and  that  their  coming  is  distinguished 
from  the  dismal  landing  of  free  English  seamen,  out  of  West  India 
traders,  or  other  recepiacles  of  cruelty  and  wretchedness.  But  if  all 
the  deductions  of  philosophy,  and  all  the  general  indications  of  fact, 
loudly  prove  the  unalterable  wretchedness  of  colonial  slavery,  where, 
may  it  be  asked,  are  the  particular  instances  of  its  existence?  Alas! 
there  is  no  want  of  these:  but  I  will  only  cull  out  a  few,  dealing  pur- 
posely with  the  mass  rather  by  sample  than  by  breaking  its  foul  bulk. 
I  shall  illustrate,  by  a  few  examples,  the  effects  of  slavery  in  commu- 
nities to  the  exertions  of  which  we  are  bid  to  look  for  the  mitigation 
and  final  extinction  of  that  horrid  condition. 

A  certain  Reverend  Thomas  Wilson  Bridges  was  charged  with  an 
offence  of  the  deepest  dye.  A  slave  girl  had  been  ordered  to  dress  a 
turkey  for  dinner,  and  the  order  having  been  disobeyed,  he  struck  her 
a  violent  blow,  which  caused  her  nose  and  mouth  to  flow  with  blood, 
applying  to  her  at  the  same  time  an  oath,  and  a  peculiarly  coarse  epi- 
thet, highly  unbecoming  in  a  clergyman,  and  indeed  in  any  man,  as  it 
is  the  name  most  offensive  to  all  womankind.  He  then  commanded 
two  men  to  cut  bamboo  rods  and  point  them  for  her  punishment.  She 
was  stripped  of  every  article  of  dress,  and  flogged  till  the  back  part  of 
her,  from  the  shoulders  to  the  calves  of  the  legs,  was  one  mass  of 
lacerated  flesh.  She  made  her  escape,  and  went  to  a  magistrate.  The 
matter  was  brought  before  what  is  called  a  Council  of  Protection, 
where,  by  a  majority  of  fourteen  to  four,  it  was  resolved  that  no  fur- 
ther proceedings  should  take  place.  The  Secretary  of  State  for  tho 
Colonies,  however,  thought  otherwise,  and  in  a  dispatch,  with  no  part 
of  which  have  I  any  fault  to  find,  directed  the  evidence  to  be  laid  be- 
fore the  Attorney  General.  I  understand  that  the  reverend  gentleman 
has  not  been  put  on  his  trial.  I  hope  I  may  have  been  misinformed  : 
I  shall  rejoice  to  find  it  so.  I  shall  also  be  glad  to  find  that  then;  is 
no  ground  for  the  charge;  although  the  man's  servants,  when  ex- 
amined, all  admitted  the  severity  of  the  flogging;  and  himself  allowed 
he  had  seen  it,  though  he  alleged  he  was  not  near,  but  could  not  deny 
lie  had  heard  the  screams  of  the  victim.  This  reverend  Mr.  Bridges 
I  happened  to  know  by  his  other  works, — by  those  labours  of  slander 
which  have  diversified  the  life  of  this  minister  of  peace  and  truth. 
For  publishing  one  of  these,  a  respectable  bookseller  has  been  con- 
victed by  a  jury  of  his  country;  others  have  been  passed  over  with 
contempt  by  their  illustrious  object — that  venerable  person,  the  great 
patriarch  of  our  cause,  whose  days  are  to  be  numbered  by  acts  of  be- 
nevolence and  of  piety,  whose  whole  life, — and  long  may  it  he  ex- 
tended for  his  own  glory  and  the  good  of  his  fellow-creatures! — has 
been  devoted  to  the  highest  interests  of  religion  and  of  chanty,  who 
might  have  hoped  to  pass  on  his  holy  path  undisturbed  by  any  one 
calling  himself  a  Christian  pastor,  even  in  a  West  Indian  community. 


432  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

The  man,  however,  has  so  far  succeeded,  whether  by  the  treatment  of 
liis  slaves,  or  the  defamation  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,  in  recommending 
himself  to  his  fellow-citizens  in  Jamaica,  that  a  great  majority  in  the 
Protecting  Council  forbade  his  conduct  being  inquired  into.  So  vain 
is  it  to  expect  from  the  owners  of  slaves  any  active  execution  of  the 
laws  against  slavery!  And  will  you  then  trust  those  slave  owners 
with  the  making  of  such  laws!  Recollect  the  memorable  warning 
of  Mr.  Canning,  given  thirty  years  ago,  and  proved  true  by  every 
day's  experience  since.  "  Have  a  care  how  you  leave  to  the  owners 
of  slaves  the  task  of  making  laws  against  slavery.  While  human  na- 
ture remains  the  same,  they  never  can  be  trusted  with  it." 

It  is  now  six  years  since  I  called  the  attention  of  Parliament  to  one 
of  the  most  grievous  outrages  that  ever  was  committed  since  the  Ca- 
ribbean Archipelago  was  peopled  with  Negro  slaves — the  persecution 
unto  death  of  a  Christian  minister,  for  no  other  offence  than  preach- 
ing the  gospel  of  his  master.  I  was  then  told,  that  no  such  wrong 
would  ever  be  done  again.  It  was  a  single  case,  which  never  could 
recur:  at  all  events,  the  discussion  in  this  House,  and  the  universal 
reprobation  called  forth,  even  from  those  who  ha,d  not  sufficient  inde- 
pendence to  give  their  voices  for  doing  justice  upon  the  guilty,  would, 
I  was  told,  effectually  secure  the  freedom  of  religious  worship  in 
future.  I  was  silenced  by  the  majority  of  votes,  but  not  convinced  by 
such  reasons  as  these.  And  I  now  hold  in  my  hand  the  proof  that  I 
was  right.  It  is  a  statement  promulgated  by  a  numerous  and  respect- 
able body  of  sincere  Christians  with  whom  1  differ  both  in  religious 
and  political  opinions,  but  in  whose  conduct,  if  there  be  anything  which 
I  peculiarly  blame,  it  is  their  disinclination  to  deviate  from  a  bad  habit 
of  passive  obedience — of  taking  all  that  is  done  by  men  in  authority 
to  be  right.  They  seem,  however,  now  to  be  convinced  that  they 
have  carried  this  habit  too  far,  and  that  the  time  is  come  when  they 
can  no  longer  do  their  duty  and  hold  their  peace.  The  narrative 
which  they  have  given,  confirmed  by  the  conduct  of  the  government 
itself,  is  such  as  would  have  filled  me  with  indignation  had  I  read  it 
six  years  ago;  but,  after  the  warning  voice  so  loudly  raised  in  the  de- 
bates upon  the  Missionary  Smith's  murder,  I  gaze  upon  it  astonished 
and  incredulous.  The  simple  and  affecting  story  is  told  by  Mr.  Orton, 
a  blameless  and  pious  minister  of  the  gospel  in  Jamaica.  He  first 
alludes  to  the  "daring  attack  made  on  the  mission  premises,  at  St. 
Ann's  Bay,  on  Christmas  day,  1826,"  (the  festival  chosen  by  these 
friends  of  the  Established  Church  for  celebrating  their  brotherly  love 
towards  another  sect.)  "  The  attack,"  says  lie,  "  was  made  by  a 
party  of  white  persons,  of  the  light  company  of  militia,  who  were  sta- 
tioned at  St.  Ann's  Bay  as  the  Christmas  guards.  The  plan  appeared 
to  have  been  premeditated,  and  there  remains  but  little  doubt  that  the 
design  was  murderous.  A  great  number  of  balls  were  fired  into  the 
chapel  and  house,  fourteen  of  which  I  assisted  to  extract  from  various 
parts  of  the  building;  and  upon  noticing  particularly  the  direction, 
and  measuring  the  distance  from  which  some  of  the  shots  must  have 
been  fired,  it  appeared  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ratcliffe  and  their  child 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  433 

most  narrowly  escaped  the  fatal  consequences  which  were  no  doubt 
designed."  All  attempt  to  bring  these  criminals  to  justice  failed,  it 
seems,  for  want  of  evidence — a  somewhat  extraordinary  instance  in  a 
community  calling  itself  civilized,  that  so  many  persons  as  must  have 
been  concerned  in  it  should  all  have  escaped.  In  the  course  of  the 
next  summer,  Mr.  Grimsdall,  another  clergyman  of  the  same  persua- 
sion, was  arrested  twice;  the  second  time  for  having  preached  at  a 
small  place  called  Ocho  Rios,  in  an  unlicensed  house,  although  a 
license  had  been  applied  for  and  refused,  contrary  to  the  judgment  of 
the  Gustos  and  another  magistrate.  He  was  flung  into  a  noisome 
dungeon,  "such,"  says  the  narrative,  "as  no  person  in  Great  Britain 
can  have  any  conception  of.  Mis  constitution,  naturally  strong, could 
not  sustain  the  attack — he  sunk  under  the  oppression  of  these  perse- 
cutors, and  the  deleterious  effects  of  confinement  in  a  noxious  prison; 
and  this  devoted  servant  of  God,  after  a  painful  sickness  of  sixteen 
days,  was  delivered  by  death  from  the  farther  sufferings  projected  by 
his  unfeeling  persecutors.  He  died  the  15th  day  of  December  1827." 
Mr.  Whitehouse,  too,  was  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  and  consequently 
an  object  of  persecution.  In  the  summer  of  1S2S,  he  was  seized  and 
carried  before  a  magistrate,  accused  of  having  preached  without  a 
license;  that  is,  of  having  a  license  in  one  parish  and  preaching  in 
another.  He  besought  the  magistrates  as  a  favour,  to  be  bound  in 
irons  in  the  market-place,  instead  of  being  confined  in  the  cell  where 
his  predecessor  had  been  deprived  of  life.  They  treated  his  remon- 
strances with  indifference,  said  they  were  resolved  to  do  their  duty, 
professed  not  to  regard  what  the  public  might  say  of  them,  and  added, 
that  "  whoever  might  come  should  be  treated  in  the  same  manner." 
He  was  accordingly  flung  into  the  dungeon  where  Mr.  Grimsdall  had 
perished.  "  I  found  it,"  says  he,  "occupied  by  an  insane  black  wo- 
man. She  was  removed,  but  the  cell  was  exceedingly  filthy,  and  the 
stench  unbearable.  It  was  now  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  the 
jailer  said  he  "must  lock  up."  I  desired  that  the  cell  floor  might,  at 
least,  be  swept,  which  a  few  friends  immediately  attended  to.  There 
was  no  bed  provided  for  me,  not  even  one  of  straw;  and  it  was  not 
until  I  had  made  several  requests  to  the  jailer,  that  a  few  benches 
from  the  chapel  were  allowed  to  be  brought  in,  on  which  to  make  a 
bed.  A  large  quantity  of  vinegar,  and  one  of  strong  camphorated 
rum,  was  thrown  upon  the  floor  and  walls,  for  the  purpose  of  coun- 
teracting the  very  disagreeable  eflluvin  which  proceeded  from  the  filth 
with  which  the  place  abounded,  but  this  produced  very  little  effect. 
The  sea-breeze  had  subsided,  and  the  only  window  from  which  I  could 
obtain  the  least  air,  was  just  above  the  place  in  which  all  the  filth  of 
the  premises  is  deposited."  Mr.  Orton  received  the  intelligence  of  his 
persecuted  brother's  affliction,  with  a  request  that  he  would  perform 
Jiis  pastoral  duty  to  his  congregation.  He  did  so,  and  was  forthwith 
committed  to  the  same  jail.  "  Of  the  horrid  state  of  the  place,"  ho 
says,  "an  idea  can  scarcely  be  formed  from  any  representation  whirh 
can  here  be  made,  as  common  decency  forbids  the  mention  of  its  lilihy 
VOL.  i. — 137 


434  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

condition,  and  the  many  unseemly  practices  which  were  constantly 
presented  to  our  notice.  The  hospital,  jail,  and  workhouse  are  united; 
the  two  former  are  under  one  roof,  occupying  an  area  of  about  twenty- 
five  feet  by  thirty-five.  On  the  ground  floor  were  three  apartments. 
In  the  condemned  cell  were  two  unfortunate  creatures  awaiting  their 
doom.  In  an  adjoining  cell  were  many  Negroes,  confined  for  petty 
offences;  and  in  another  apartment  on  the  same  floor,  forty  were 
crammed  together,  who  had  been  taken  in  execution,  and  were  wait- 
ing to  be  driven  and  sold  in  the  market.  This  building,  small  and 
confined,  was,  especially  during  the  night,  literally  stowed  with  per- 
sons, so  that,  from  the  number  of  the  prisoners,  and  the  extreme  filth 
of  the  Negroes,  it  was  almost  unbearable."  Let  us  but  reflect  on  the 
sufferings  of  imprisonment  even  in  the  best  jail  of  our  own  temperate 
climate;  and  let  us  then  add  to  those  the  torments  of  tropical  heats! 
Think  of  being  enclosed  with  crowds  beyond  what  the  air  will  supply 
with  the  needful  nourishment  of  the  lungs,  while  a  fiery  sun  wheels 
round  the  clear  sky  from  morning  to  night,  without  the  veil  of  a  sin- 
gle cloud  to  throw  a  shade  between;  where  all  matter  passes  instantly 
from  life  to  putrescence,  and  water  itself,  under  the  pestilent  ray,  be- 
comes the  source  of  every  frightful  malady!  Add  the  unnatural  con- 
dition of  the  inmates,  not  there  for  debts  or  for  offences  of  their  own, 
but  seized  for  their  owner's  default,  and  awaiting,  not  the  judgment 
of  the  law,  or  their  liberation  under  an  insolvent  act,  but  till  the  mar- 
ket opens,  when,  like  brutes,  they  are  to  be  driven  and  sold  to  the 
highest  bidder!  In  such  a  dungeon  was  it  that  Mr.  Orton  and  his 
brethren  were  immured;  and  when  their  strength  began  to  sink,  and 
it  seemed  plain  that  they  must  speedily  follow  their  friend  to  the 
grave,  they  were  taken  before  the  Chief  Justice,  who  instantly  declared 
the  warrant  illegal,  and  their  seventeen  days'  confinement  to  have 
been  without  the  shadow  of  pretence. 

Who  then  was  in  the  right,  six  years  ago,  in  the  memorable  debate 
upon  the  persecution  of  the  Missionary  Smith?  You,  who  said  enough 
had  been  done  in  broaching  the  subject,  and  that  religion  and  her 
ministers  would  thenceforward  be  secure; — or  I,  who  warned  you, 
that  if  my  Resolutions  were  rejected,  he  would  not,  by  many  a  one, 
be  the  last  victim?  I  would  to  God  that  the  facts  did  not  so  plainly 
prove  me  to  have  foretold  the  truth. 

I  may  seem  to  have  said  enough;  but  it  is  painful  to  me  that  I  can- 
not stop  here, — that  I  must  try  faintly  to  paint  excesses  unheard  of  in 
Christian  times — which  to  match  we  must  go  back  to  heathen  ages, 
to  the  days  and  to  the  stations,  wherein  absolute  power  made  men,  but 
Pagan  men,  prodigies  of  cruelty  exaggerated  by  caprice, — that  I  must 
drag  before  you  persons  moving  in  the  higher  walks  of  life,  and  exert- 
ing proportionable  influence  over  the  society  they  belong  to: — an  Eng- 
lish gentleman,  and  an  English  gentlewoman  accused,  guilty,  convicted 
of  the  most  infernal  barbarity;  and  an  English  community,  so  far  from 
visiting  the  enormity  with  contempt,  or  indignant  execration,  that  they 
may  make  the  savage  perpetrators  the  endeared  objects  of  esteem, 
respect,  and  affection !  I  read  the  recital  from  the  despatch  of  the  late 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  435 

Secretary  for  the  Colonies,*  a  document  never  to  be  sufficiently  praised 
for  its  statesman-like  firmness,  for  the  manly  tone  of  feeling  and  of 
determination  united,  which  marks  it  throughout.  "  The  slave  girl 
was  accused  of  theft,"  he  says;  "but  some  disobedience  in  refusing  to 
mend  the  clothes  was  the  more  immediate  cause  of  her  punishment. 
On  the  22d  of  July  1S2G.  she  was  confined  in  the  stocks,  and  she  was 
not  released  till  the  8th  of  August  following,  being  a  period  of  seven- 
teen days.  The  stocks  were  so  constructed,  that  she  could  not  sit  up 
and  lie  down  at  pleasure,  and  she  remained  in  them  night  and  day. 
During  this  period  she  was  flogged  repeatedly, — one  of  the  overseers 
thinks  about  six  times, — and  red  pepper  was  rubbed  upon  her  eyes  to 
prevent  her  sleeping.  Tasks  were  given  her,  which  in  the  opinion  of 
the  same  overseer,  she  was  incapable  of  performing;  sometimes  because 
they  were  beyond  her  powers;  at  other  times  because  she  could  not 
see  to  do  them  on  account  of  the  pepper  having  been  rubbed  on  her 
eyes;  and  she  was  flogged  for  failing  to  accomplish  these  tasks.  A 
violent  distemper  had  been  prevalent  on  the  plantation  during  the 
summer.  It  is  in  evidence,  that  on  one  of  the  days  of  her  confinement 
she  complained  of  fever,  and  that  one  of  the  floggings  which  she  re- 
ceived was  the  day  after  she  had  made  this  complaint.  When  she 
was  taken  out  of  the  stocks  she  appeared  to  be  cramped,  and  was  then 
again  flogged.  The  very  day  of  her  release  she  was  sent  to  field- 
labour,  (though  heretofore  a  house-servant,)  and  on  the  evening  of  the 
third  day  ensuing  was  brought  before  her  owners  as  being  ill  and 
refusing  to  work,  and  then  she  again  complained  of  having  had  fever. 
They  were  of  opinion  that  she  had  none  then,  but  gave  directions  to 
the  driver,  if  she  should  be  ill,  to  bring  her  to  them  for  medicines  in 
the  morning.  The  driver  took  her  to  the  negro-house,  and  again 
flogged  her,  though  this  time  apparently  without  orders  from  her 
owners  to  do  so.  In  the  morning,  at  seven  o'clock,  she  was  taken  to 
work  in  the  field,  where  she  died  at  noon."  Mark  the  refinement  of 
their  wickedness!  I  nowise  doubt,  that  to  screen  themselves  from  the 
punishment  of  death  due  to  their  crimes,  these  wretches  will  now  say, 
— they  did  indeed  say  on  their  trial,  that  their  hapless  victim  died  of 
disease.  When  their  own  lives  were  in  jeopardy,  they  found  that  she 
had  caught  the  fever,  and  died  by  the  visitation  of  God;  but  when  the 
question  was,  shall  she  be  flogged  again?  shall  she,  who  has  for  twelve 
days  been  fixed  in  the  stocks  under  the  fiery  beams  of  a  tropical  sun, 
who  has  been  torn  with  the  scourge  from  the  nape  of  the  neck  to  the 
plants  of  her  feet,  who  has  had  popper  rubbed  in  her  eyes  to  ward  off 
the  sloop  that  might  have  stolen  over  her  senses,  and  for  a  moment 
withdrawn  h«»r  spirit  from  the  fangs  of  her  tormentors, — shall  she  be 
subjected  by  those  accursed  fiends  to  the  seventh  scourging?  Oh!  then, 
she  had  no  sign  of  fever!  she  had  caught  no  disease!  she  was  all  hale, 
and  sound,  and  fit  for  the  lash!  At  seven  she  was  flogged — at  noon 
she  died!  and  those  execrable  and  impious  murderers  soon  found  out 
that  she  had  caught  the  malady,  and  perished  by  the  "visitation  of 

*  Mr.  Huskisson. 


436  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

God!"  No,  no!  I  am  used  to  examine  circumstances,  to  weigh  evi- 
dence, and  I  do  firmly  believe  that  she  died  by  the  murderous  hand 
of  man!  that  she  was  killed  and  murdered!  It  was  wisely  said  by  Mr. 
Fox,  that  when  some  grievous  crime  is  perpetrated  in  a  civilized  com- 
munity, we  are  consoled  by  finding  in  all  breasts  a  sympathy  with  the 
victim,  and  an  approval  of  the  punishment  by  which  the  wrong-doer 
expiates  his  offence.  But  in  the  West  Indies  there  is  no  such  solace 
to  the  mind — there  all  the  feelings  flow  in  a  wrong  course — perverse, 
preposterous,  unnatural — the  hatred  is  for  the  victim,  the  sympathy 
for  the  tormentor!  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  proof  of  it  in  this  dreadful 
case.  The  Mosses  were  condemned  by  an  iniquitous  sentence;  for  it 
was  only  to  a  small  fine  and  five  month's  imprisonment.  The  public 
indignation  followed  the  transaction;  but  it  was  indignation  against 
the  punishment,  not  the  crime;  and  against  the  severity,  not  the  lenity 
of  the  infliction.  The  Governor,  a  British  officer — and  I  will  name 
him  to  rescue  others  from  the  blame — General  Grant — tells  us  in  his 
despatch,  that  "  he  had  been  applied  to  by  the  most  respectable  inhabi- 
tants to  remit  the  sentence;"  that  "he  loses  no  time  in  applying  to 
Lord  Bathurst  to  authorize  the  remission."  He  speaks  of  "  the  unfor- 
tunate Henry  and  Helen  Moss;"  says,  "  they  are  rather  to  be  pitied  for 
the  untoward  melancholy  occurrence,"  (as  if  he  were  talking  of  some 
great  naval  victory  over  the  Turk,  instead  of  a  savage  murder,)  and 
that  "he  hastens  to  prevent  the  impression,  which  the  mention  of  the 
case  might  make  on  his  lordship's  mind."  In  a  second  despatch,  he 
earnestly  renews  the  application;  describes  "the  respectability  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Moss,  their  general  kindness  to  their  slaves,  the  high  estima- 
tion in  which  they  are  held  by  all  who  have  partaken  of  their  hospi- 
tality;" tells  us  that  "they  have  always  been  favourably  spoken  of  in 
every  respect,  including  that  of  slave  management;"  states  his  own 
anxiety  that  "persons  of  their  respectability  should  be  spared  from 
imprisonment;"  and  that  at  any  rate  "the  mulct  should  be  relinquished, 
lest  they  should  be  thought  cruel  and  oppressive  beyond  others,  and 
also  in  order  to  remove  in  some  degree  the  impression  of  their  being 
habitually  and  studiously  cruel;"  and  he  adds  a  fact,  which  speaks 
volumes,  and  may  well  shut  all  mouths  that  now  cry  aloud  for  leaving 
such  things  to  the  assemblies  of  the  islands — "notwithstanding  their 
being  in  gaol,  they  are  visited  by  the  most  respectable  persons  in  the 
place,  and  by  all  who  knew  them  before."  The  Governor  who  thus 
thinks  and  thus  writes,  has  been  removed  from  that  settlement;  but 
only,  I  say  it  with  grief,  to  be  made  the  ruler  of  a  far  more  important 
colony.  From  the  Bahamas  he  has  been  promoted  to  Trinidad — that 
great  island,  which  Mr.  Canning  described  as  about  to  be  made  the 
model,  by  the  Crown,  for  all  Slave  colonies.  Over  such  a  colony  was 
he  sent  to  preside,  who,  having  tasted  of  the  hospitality  of  the  Mosses, 
could  discern  in  their  treatment  of  their  slaves,  nothing  out  of  the  fair, 
ordinary  course  of  humane  management. 

From  contemplating  the  horrors  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  it  is 
impossible  that  we  can  avoid  the  transition  to  that  infernal  traffic, 
alike  the  scourge  of  Africa  and  America,  the  disgrace  of  the  old  world 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  437 

and  the  curse  of  the  new,  from  which  so  much  wretchedness  has 
flowed.  It  is  most  shocking  to  reflect  that  its  ravages  are  still  abroad, 
desolating  the  earth.  I  do  not  rate  the  importation  into  the  Brazils 
too  high,  when  I  put  it  at  100,000  during  the  last  twelve  months. 
Gracious  God!  When  we  recollect  that  the  number  of  seventy-three 
capital  punishments,  among  which  are  but  two  or  three  for  murder,  in 
a  population  of  twelve  millions,  excites  our  just  horror  in  England, 
wliat  shall  we  say  of  100,000  capital  crimes,  committed  by  a  handful 
of  desperate  men,  every  one  of  which  involves  and  implies  rapine, 
fraud,  murder,  torture,  in  frightful  abundance?  And  yet  we  must 
stand  by  and  see  such  enormities  perpetrated  without  making  any 
remonstrance,  or  even  urging  any  representation !  I3y  the  treaty  with 
Portugal,  it  is  true,  no  such  crimes  can  henceforth  be  repeated,  for 
this  year  the  traffic  is  to  cease,  and  the  mutual  right  of  search  is  given 
to  the  vessels  of  both  nations,  the  only  possible  security  for  the  aboli- 
tion being  effectual.  But  there  is  another  country  nearer  to  us  in 
position,  and  in  habits  of  intercourse  more  familiar,  one  of  far  more 
importance  for  the  authority  of  its  example,  in  which  the  Slave  Trade 
still  flourishes  in  most  portentous  vigour,  although  denounced  by  the 
law,  and  visited  by  infamous  punishment;  the  dominions  of  the 
monarch  who  calls  himself  "  Most  Christian,"  and  refuses  the  only 
measure  that  can  put  such  wholesale  iniquity  down.  There  it  must 
thrive  as  long  as  groundless  national  jealousies  prevent  the  right  of 
search  from  being  mutually  conceded.  Let  us  hope  that  so  foul  a 
stain  on  the  character  of  so  great  a  nation  will  soon  be  wiped  away; 
that  the  people  who  now  take  the  lead  of  all  others  in  the  march  of 
liberty,  will  cast  far  from  their  camp  this  unclean  thing, — by  all  lovers 
of  freedom  most  abhorred.  I  have  heard  with  amazement  some 
thoughtless  men  say,  that  the  French  cannot  enjoy  liberty,  because 
they  are  unused  to  it.  I  protest  before  God  I  could  point  to  no  nation 
more  worthy  of  freedom;  or  which  knows  better  how  to  use  it,  how 
to  gain  it,  how  to  defend  it.  I  turn  with  a  grateful  heart  to  contem- 
plate the  glorious  spectacle  now  exhibited  in  France  of  patriotism,  of 
undaunted  devotion  to  liberty,  of  firm  yet  temperate  resistance  to  arbi- 
trary power.  It  is  animating  to  every  beholder;  it  is  encouraging  to 
all  freemen  in  every  part  of  the  world.  I  earnestly  hope  that  it  may 
not  be  lost  on  the  Bourbon  monarch  and  his  councillors;  for  the  sake 
of  France  and  of  England,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  for  the  sake  of  the 
Bourbon  princes  themselves,  I  pray  that  they  may  be  wise  in  time, 
and  yield  to  the  wish,  the  determination  of  vheir  people;  I  pray,  that, 
bending  before  the  coining  breeze,  the  gathering  storm  may  not  sweep 
them  away!  But  of  one  thing  I  would  warn  that  devoted  race,  let 
them  not  Hatter  themselves  that  by  trampling  upon  liberty  in  France, 
they  can  escape  either  the  abhorrence  of  man  or  the  Divine  wrath  for 
the  execrable  trallic  in  slaves,  carried  on  under  their  flag,  and  flourish- 
ing under  their  sway  in  America.  I  will  tell  their  ghostly  councillors, 
in  the  language  of  a  book  with  which  they  ought  to  be  familiar — 
"  Behold,  obedience  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken  than  the 
fat  of  rams.''  To  what  should  they  lend  an  ear?  To  the  commands 

37* 


438  NEGRO  SLAVERY. 

of  a  God  who  loves  merey,  and  will  punish  injustice,  and  abhors 
blood,  and  will  surely  avenge  it  upon  their  heads;  nothing  the  less 
because  their  patronage  of  slavery  in  distant  climes  is  matched  by 
their  hatred  of  liberty  at  home.  Sir,  I  have  done.  I  trust  that  at 
length  the  time  is  come  when  Parliament  will  no  longer  bear  to  be 
told,  that  slave-owners  are  the  best  law-givers  on  slavery;  no  longer 
allow  an  appeal  from  the  British  public,  to  such  communities  as  those 
in  which  the  Smiths  and  the  Grimsdalls  are  persecuted  to  death,  for 
teaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Negroes;  and  the  Mosses  ho  I  den  in  affec- 
tionate respect  for  torture  and  murder:  no  longer  suffer  our  voice  to 
roll  across  the  Atlantic  in  empty  warnings,  and  fruitless  orders.  Tell 
me  not  of  rights — talk  not  of  the  property  of  the  planter  in  his  slaves. 
I  deny  the  right — I  acknowledge  not  the  property.  The  principles, 
the  feelings  of  our  common  nature,  rise  in  rebellion  against  it.  Be  the 
appeal  made  to  the  understanding  or  to  the  heart,  the  sentence  is  the 
same  that  rejects  it.  In  vain  you  tell  me  of  laws  that  sanction  such  a 
claim!  There  is  a  law  above  all  the  enactments  of  human  codes — the 
same  throughout  the  world,  the  same  in  all  times — such  as  it  was 
before  the  daring  genius  of  Columbus  pierced  the  night  of  ages,  and 
opened  to  one  world  the  sources  of  power,  wealth  and  knowledge;  to 
another,  all  unutterable  woes; — such  as  it  is  at  this  day:  it  is  the  law 
written  by  the  finger  of  God  on  the  heart  of  man;  and  by  that  law, 
unchangeable  and  eternal,  while  men  despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine, 
and  abhor  blood,  they  will  reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty 
phantasy,  that  'man  can  hold  property  in  man!  In  vain  you  appeal 
to  treaties,  to  covenants  between  nations:  the  covenants  of  the  Al- 
mighty, whether  the  Old  covenant  or  the  New,  denounce  such  unholy 
pretensions.  To  those  laws  did  they  of  old  refer  who  maintained  the 
African  trade.  Such  treaties  did  they  cite,  and  not  untruly;  for  by 
one  shameful  compact  you  bartered  the  glories  of  Blenheim  for  the 
traffic  in  blood.  Yet,  in  despite  of  law  and  of  treaty,  that  infernal 
traffic  is  now  destroyed,  and  its  votaries  put  to  death  like  other  pirates. 
How  came  this  change  to  pass?  Not,  assuredly,  by  Parliament  lead- 
ing the  way;  but  the  country  at  length  awoke;  the  indignation  of  the 
people  was  kindled;  it  descended  in  thunder,  and  smote  the  traffic, 
and  scattered  its  guilty  profits  to  the  winds.  Now,  then,  let  the  plant- 
ers beware — let  their  assemblies  beware — let  the  government  at  home 
beware — let  the  Parliament  beware!  The  same  country  is  once  more 
awake, —  awake  to  the  condition  of  Negro  slavery;  the  same  indigna- 
tion kindles  in  the  bosom  of  the  same  people;  the  same  cloud  is  gather- 
ing that  annihilated  the  Slave  Trade;  and,  if  it  shall  descend  again, 
they,  on  whom  its  crash  may  fall,  will  not  be  destroyed  before  I  have 
warned  them;  but  I  pray  that  their  destruction  may  turn  away  from 
us  the  more  terrible  judgments  of  God!  I  therefore  move  you,  "  That 
this  House  do  resolve,  at  the  earliest  practicable  period  of  the  next  ses- 
sion, to  take  into  its  serious  consideration  the  state  of  the  slaves  in  the 
Colonies  of  Great  Britain,  in  order  to  the  mitigation  and  final  abolition 
of  their  slavery,  and  more  especially  in  order  to  the  amendment  of 
the  administration  of  justice  within  the  same." 


SPEECH 


THE     SLAVE     TRADE 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS, 
JANUARY  29,  1S3S. 


DEDICATION. 

TO 

RICHARD   MARQUESS  WELLESLEY,  K.  G. 

ETC.  ETC.  ETC. 

I.v  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  friends  of  the  abolition,  I  have  revised  the 
report  of  this  speech,  in  order  that  the  facts  which  I  yesterday  brought  before  Par- 
liament, and  which  all  admitted  to  be  truly  stated,  nay,  to  have  been  rather  under- 
stated than  exaggerated,  may  be  made  known  through  the  country.  I  believe  these 
pages  contain,  as  nearly  as  it  is  possible,  what  I  spoke  in  my  place. 

To  your  lordship  they  are  inscribed  with  peculiar  propriety,  because  you  are  one 
of  the  oldest  and  most  staunch  friends  of  this  great  question,  and  because  your  ani- 
mated descriptions  of  the  Parliamentary  struggles  in  its  behalf,  at  which  you  have 
assisted,  and  of  the  eloquence  of  other  times  which  it  called  forth,  have  formed  one 
of  the  most  interesting  of  the  many  conversations  we  have  had  upon  the  scenes  of 
your  earlier  life.  My  own  recollections  do  not  reach  so  Air  back;  but  1  have  now 
been  a  zealous,  though  humble  labourer,  in  the  same  cause  upwards  of  six-and- 
thirty  years;  and  it  is  truly  melancholy  to  reflect  that  the  Slave  Trade  still  desolates 
Africa,  while  it  disgraces  the  civilized  world,  hardly  covering  with  less  shame  those 
who  suffer,  than  those  who  perpetrate  the  mormons  crime.  May  we  hope  that  at 
length  the  object  of  our  wishes  is  about  to  be  attained! 

Tills  dedication  is^lfen-d  without  your  permission  having  been  asked.  It  gives 
me  an  opportunity  oT  faintly  expressing  that  admiration  of  your  truly  statesman-like 
jjfMiim  which  all  your  countrymen  feel  who  have  marked  your  illustrious  career  in 
Kurope  as  well  as  Asia;  and  that  gratitude  for  your  past  services  which  in  the  public 
mind  never  can  exceed  the  affection  of  your  private  friends. 

Hut  I  will  confess  that  another  motive  contributes  to  this  intrusion  upon  your 
retirement.  During  the  years  that  tho  controversy  has  lasted,  I  have  written  and 
published  many  rolurncs  upon  it;  this  is  the  first  page  to  which  I  have  set  my 
name;  and  I  naturally  f'<  el  desirous  that  it  should  have  the  advantage  of  appearing 
in  company  with  one  so  incomparably  more  eminent. 

BROl'tiHAM. 

January  30,  183H. 


SPEECH, 


MY  LORDS, — I  hold  in  my  hand  a  petition  from  a  numerous  and 
most  respectable  body  of  your  fellow-citizens — the  inhabitants  of 
Leeds.  Between  16  and  17,000  of  them  have  signed  it,  and  on  the 
part  of  the  other  inhabitants  of  that  great  and  flourishing  community, 
as  well  as  of  the  country  at  large  in  which  it  is  situated,  I  can  affirm 
with  confidence  that  their  statements  and  their  prayer  are  those  of  the 
whole  province  whose  people  I  am  proud  to  call  my  friends,  as  it  was 
once  the  pride  of  my  life  to  represent  them  in  Parliament.  They  re- 
mind your  lordships  that  between  eighteen  and  nineteen  millions  have 
been  already  paid,  and  the  residue  of  the  twenty  millions  is  in  a  course 
of  payment  to  the  holders  of  slaves  for  some  loss  which  it  was  sup- 
posed their  property  would  sustain  by  the  emancipation  act;  whereas, 
instead  of  a  loss  they  have  received  a  positive  gain;  their  yearly  re- 
venues are  increased,  and  the  value  of  their  estates  has  risen  in  the 
market.  Have  not  these  petitioners — have  not  the  people  of  England 
a  right  to  state,  that  but  for  the  firm  belief  into  which  a  generous 
Parliament  and  a  confiding  country  were  drawn,  that  the  bill  of  1833 
would  occasion  a  loss  to  the  planter,  not  one  million,  or  one  pound,  or 
one  penny  of  this  enormous  sum  would  ever  have  been  granted  to  the 
owners  of  the  slaves?  When  it  is  found  that  all  this  money  has  been 
paid  for  nothing,  have  we  not  an  equal  right  to  require  that  whatever 
can  be  done  on  the  part  of  the  planters  to  further  a  measure  which 
has  already  been  so  gainful  to  them,  shall  be  performed  without  delay? 
Have  we  riot  an  undeniable  right  to  expect  for  the  sake,  not  more  of 
humanity  towards  the  Negroes,  than  of  strict  justice  to  those  whose 
money  was  so  paid  for  nothing,  under  a  mere  error  in  fact,  that  we, 
who  paid  the  money,  shall  obtain  some  compensation  ?  And  as 
all  we  ask  is,  not  a  return  of  it,  not  to  have  the  sums  paid  under  mis- 
take refunded,  but  only  the  bargain  carried  into  full  effect,  when  the 
Colonial  Legislature  refuse  to  perform  their  part,  are  we  not  well 
entitled  to  compel  them?  In  a  word,  have  not  the  people  of  England 
a  right  to  demand  that  the  slavery  which  still  exists  under  the  name 
of  Indentured  Apprenticeship,  shall  forthwith  cease,  all  pretext  for 
continuing  it,  from  the  alleged  risk  of  the  sudden  change  or  the  Ne- 
gro's incapacity  of  voluntary  labour,  having  been  triumphantly  de- 
stroyed by  the  universal  and  notorious  fact  of  the  experiment  of  total 
emancipation  having  succeeded  wherever  it  has  been  tried,  and  of  the 
Negro  working  cheerfully  and  profitably  where  he  has  been  continued 
an  apprentice?  In  presenting  this  petition  from  Yorkshire,  and  these 
thirteen  others  from  various  parts  of  the  country,  I  have  the  honour 
of  giving  notice,  that  as  soon  as  the  unfortunate  and  pressing  question 
of  Canada  shall  have  been  disposed  of  by  the  passing  or  the  rejection 
of  the  bill  expected  from  the  Commons,  that  is,  in  about  a  week  or 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  441 

ten  days,  I  shall  submit  a  motion  to  your  lordships  with  the  view  of 
enabling  you  to  comply  with  the  earnest  prayer  of  your  countrymen, 
by  fixing  the  period  of  complete  emancipation  on  the  first  of  August 
in  this  year,  instead  of  18-10. 

But,  my  lords,  while  I  thus  express  my  entire  concurrence  in  the 
sentiments  of  these  petitions,  and  of  the  various  others  which  I  have 
presented  upon  this  subject,  I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  that  there  is 
a  very  material  difference  between  the  subject  of  their  complaint  and 
of  the  complaint  which  I  made  at  our  last  meeting  respecting  the  con- 
tinuance not  of  slavery  but  the  Slave  Trade,  which  I  cannot  delay  for 
a  single  hour  bringing  before  Parliament.  The  grievance  set  forth 
in  the  petitions,  is,  that  the  Emancipation  act  according  to  some  did 
not  go  far  enough  and  fast  enough  to  its  purpose — that  while  some 
hold  it  to  have  stopped  short,  in  not  at  once  and  effectually  wiping 
out  the  foul  stain  of  slavery,  others  complain  of  our  expectations 
having  been  frustrated  in  the  working  of  the  measure  by  the  planters 
and  the  local  authorities — that  enough  has  not  been  done,  nor  with 
sufficient  celerity  to  relieve  the  unhappy  slave  of  his  burden — never- 
theless all  admit  that  whatever  has  been  effected  has  been  done  in  the 
right  direction.  The  objections  made  are  upon  the  degree,  not  upon 
the  nature  of  the  proceedings.  It  is  that  too  little  relief  has  been  given 
to  the  slave — that  too  late  a  day  has  been  assigned  for  his  final  libera- 
tion— that  he  still  suffers  more  than  he  ought:  it  is  not  that  we  have 
made  slavery  more  universal,  more  burthensome,  or  more  bitter.  But 
what  would  have  been  said  by  the  English  people — in  what  accents 
would  they  have  appealed  to  this  House — if  instead  of  finding  that  the 
goal  we  aimed  at  was  not  reached — that  the  chains  we  had  hoped  to 
see  loosened  still  galled  the  limbs — that  the  burthen  we  had  desired  to 
lighten  still  pressed  the  slave  to  the  earth — it  had  been  found  that  the 
curse  and  the  crime  of  human  bondage  had  extended  to  regions  which 
it  never  before  had  blighted — that  the  burthen  was  become  heavier 
and  more  unbearable — that  the  fetters  galled  the  victim's  limbs  more 
cruelly  than  ever — what,  I  ask,  would  then  have  been  the  language  of 
your  petitioners?  What  the  sensation  spread  through  the  country? 
What  the  cry  of  rage,  echoing  from  every  corner  of  its  extent,  to 
charge  us  with  mingled  hypocrisy  and  cruelty,  should  we  allow  an 
hour  to  pass  without  rooting  out  the  monstrous  evil?  I  will  venture 
to  assert  that  there  would  have  burst  universally  from  the  whole  peo- 
ple an  indignant  outcry  to  sweep  away  in  a  moment  every  vestige  of 
slavery,  under  whatever  name  it  might  lurk, and  whatever  disguise  it 
might  assume;  and  the  Negro  at  once  would  have  been  a  free  man. 
Now  this  is  the  very  charge  which  I  am  here  to  make,  and  prepared 
to  support  with  proof,  against  the  course  pursued  with  a  view  to  ex- 
tinguish the  Slave  Trade.  That  accursed  traffic,  long  since  condemned 
by  the  unanimous  voice  of  all  the  rational  world,  flourishes  under  tin; 
very  expedients  adopted  to  crush  it:  and  increases  in  consequence  of 
those  very  measures  resorted  to  for  its  extinction.  Yos,  my  lords,  it 
is  my  painful  duty  to  show  what,  without  suffering  severely,  it  is  not 
possible  to  contemplate,  far  less  to  recite,  but  what  I  cannot  lay  my 


442  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

head  once  more  on  my  pillow  without  denouncing,  that  at  this  hour, 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  means  used  to  extirpate  it,  this  infernal 
traffic  becomes  armed  with  new  horrors,  and  continues  to  tear  out, 
year  after  year,  the  very  bowels  of  the  great  African  continent — that 
scene  of  the  greatest  sufferings  which  have  ever  scourged  humanity — 
the  worst  of  all  the  crimes  ever  perpetrated  by  man! 

When  the  act  for  abolishing  the  British  slave  trade  passed  in  1807, 
and  when  the  Americans  performed  the  same  act  of  justice  by  abolish- 
ing their  traffic  in  1806,  the  earliest  moment,  it  must  to  their  honour 
be  observed,  that  the  Federal  constitution  allowed  this  step  to  be  taken; 
and  when,  at  a  later  period,  treaties  were  made,  with  a  view  to  extin- 
guish the  traffic  carried  on  by  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  the  plan 
was  in  an  evil  hour  adopted  which  up  to  the  present  time  has  been  in 
operation.  The  right  of  search  and  seizure  was  confined  to  certain 
vessels  in  the  service  of  the  state,  and  there  was  held  out  as  an  induce- 
ment to  quicken  the  activity  of  their  officers  and  crews,  a  promise  of 
head-money, — that  is,  of  so  much  to  be  paid  for  each  slave  on  board 
the  captured  ship,  over  and  above  the  proceeds  of  its  sale  upon  con- 
demnation. The  prize  was  to  be  brought  in  and  proceeded  against; 
the  slaves  were  to  be  liberated;  the  ship,  with  her  tackle  arid  cargo, 
to  be  sold,  and  the  price  distributed;  but  beside  this,  the  sum  of  five 
pounds  for  each  slave  taken  on  board  was  to  be  distributed  among 
the  captors.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  intention  was  excellent;  it 
must  further  be  allowed,  that  at  first  sight  the  inducement  held  out 
seemed  likely  to  work  well,  by  exciting  the  zeal  and  rousing  the  cou- 
rage of  the  crews  against  those  desperate  miscreants  who  defiled  and 
desecrated  the  great  highway  of  nations  with  their  complicated  occu- 
pation of  piracy  and  murder.  I  grant  it  is  far  easier  to  judge  after  the 
event.  Nevertheless,  a  little  reflection  might  have  sufficed  to  show 
that  there  was  a  vice  essentially  inherent  in  the  scheme,  and  that  by 
allotting  the  chief  part  of  the  premium  for  the  capture  of  slaves,  and 
not  of  slave-ships,  an  inducement  was  held  out,-  not  to  prevent  the 
principal  part  of  the  crime,  the  shipping  of  the  Negroes,  from  being 
committed,  but  rather  to  suffer  tins  in  order  that  the  head-money 
might  be  gained  when  the  vessel  should  be  captured  with  that  on 
board  which  we  must  still  insult  all  lawful  commerce  by  calling  the 
cargo — that  is,  the  wretched  victims  of  avarice  and  cruelty,  who  had 
been  torn  from  their  country,  and  carried  to  the  loathsome  hold.  The 
tendency  of  this  is  quite  undeniable;  and  equally  so  is  its  complete 
inconsistency  with  the  whole  purpose  in  view,  and  indeed  the  grounds 
upon  which  the  plan  itself  is  formed;  for  it  assumes  that  the  head- 
money  will  prove  an  inducement  to  the  cruisers,  and  quicken  their 
activity;  it  assumes  therefore,  that  they  will  act  so  as  to  obtain  the 
premium;  and  yet  the  object  in  view  is  to  prevent  any  slaves  from 
being  embarked,  and  consequently  anything  being  done  which  can 
entitle  the  cruiser  to  any  head-money  at  all.  The  cruiser  is  told  to 
put  down  the  slave  trade,  and  the  reward  held  out  is  proportioned  to 
the  height  which  that  trade  is  suffered  to  reach  before  it  is  put  down. 
The  plan  assumes  that  he  requires  this  stimulus  to  make  him  prevent 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  443 

the  offence;  and  the  stimulus  is  applied  only  after  the  offence  has  been 
in  great  part  committed.  The  tendency,  then,  of  this  most  preposter- 
ous arrangement  cannot  be  questioned  for  a  moment;  but  now  see  how 
it  really  works. 

The  slave  vessel  is  fitted  out  and  sails  from  her  port,  with  all  the 
accommodations  that  distinguish  such  criminal  adventures,  and  with 
the  accustomed  equipment  of  chains  and  fetters,  to  torture  and  restrain 
the  slaves — the  investment  of  trinkets  wherewith  civilized  men  decoy 
savages  to  make  war  on  one  another,  and  to  sell  those  nearest  to  them 
in  blood — with  the  stock  of  muskets  too,  prepared  by  Christians  for  the 
trade,  and  sold  at  sixteen  pence  a-piece,  but  not  made  to  fire  above 
once  or  twice  without  bursting  in  the  hand  of  the  poor  Negro,  whom 
they  have  tempted  to  plunder  his  neighbour  or  to  sell  his  child.  If  taken 
on  lier  way  to  the  African  coast,  she  bears  internal  evidence,  amply 
sufficient,  to  convict  her  of  a  slave  trading  destination.  I  will  not  say 
that  the  cruisers  having  visited  and  inspected  her,  would  suffer  her  to 
pass  onward.  I  will  not  impute  to  gallant  and  honourable  men  a 
breach  of  duty,  by  asserting,  that  knowing  a  ship  to  have  a  guilty  pur- 
pose, and  aware  that  they  had  the  power  of  proving  this,  they  would 
voluntarily  permit  her  to  accomplish  it.  I  will  not  even  suggest  that 
vessels  are  less  closely  watched  on  their  route  towards  the  coast  than 
on  their  return  from  it.  But  I  must  at  least  affirm,  without  any  fear 
of  being  contradicted,  that  the  policy  which  holds  out  a  reward,  not  to 
the  cruiser  who  stops  such  a  ship  and  interrupts  her  on  the  way  to  the 
scene  of  her  crimes,  but  to  the  cruiser  who  seizes  her  on  her  way  back 
when  full  of  slaves,  gives  and  professes  to  give  the  cruiser  an  interest 
in  letting  her  reach  Africa,  take  in  her  cargo  of  slaves,  and  sail  for 
America.  Moreover,  I  may  also  affirm  with  perfect  safety,  that  this 
policy  is  grounded  upon  the  assumption  that  the  cruiser  will  be  influ- 
enced by  the  hope  of  the  reward,  in  performing  the  service,  else  what 
earthly  use  can  it  be  to  offer  it?  and  consequently  I  am  entitled  to  con- 
clude, that  the  offering  this  reward,  assumes  that  the  cruiser  cares  for 
the  reward,  and  will  let  the  slaver  pass  on  unless  she  is  laden  with 
slaves.  If  this  does  not  always  happen,  it  is  very  certainly  no  fault 
of  the  policy  which  is  framed  upon  such  a  preposterous  principle.  But 
I  am  not  about  to  argue  that  any  such  consequences  actually  take 
place.  It  may  or  it  may  not  be  so  in  the  result;  but  the  tendency  of 
the  system  is  plain.  The  fact  I  stop  not  to  examine.  I  have  other 
facts  to  state  about  which  no  doubt  exists  at  all.  The  statements  of 
my  excellent  friend,  Mr.  Laird,  who,  with  his  worthy  coadjutor,  Mr. 
Oldfield,  has  recently  returned  from  Africa,  are  before  the  world,  and 
there  has  been  no  attempt  made  to  contradict  them.  Those  gallant 
men  are  the  survivors  of  an  expedition  full  of  hardships  and  perils,  to 
which,  among  many  others,  the  learned  and  amiable  Dr.  Briggs,  of 
Liverpool,  unhappily  fell  a  sacrifice— an  irreparable  loss  to  humanity 
as  well  as  science. 

It  appears  that  the  course  pursued  on  the  coast  is  this, — The  cruiser 
stationed  there  to  prevent  the  slave  trade,  carefully  avoids  going  near 
the  harbour  or  the  creek  where  the  slavers  are  lying.  If  she  comes 


444  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

within  sight,  the  slaver  would  not  venture  to  put  his  cargo  on  board 
and  sail.  Therefore  she  stands  out,  just  so  far  as  to  command  a  view 
of  the  port  from  the  mast-head,  but  herself  quite  out  of  sight.  The 
slaver  believes  the  coast  is  clear;  accomplishes  his  crime  of  shipping 
the  cargo,  and  attempts  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  Now,  whether  he  suc- 
ceeds in  gaining  the  opposite  shore,  or  is  taken  and  condemned,  let  us 
see  what  the  effect  of  the  system  is  first  of  all,  in  the  vessel's  construc- 
tion and  accommodation — that  is,  in  the  comforts,  if  such  a  word  can  be 
used  in  connection  with  the  hull  of  a  slave-ship — or  the  torments  rather 
prepared  for  her  unhappy  inmates.  Let  us  see  how  the  unavoidable 
miseries  of  the  middle  passage  are  exasperated  by  the  contraband 
nature  of  the  adventure — how  the  unavoidable  mischief  is  needlessly 
aggravated  by  the  very  means  taken  to  extirpate  it.  The  great  object 
being  to  escape  our  cruisers,  every  other  consideration  is  sacrificed  to 
swiftness  of  sailing  in  the  construction  of  the  slave-ships.  I  am  not 
saying  that  humanity  L  sacrificed.  I  should  of  course  be  laughed  to 
scorn  by  all  who  are  implicated  in  the  African  traffic,  were  I  to  use 
such  a  word  in  any  connection  with  it.  But  all  other  considerations 
respecting  the  vessel  herself  are  sacrificed  to  swiftness,  and  she  is  built 
so  narrow  as  to  put  her  safety  in  peril,  being  made  just  broad  enough 
on  the  beam  to  keep  the  sea.  What  is  the  result  to  the  wretched 
slaves?  Before  the  trade  was  put  down  by  us  in  1807,  they  had  the 
benefit  of  what  was  termed  the  Slave  Carrying  Act.  During  the 
twenty  years  that  we  spent  in  examining  the  details  of  the  question — 
in  ascertaining  whether  our  crimes  were  so  profitable  as  not  to  warrant 
us  in  leaving  them  off — in  debating  whether  robbery,  piracy,  and  mur- 
der should  be  prohibited  by  law,  or  receive  protection  and  encourage- 
ment from  the  State — we,  at  least,  were  considerate  enough  to  regulate 
the  perpetration  of  them;  and  while  those  curious  and  very  creditable 
discussions  were  going  on,  Sir  William  Dolben's  Bill  gave  the  unhappy 
victims  of  our  cruelty  and  iniquity  the  benefit  of  a  certain  space 
between  decks,  in  which  they  might  breathe  the  tainted  air  more  freely, 
and  a  certain  supply  of  provisions  and  of  water  to  sustain  their  wretched 
existence.  But  now  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind;  and  the  slave  is  in 
the  same  situation  in  which  our  first  debates  found  him  above  half  a 
century  ago,  when  the  venerable  Thomas  Clarkson  awakened  the 
attention  of  the  world  to  his  sufferings.  The  scantiest  portion  which 
will  support  life  is  alone  provided;  and  the  wretched  Africans  are  com- 
pressed and  stowed  into  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  ship,  as  if  they 
were  dead  goods  concealed  on  board  smuggling  vessels.  I  may  be 
thought  to  have  said  enough;  but  I  may  not  stop  here.  Far  more 
remains  to  tell;  and  I  approach  the  darker  part  of  the  subject  with  a 
feeling  of  horror  and  disgust,  which  I  cannot  describe,  and  which  three 
or  four  days  gazing  at  the  picture  has  not  been  able  to  subdue.  But 
I  go  through  the  painful  duty  in  the  hope  of  inducing  your  lordships 
at  once  to  pronounce  the  doom  of  that  system  which  fosters  all  that 
you  are  about  to  contemplate. 

Let  me  first  remind  you  of  the  analogy  which  this  head-money  sys- 
tem bears  to  what  was  nearer  home,  called  blood-money.     That  it 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  445 

produces  all  the  effects  of  the  latter,  I  am  certainly  prepared  to  affirm; 
for  the  giving  a  reward  to  informers  on  capital  conviction  had  the 
effect  of  engendering  conspiracies  to  prosecute  innocent  men,  as  well 
as  to  prevent  the  guilty  from  being  stopt  in  their  career,  until  their 
crimes  had  ripened  into  capital  offences;  and  I  have  no  conception  that 
any  attempts  can  be  made  to  capture  vessels  not  engaged  in  the  trade 
— nor  indeed  could  the  head-money,  from  the  nature  of  the  thing,  be 
obtained  by  any  such  means.  But  in  the  other  part  of  the  case  the 
two  things  are  precisely  parallel,  have  the  self-same  tendency,  and  pro- 
duce the  same  effects;  for  they  both  appeal  to  the  same  feelings  and 
motives,  putting  in  motion  the  same  springs  of  human  action.  Under 
the  old  bounty  system  no  policeman  had  an  interest  in  detecting  and 
checking  guilt  until  it  reached  a  certain  pitch  of  depravity,  until  the 
offences  became  capital,  and  their  prosecutor  could  earn  forty  pounds, 
they  were  not  worth  attending  to.  The  cant  expression,  but  the  sig- 
nificant one,  is  well  known.  "He  (the  criminal)  is  not  yet  weight 
enough — he  does  not  weigh  his  forty  pounds" — was  the  saying  of 
those  who  cruised  for  head-money  at  the  Old  Bailey.  And  thus  lesser 
crimes  were  connived  at  by  some — encouraged,  nurtured,  fostered  in. 
their  growth  by  others — that  they  might  attain  the  maturity  which  the 
law  had  in  its  justice  and  wisdom  said  they  must  reach  before  it  should 
be  worih  any  one's  while  to  stop  the  course  of  guilt.  Left  to  itself, 
wickedness  could  scarcely  fail  to  shoot  up  and  ripen.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  that  time  come,  the  policeman  pounced  upon  his  appointed  prey, 
made  his  victim  pay  the  penalty  of  the  crime  he  had  suffered,  if  not 
encouraged  him  to  commit,  and  himself  obtained  the  reward  provided 
by  the  state  for  the  patrons  of  capital  felony.  Such  within  the  tropics 
is  the  tendency,  and  such  are  the  effects  of  our  head-money  system. 
The  slave  ship  gains  the  African  shores;  she  there  remains  unmolested 
by  the  land  authorities,  and  unvisited  by  the  sea;  the  human  cargo  is 
prepared  for  her;  the  ties  that  knit  relatives  together  are  forcibly 
severed;  all  the  resources  of  force  and  of  fraud,  of  sordid  avarice  and 
of  savage  intemperance,  are  exhausted  to  fill  the  human  market;  to 
prevent  all  this,  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing  is  attempted;  the  penalty 
has  not  as  yet  attached;  the  slaves  are  not  on  board,  and  head-money 
is  not  due;  the  vessel,  to  use  the  technical  phrase,  does  not  yet  weigh 
enough;  let  her  ride  at  anchor  till  she  reach  her  due  standard  of  five 
pounds  a  slave,  and  then  she  will  be  pursued !  Accordingly,  the  lading 
is  completed;  the  cruiser  keeps  out  of  sight;  and  the  pirate  puts  to  sea. 
And  now  begin  those  horrors — those  greater  horrors,  of  which  I  am 
to  speak,  and  which  are  the  necessary  consequences  of  the  whole  pro- 
ceeding, considering  with  what  kind  of  miscreants  our  cruisers  have 
to  deal. 

On  being  discovered,  perceiving  that  the  cruiser  is  giving  chase,  the 
slaver  has  to  determine  whether  he  will  endeavour  to  regain  the  port, 
escaping  for  the  moment,  and  waiting  for  a  more  favourable  opportu- 
nity, or  will  fare  across  ihe  Atlantic,  and  so  perfect  his  adventure,  and 
consummate  his  crime,  reaching  the  American  shores  with  a  part  at 
least  of  his  lading.  How  many  unutterable  horrors  are  embraced  in  tho 
VOL.  i. — 38 


446  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

word  that  has  slipt  my  tongue?  A  part  of  the  lading!  Yes — yes  — 
For  no  sooner  does  the  miscreant  find  that  the  cruiser  is  gaining  upon 
him,  than  he  bethinks  him  of  lightening  his  ship,  and  he  chooses  the 
heaviest  of  his  goods,  with  the  same  regard  for  them  as  if  they  were 
all  inanimate  lumber.  He  casts  overboard,  men  and  women  and 
children!  Does  he  first  knock  off  their  fetters?  No!  Why?  Because 
those  irons  by  which  they  have  been  held  together  in  couples,  for 
safety — but  not  more  to  secure  the  pirate  crew  against  revolt,  than  the 
cargo  against  suicide — to  prevent  the  Africans  from  seeking  in  a  watery 
grave  an  escape  from  their  sufferings — those  irons  are  not  screwed 
together  and  padlocked,  so  as  to  be  removed  in  case  of  danger  from 
tempest  or  from  fire — but  they  are  riveted — welded  together  by  the 
blacksmith  in  his  forge — never  to  be  removed,  nor  loosened,  until  after 
the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage,  the  children  of  misery  shall  be  landed 
to  bondage  in  the  civilized  world,  and  become  the  subjects  of  Christian 
kings!  The  irons,  too.  serve  the  purpose  of  weights;  and,  if  time  be 
allowed  in  the  hurry  of  the  flight,  more  weights  are  added,  to  the  end 
that  the  wretches  may  be  entangled,  to  prevent  their  swimming. 
Why?  Because  the  Negro,  with  that  herculean  strength  which  he  is 
endowed  withal,  and  those  powers  of  living  in  the  water  which  almost 
give  him  an  amphibious  nature,  might  survive  to  be  taken  up  by  the 
cruiser,  and  become  a  witness  against  the  murderer.  The  escape  of 
the  malefactor  is  thus  provided,  both  by  lightening  the  vessel  which 
bears  him  away,  and  by  destroying  the  evidence  of  his  crimes.  Nor 
is  this  all.  Instances  have  been  recorded  of  other  precautions  used 
with  the  same  purpose.  Water  casks  have  been  filled  with  human 
beings,  and  one  vessel  threw  twelve  overboard  thus  laden.  In  another 
chase,  two  slave  ships  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  make  their  escape, 
and,  my  blood  curdles  when  I  recite,  that,  in  the  attempt,  they  flung 
into  the  sea  five  hundred  human  beings,  of  all  ages,  and  of  either  sex! 
These  are  things  related — not  by  enthusiasts,  of  heated  imagination  — 
not  by  men  who  consult  only  the  feelings  of  humanity,  and  are  inspired 
to  speak  by  the  great  horror  and  unextinguishable  indignation  that  fill 
their  breasts— but  by  officers  on  duty,  men  engaged  professionally  in 
the  Queen's  service.  It  is  not  a  creation  of  fancy  to  add,  as  these  have 
done,  to  the  hideous  tale,  that  the  ravenous  animals  of  the  deep 
are  aware  of  their  prey;  when  the  slave  ship  makes  sail,  the  shark 
follows  in  her  wake,  and  her  course  is  literally  to  be  tracked  through 
the  ocean  by  the  blood  of  the  murdered,  with  which  her  enormous 
crimes  stain  its  waters.  I  have  read  of  worse  than  even  this!  But  it 
will  not  be  believed!  I  have  examined  the  particulars  of  scenes  yet 
more  hideous,  while  transfixed  with  horror,  and  ashamed  of  the  human 
form  that  I  wore — scenes  so  dreadful  as  it  was  not  deemed  fit  to  lay 
bare  before  the  public  eye!  scenes  never  surpassed  in  all  that  history 
has  recorded  of  human  guilt  to  stain  her  pages,  in  all  that  poets  have 
conceived  to  harrow  up  the  soul!  scenes,  compared  with  which  the 
blood-stained  annals  of  Spain — cruel  and  sordid  Spain — have  regis- 
tered only  ordinary  tales  of  avarice  and  suffering — though  these  have 
won  for  her  an  unenvied  pre-eminence  of  infamy !  scenes  not  exceeded 


THE  SLAVE  TRADE.  447 

in  horror  by  the  forms  with  which  the  great  Tuscan  poet  peopled  the 
hell  of  his  fancy,  nor  by  the  dismal  tints  of  his  illustrious  countryman's 
pencil,  breathing  its  horrors  over  the  vaults  of  the  Sistine  chapel! 
Mortua  quin  etiatnjitngebat  corpora  vivis!  On  the  deck  and  in  the 
loathsome  hold  are  to  be  seen  the  living  chained  to  the  dead — the 
putrid  carcase  remaining  to  mock  the  survivor  with  a  spectacle  that  to 
him  presents  no  terrors — to  mock  him  with  the  spectacle  of  a  release 
which  he  envies!  Nay,  women  have  been  known  to  bring  forth  the 
miserable  fruit  of  the  womb  surrounded  by  the  dying  and  the  dead — 
the  decayed  corpses  of  their  fellow  victims. 

Am  I  asked  how  these  enormities  shall  be  prevented?  First  ask 
me,  to  what  I  ascribe  them?  and  then  my  answer  is  ready.  I  charge 
them  upon  the  system  of  head-money  which  I  have  described,  and  of 
whose  tendency  no  man  can  pretend  to  doubt.  Reward  men  for  pre- 
venting the  slaver's  voyage,  not  for  interrupting  it — for  saving  the 
Africans  from  the  slave  ship,  not  for  seizing  the  ship  after  it  has  re- 
ceived them;  and  then  the  inducement  will  be  applied  to  the  right 
place,  and  the  motive  will  be  suited  to  the  act  you  desire  to  have  per- 
formed. 

But  I  have  hitherto  been  speaking  of  the  intolerable  aggravation 
which  we  superadd  to  the  traffic.  Its  amount  is  another  thing.  Do 
all  our  efforts  materially  check  it?  Are  our  cruisers  always  success- 
ful? Are  all  flags  and  all  the  slavers  under  any  flag  subject  to  search 
and  liable  to  capture!  I  find  that  the  bulk  of  this  infernal  traffic  is 
still  undiminished;  that  though  many  slave  ships  may  be  seized,  many 
more  escape  and  reach  the  new  world;  and  that  the  numbers  still 
carried  thither  are  as  great  as  ever.  Of  this  sad  truth  the  evidence  is 
too  abundant  arid  too  conclusive.  The  premium  of  insurance  at  the 
Havana  is  no  higher  than  12£  percent,  to  cover  all  hazards.  Of 
this  4i  per  cent,  is  allowed  for  sea  risk  and  underwriter's  profits, 
leaving  but  8  for  the  chance  of  capture.  But  in  Rio  it  is  as  low  as 
11  per  cent.,  leaving  but  6$  for  risk  of  capture.  In  the  year  1835,  80 
slave  ships  sailed  from  the  Havana  alone;  and  I  have  a  list  of  the 
numbers  which  six  of  those  brought  back,  giving  an  average  of  about 
360:  so  that  about  28,000  were  brought  to  that  port  in  a  year.  In  the 
month  of  December  of  that  year,  between  4000  and  5000  were  safely 
landed  in  the  port  of  Rio,  the  capital  of  our  good  friend  and  ally,  the 
Emperor  of  Brazil.  It  is  frightful  to  think  of  the  numbers  carried 
over  by  some  of  these  ships.  One  transported  570,  and  another  no 
less  than  700  wretched  beings.  I  give  the  names  of  these  execrable 
vessels — the  Felicidad  and  the  Socorro.  Of  all  slave-traders,  the 
greatest — of  all  the  criminals  engaged  in  these  guilty  crimes,  the 
worst — are  the  Brazilians,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  Portuguese — the 
three  nations  with  whom  our  commerce  is  the  closest,  and  over  whom 
our  influence  is  the  most  commanding.  These  are  the  nations  with 
whom  we  (and  I  mean  France  as  well  as  ourselves)  go  on  in  linger- 
ing negotiation — in  quibbling  discussion — to  obtain  some  explanation 
of  some  article  in  a  feeble  inefficient  treaty,  or  some  extension  of  au 
ineffectual  right  of  search, — while  their  crimes  lay  all  Africa  waste, 


448  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

and  deluge  the  seas  with  the  blood  of  her  inhabitants.  Yet  if  a  com- 
mon and  less  guilty  pirate  dared  pollute  the  sea,  or  wave  his  black 
flag  over  its  waves,  let  him  be  of  what  nation  he  pleased  to  libel  by  as- 
suming its  name,  he  would  in  an  instant  be  made  to  pay  the  forfeit  of 
his  crimes.  It  was  not  always  so.  We  did  not  in  all  times,  nor  in 
every  cause,  so  shrink  from  our  duty  through  delicacy  or  through  fear. 
When  the  thrones  of  ancient  Europe  were  to  be  upheld,  or  their  royal 
occupants  to  be  restored,  or  the  threatened  privileges  of  the  aristocracy 
wanted  champions,  we  could  full  swiftly  advance  to  the  encounter, 
throw  ourselves  into  the  breach,  and  confront  alone  the  giant  arm  of 
republics  and  of  emperors  wielding  the  colossal  power  of  France. 
But  now  when  the  millions  of  Africa  look  up  to  us  for  help  —  when 
humanity  and  justice  are  our  only  clients  —  I  am  far  from  saying  that 
we  do  not  wish  them  well:  I  can  believe  that  if  a  word  could  give 
them  success  —  if  a  wave  of  the  hand  sufficed  to  end  the  fray  —  the 
word  would  be  pronounced  —  the  gesture  would  not  be  withholden; 
but  if  more  be  wanted,  —  if  some  exertion  is  required  —  if  some  risk 
must  be  run  in  the  cause  of  mercy  —  then  our  tongue  cleaves  to  the 
roof  of  our  mouth;  our  hand  falls  paralyzed;  we  pause  and  falter,  and 
blanch  and  quail  before  the  ancient  and  consecrated  monarchy  of 
Brazil,  the  awful  might  of  Portugal,  the  compact,  consolidated,  over- 
whelming power  of  Spain!  My  lords,  I  trust  —  I  expect  —  we  shall 
pause  and  falter,  and  blanch  and  quail  no  more!  Let  it  be  the  earliest, 
and  it  will  be  the  most  enduring  glory  of  the  new  reign,  to  extirpate 
at  length  this  execrable  traffic!  I  would  not  surround  our  young 
Queen's  throne  with  fortresses  and  troops,  or  establish  it  upon  the 
triumphs  of  arms  and  the  trophies  of  war  —  no,  not  I  ! 


Ov  ya£  xitfotj  it'Et^tora  -frjv  rtofav  ovSs   rtkii'flotj  tyto,  ov5    trti  •z'ovT'otf 
v  jjuavfoii  $govw*  aM,    iav  tbv  Ipbv  fei%t,afjibv,  x-  -t.  X«* 


I  would  build  her  renown  neither  upon  military  nor  yet  upon  naval 
greatness;  but  upon  rights  secured,  upon  liberties  extended,  humanity 
diffused,  justice  universally  promulged.  In  alliance  with  such  vir- 
tues as  these  I  would  have  her  name  descend  to  after  ages.  I  would 
have  it  commemorated  for  ever,  that  in  the  first  year  of  her  reign,  her 
throne  was  fortified,  and  her  crown  embellished,  by  the  proudest 
triumph  over  the  worst  of  crimes  —  the  greatest  triumph  mortal  ever 
won,  over  the  worst  crime  man  ever  committed  ! 

*  AHM.  IT!£i  ITE<}>. 


SPEECH 

ON  THE 

IMMEDIATE    EMANCIPATION 

OF  THE 

NEGRO     APPRENTICES. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS, 
FEBRUARY  20,  1838. 


DEDICATION. 

TO 

THE  MARQUESS  OF  SLIGO,  K.P. 

ETC.  ETC.  ETC. 
LATE    GOVERNOR    AND   CAPTAIN-GENERAL    OF    JAMAICA. 

THIS  speech  is  inscribed  with  peculiar  propriety  to  the  humane  and  virtuous 
Viceroy,  who,  himself  a  master  of  slaves,  gained  by  his  just  and  beneficent  govern- 
ment of  the  greatest  slave  colony  in  the  world,  the  truly  enviable  title  of  the  poor 
Negro's  friend.  The  only  other  publication  upon  the  subject  to  which  I  ever  affixed 
my  name,  was  dedicated  to  an  illustrious  statesman,  whose  life  has  been  devoted  to 
his  country's  service,  and  whose  noble  ambition  has  always  connected  itself  with 
ihe  improvement  of  mankind,  by  that  natural  sympathy  which  unites  brilliant 
genius  with  public  virtue.  But  the  fame  with  which  your  administration  has  sur- 
rounded your  character  makes  it  not  unfit  to  name  you  even  after  a  Wellesley. 

The  anxiety  expressed  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to  obtain  an  authentic  report 
of  this  speech,  and  the  acceptance  with  which  my  countrymen  have  honoured  the 
humble  though  zealous  efforts  of  their  fellow-labourer  in  this  mighty  work,  I  regard 
as  by  far  the  highest  gratification  of  a  long  public  life.  The  present  occasion  also 
affords  me  an  opportunity  of  contradicting  the  studied  misrepresentations  of  some 
injudicious  supporters  of  the  government,  who  have  not  scrupled  to  assert  that  my 
principal  object  in  proposing  the  measures  of  yesterday,  was  not  the  abolition  of 
Negro  apprenticeship,  but  only  the  regulation  of  the  master's  conduct.  Nothing 
can  be  more  wide  of  the  fact  than  such  a  statement. 

I  appeal  to  your  lordship,  and  to  all  who  heard  me,  whether  my  whole  conten- 
tion was  not  in  behalf  of  instant  and  complete  emancipation,  as  the  only  effectual 
remedy,  and  whether  I  wasted  more  than  a  single  sentence  upon  any  more  pallia- 
tives. To  regulate  the  master's  conduct,  while  tlio  abominable  system  is  suffered 
to  continue,  was  the  purpose  of  the  first  five  resolutions — but  my  whole  forces, 
such  as  they  are,  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  only  position  to  take  which  I  was 
very  anxious,  and,  to  force  an  immediate,  unconditional  surrender  of  tho  master's 
rights — an  immediate,  unconditional  liberation  of  the  slave. 

38* 


450  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

I  think  I  have  some  right  to  complain  of  these  misstatements.  It  was  surely 
enough  that  I  should  be  resisted  hy  the  whole  strength  of  the  government,  and  that, 
in  consequence  of  their  resistance,  my  great  object  of  obtaining  the  Negro's  freedom 
should  be  defeated,  as  well  as  all  hopes  of  effectually  destroying  the  slave  trade 
itself  disappointed  by  the  rejection  of  my  other  propositions.  There  is  a  refinement 
of  subtle  injustice  in  those  men  propagating  a  belief  through  the  country,  that  the 
conduct  of  the  ministry,  by  which  my  motion  was  defeated,  and  by  which  I  verily 
think  their  official  existence  is  endangered,  did  not  altogether  thwart  the  intentions 
of  the  parties  by  whom  that  motion  was  brought  forward  and  supported.  The 
reader  of  this  speech  will  be  at  no  loss  to  perceive  how  entirely  its  object  was  the 
immediate  destruction  of  slavery,  and  how  invariably  every  word  of  it  was  inspired 
by  hostility  to  the  existing  system,  inextinguishable  and  uncompromising. 

BROUGHAM. 

February  21,  1838. 


SPEECH, 


I  do  not  think,  my  lords,  that  ever  but  once  before,  in  the  whole 
course  of  my  public  life,  I  have  risen  to  address  either  House  of  Par- 
liament with  the  anxiety  under  which  I  labour  at  this  moment.  The 
occasion  to  which  alone  I  can  liken  the  present,  was,  when  I  stood  up 
in  the  Commons  to  expose  the  treatment  of  that  persecuted  Missionary 
whose  case  gave  birth  to  the  memorable  debate  upon  the  condition  of 
our  Negro  brethren  in  the  Colonies — a  debate  happily  so  fruitful  of 
results  to  the  whole  of  this  great  cause.  But  there  is  this  difference 
between  the  two  occasions  to  sustain  my  spirits  now,  that  whereas,  at 
the  former  period,  the  horizon  was  all  wrapt  in  gloom,  through  which 
not  a  ray  of  light  pierced  to  cheer  us,  we  have  now  emerged  into  a 
comparatively  bright  atmosphere,  and  are  pursuing  our  journey  full 
of  hope.  For  this  we  have  mainly  to  thank  that  important  discussion, 
and  those  eminent  men  who  bore  in  it  so  conspicuous  a  part.  And 
now  I  feel  a  further  gratification  in  being  the  means  of  enabling  your 
lordships,  by  sharing  in  this  great  and  glorious  work — nay,  by  leading 
the  way  towards  its  final  accomplishment,  to  increase  the  esteem  in 
which  you  are  held  by  your  fellow-citizens;  or  if,  by  any  differences 
of  opinion  on  recent  measures,  you  may  unhappily  have  lost  any  por- 
tion of  the  public  favour,  I  know  of  no  path  more  short,  more  sure,  or 
more  smooth,  by  which  you  may  regain  it.  But  I  will  not  rest  my 
right  to  your  co-operation  upon  any  such  grounds  as  these.  I  claim 
your  help  by  a  higher  title.  I  rely  upon  the  justice  of  my  cause — I 
rely  upon  the  power  of  your  consciences — I  rely  upon  your  duty  to 
God  and  to  man — I  rely  upon  your  consistency  with  yourselves — and, 
appealing  to  your  own  measures  of  1833,  if  you  be  the  same  men  in 
1838, 1  call  upon  you  to  finish  your  own  work,  and  give  at  length  a 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  451 

full  effect  to  the  wise  and  Christian  principles  which  then  guided  your 
steps. 

I  rush  at  once  into  the  midst  of  this  great  argument.  I  drag  before 
you,  once  more,  but  I  trust  for  the  last  time,  the  African  Slave  Trade, 
which  I  lately  denounced  here,  and  have  so  often  denounced  elsewhere. 
On  this  we  are  all  agreed.  Whatever  difference  of  opinion  may  exist 
on  the  question  of  Slavery,  on  the  slave  traffic  there  can  be  none.  I 
am  now  furnished  with  a  precedent  which  may  serve  for  an  example 
to  guide  us.  On  slavery  we  have  always  held  that  the  Colonial 
legislatures  could  not  be  trusted;  that,  to  use  Mr.  Canning's  expression, 
you  must  beware  of  allowing  the  masters  of  slaves  to  make  laws 
upon  slavery.  But  upon  the  detestable  traffic  in  slaves,  I  can  show 
you  the  proceeding  of  a  Colonial  Assembly,  which  we  should  ourselves 
do  well  to  adopt  after  their  example.  These  masters  of  slaves,  not  to 
be  trusted  on  that  subject,  have  acted  well  and  wisely  on  this.  I  hold 
in  my  hand  a  document,  which  I  bless  Heaven  that  I  have  lived  to 
see.  The  legislature  of  Jamaica,  owners  of  slaves,  and  representing 
all  other  slave  owners,  feel  that  they  also  represent  the  poor  Negroes 
themselves:  and  they  approach  the  throne,  expressing  themselves 
thankful — tardily  thankful,  no  doubt — that  the  traffic  has  been  now  for 
thirty  years  put  down  in  our  own  Colonies,  and  beseeching  the 
Sovereign  to  consummate  the  great  work  by  the  only  effectual  means; 
of  having  it  declared  piracy  by  the  law  of  nations,  as  it  is  robbery,  and 
piracy,  and  murder  by  the  law  of  God.  This  address  is  precisely  that 
which  I  desire  your  lordships  now  to  present  to  the  same  gracious 
Sovereign.  After  showing  how  heavily  the  Foreign  Slave  Trade 
presses  upon  their  interests,  they  take  higher  ground  in  this  remarkable 
passage: — "  Nor  can  we  forego  the  higher  position,  as  a  question  of 
humanity;  representing  all  classes  of  the  island,  we  consider  ourselves 
entitled  to  offer  to  your  Mnjesty  our  respectful  remonstrance  against 
the  continuance  of  this  condemned  traffic  in  human  beings.  As  a  com- 
munity, composed  of  the  descendants  of  Africa  as  well  as  Britain,  we 
are  anxious  to  advance  the  character  of  the  country;  and  we,  there- 
fore, entreat  your  Majesty  to  exert  your  interest  with  foreign  powers 
to  cause  this  trade  at  once  to  be  declared  piracy,  as  the  only  effectual 
means  of  putting  it  down,  and  thereby  to  grace  the  commencement  of 
your  auspicious  reign." 

My  lords,  I  will  not  stop  to  remind  the  lawgivers  of  Jamaica  why 
it  is  that  the  slave  traffic  is  a  crime  of  so  black  a  dye.  I  will  not  re- 
mind them  that  if  slavery  were  no  more,  the  trade  in  slaves  must  cease; 
that  if  the  West  Indies  were  like  England,  peopled  with  free  men,  and 
cultivated  only  by  free  hands,  where  no  man  can  hold  his  fellow- 
creature  in  bondage,  and  the  labourer  cannot  be  tormented  by  his 
masters;  if  the  cart-whip  having  happily  been  destroyed,  the  doors  of 
the  prison-house  were  also  flung  open,  and  chains,  and  bolls,  anJ  col- 
lars were  unknown,  and  no  toil  endured  but  by  the  workmen's  con- 
sent, nor  any  effort  extorted  by  dread  of  punishment;  the  traffic  which 
we  justly  call  not  a  trade;  but  a  crime,  would  no  longer  inflict  the  mise- 
ries with  which  it  now  loads  its  victims,  who,  instead  of  being  con- 


452  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP, 

veyed  to  a  place  of  torture  and  misery,  would  be  carried  into  a  land 
of  liberty  and  enjoyment.  Nor  will  I  now  pause  to  consider  the  wishes 
of  some  colonies,  in  part,  I  am  grieved  to  say,  granted  by  the  govern- 
ment, that  the  means  should  be  afforded  them  of  bringing  over  what 
they  call  labourers  from  other  parts  of  the  globe,  to  share  in  the  suffer- 
ings of  slavery,  hardly  mitigated  under  the  name  of  apprenticeship. 
That  you  should  ever  join  your  voices  with  them  on  this  matter,  is  a 
thing  so  out  of  the  question  that  I  will  riot  detain  you  with  one  other 
remark  upon  it.  But  so  neither  have  I  any  occasion  to  go  at  present 
into  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade  altogether,  after  the  statements  which 
I  lately  made  in  this  place  upon  the  pernicious  effects  of  our  head- 
money,  the  frightful  extent  of  the  Negro  traffic,  and  the  horrible  atro- 
cities which  mark  its  course  still  more  awfully  now  than  before.  In 
order  to  support  my  call  upon  your  lordships  for  the  measures  which 
alone  can  extirpate  such  enormities,  I  need  but  refer  you  to  those  state- 
ments. Since  I  presented  them  here,  they  have  been  made  public, 
indeed  promulgated  all  over  the  kingdom,  and  they  have  met  with  no 
contradiction,  nor  excited  the  least  complaint  in  any  quarter,  except 
that  many  have  said  the  case  was  understated;  and  that  in  one  place, 
and  only  in  one,  I  have  been  charged  with  exaggeration.  I  have  read 
with  astonishment,  and  I  repel  with  scorn,  the  insinuation,  that  I  had 
acted  the  part  of  an  advocate,  and  that  some  of  my  statements  were 
coloured  to  serve  a  cause.  How  dares  any  man  so  to  accuse  me?  How 
dares  any  one,  skulking  under  a  fictitious  name,  to  launch  his  slander- 
ous imputations  from  his  covert?  I  come  forward  in  my  own  person. 
I  make  the  charge  in  the  face  of  day.  I  drag  the  criminal  to  trial.  I 
openly  call  down  justice  on  his  head.  I  defy  his  attacks.  I  defy  his 
defenders.  I  challenge  investigation.  How  dares  any  concealed  adver- 
sary to  charge  me  as  an  advocate  speaking  from  a  brief,  and  misrepre- 
senting the  facts  to  serve  a  purpose?  But  the  absurdity  of  this  charge 
even  outstrips  its  malace.  I  stated  that  the  Negroes  were  thrown  over- 
board in  pairs  during  a  chase  to  lighten  the  ship  and  enable  her  to 
escape;  thrown  overboard  in  fetters,  that  they  might  sink,  and  not  be 
witnesses  against  the  murderers.  The  answer  is,  that  this  man,  if  man. 
he  be,  had  been  on  board  slave  ships,  and  never  seen  such  cruelties. 
I  stated  that  the  fetters  were  not  locked,  but  rivetted  in  the  forge. 
The  answer  is,  that  the  writer  had  been  on  board  of  slave  vessels,  and 
seen  fetters  which  were  locked,  and  not  riveted.  How  dares  any  man 
deny  a  statement  made  upon  authority  referred  to  by  name,  on  such  a 
trumpery  story  as  this?  As  well  might  he  argue  that  a  murder  sworn 
to  by  fifty  or  a  hundred  credible  witnesses,  had  never  been  committed, 
because  some  one  came  forward  and  said  he  had  not  seen  it  done. 
Did  I  not  give  the  particulars?  Did  I  not  avouch  my  authority?  Did 
I  not  name  the  gallant  officer  from  whose  official  report, printed  and  pub- 
lished, my  account  was  taken?  Did  I  not  give  the  respected  name  of 
Commodore  Hayes,  one  of  the  best  esteemed  officers  in  her  Majesty's 
service?  I,  indeed,  understated  the  case  in  many  particulars.  But,  my 
lords,  if  I  have  not  been  chargeable  with  exaggeration — if  all  who 
took  part  in  the  former  debate,  whether  in  or  out  of  office,  agreed  in 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  453 

acquitting  me  of  that — so  neither  shall  I  be  charged  for  the  future  with 
understating  the  atrocities  of  the  case.  What  I  then  withheld,  I 
will  now  tell — and  not  keeping  back  my  authority  now  any  more  than 
I  did  before,  I  appeal  to  my  noble  friend  near  me*  for  the  truth  of  the 
appalling  story,  himself  a  planter,  and  an  owner  of  slaves.  I  ask  him 
if  he  did  not  know  a  vessel  brought  in  with  a  cargo  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  or  two  hundred  wretched  beings  jammed  into  a  space  three 
feet  and  a  half  in  height. 

LORD  SLIGO. — Two  and  a  half. 

LORD  BROUGHAM. — There,  my  lords,  I  am  understating  again.  Into 
that  space  of  two  feet  and  a  half  between  the  decks,  that  number 
of  miserable  creatures  were  jammed,  like  inanimate  lumber,  certainly 
in  a  way  in  which  no  Christian  man  would  crowd  dumb  animals. 
My  noble  friend  will  say  whether  or  not  that  vessel,  whose  slaves  had 
never  been  released,  or  even  washed,  or  in  any  way  cleansed,  since 
it  left  the  African  coast,  presented  an  intolerable  nuisance  to  all  the 
senses — a  nuisance  unfit  for  any  description.  Nor  is  this  all.  I  will 
be  chargeable  with  understatement  no  more!  The  ophthalmia  had 
broken  out  among  the  poor  creatures  thus  kept  in  unspeakable  tor- 
ment; and  as  often  as  any  one  was  seized,  instead  of  affording  him 
any  medical  or  other  assistance,  he  was  instantly  cast  overboard,  and 
sunk  in  his  chains,  with  the  view  of  stopping  the  infection.  I  will 
understate  things  no  more!  I  said  before  that  as  many  as  700  slaves 
were  carried  across  the  sea  in  one  ship;  there  I  stopped,  for  to  those 
who  know  what  a  slave  ship  is,  this  sufficed  to  harrow  up  every  feel- 
ing of  the  soul.  But  another  vessel  brought  away,  first  and  last,  in 
one  voyage,  9SO  miserable,  unoffending,  simple  beings;  and  of  this 
number,  without  any  chase,  or  accident,  or  violence,  or  any  acts  of 
wholesale  murder,  such  as  those  we  have  been  contemplating,  six 
hundred  perished  in  the  voyage,  through  the  hardships  and  sufferings 
inseparably  connected  with  this  execrable  traffic.  Of  23  or  2400  car- 
ried away  by  four  other  ships,  no  less  than  1500  perished  in  like  man- 
ner, having  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  the  pestilential  hold.  How  this  enor- 
mous crime  of  these  foreign  nations  is  to  be  rooted  out  I  know  full 
well.  You  must  no  longer  treat  it  as  a  mere  contraband  trade — no 
longer  call  murder  smuggling,  or  treat  pirates  as  offenders  against  the 
revenue  laws.  As  long  as  our  slave  traders  were  so  dealt  with,  they 
made  this  calculation — "  If  we  escape  three  times  in  four,  our  profits 
are  so  large  that  the  seizure  and  confiscation  can  be  well  afforded; 
nay,  if  we  are  taken  as  often  as  we  escape,  the  ships  netting  20,  30, 
even  as  much  as  50  and  60,000  pounds  a  voyage,  we  can  well  afford 
to  lose  1500  or  2000  pounds  when  the  adventure  fails."  So  they  ran 
the  risk,  and  oti  a  calculation  of  profit  and  loss  were  fully  justified. 
But  I  had  iti  1811  the  singular  happiness  of  laying  the  axe  to  the  root 
of  this  detestable  system.  I  stopt  all  those  calculations  by  making  the 
trade  felony  and  punishing  it  as  such;  for  well  1  know  that  they  who 
would  run  the  risk  of  capture  when  all  they  could  suffer  by  it  was  a 

*  Lord  Slio. 


454  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

diminution  of  their  profits,  would  be  slow  to  put  their  heads  in  the 
noose  of  the  halter  which  their  crimes  so  richly  deserved.  The  mea- 
sure passed  through  all  its  stages  in  both  Houses  without  one  dissent- 
ing voice;  and  I  will  venture  to  assert  that  ever  since,  although  Eng- 
lish capital,  I  have  too  much  reason  to  think,  finds  its  way  into  the 
foreign  slave  trade,  no  Englishman  is  concerned  directly  with  it  in 
any  part  of  the  world.  Trust  me,  the  like  course  must  be  taken  if  we 
would  put  an  end  to  the  same  crimes  in  other  countries.  Piracy  and 
murder  must  be  called  by  their  right  names,  and  visited  with  their 
appropriate  penalties.  That  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  traders  now 
make  the  same  calculations  which  I  have  been  describing,  is  a  certain 
fact.  I  will  name  one — Captain  Inza,  of  the  ship  Socorro,  who,  on 
being  captured,  had  the  effrontery  to  boast  that  he  had  made  fourteen 
slave  voyages,  and  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  been  taken. 
Well  might  he  resolve  to  run  so  slight  a  risk  for  such  vast  gains;  but 
had  the  fate  of  a  felon-pirate  awaited  him,  not  all  the  gains  which 
might  tempt  his  sordid  nature  would  have  prevailed  upon  him  to  en- 
counter that  hazard. 

I  formerly  recounted  instances  of  murder  done  by  wholesale  in  the 
course  of  the  chase  of  our  cruisers.  I  might  have  told  a  more  piteous 
tale;  and  I  will  no  longer  be  accused  of  understating  this  part  of  the 
case  either.  Two  vessels  were  pursued.  One  after  another,  Negroes 
were  seen  to  be  thrown  overboard  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty,  of  all  ages — the  elder  and  stronger  ones  loaded  with  their  fetters, 
to  prevent  them  from  swimming  or  floating — the  weaker  were  left 
unchained  to  sink  or  expire;  and  this  horrible  spectacle  was  presented 
to  the  eyes  of  our  cruisers'  men — they  saw,  unable  to  lend  any  help, 
the  water  covered  with  those  hapless  creatures,  the  men  sinking  in 
their  chains — the  women,  and — piteous  sight! — the  infants  and  chil- 
dren struggling  out  their  little  strength  in  the  water  till  they  too  were 
swallowed  up  and  disappeared! 

I  now  approach  a  subject,  not,  indeed,  more  full  of  horrors,  or  of 
greater  moment,  but  on  which  the  attention  of  the  people  has  for 
some  time  past  been  fixed  with  an  almost  universal  anxiety,  and  for 
your  decision  upon  which  they  are  now  looking  with  the  most  intense 
interest,  let  me  add,  with  the  liveliest  hopes.  I  need  not  add  that  I 
mean  the  great  question  of  the  condition  into  which  the  slaves  of  our 
colonies  were  transferred  as  preparatory  to  their  complete  liberation — 
a  subject  upon  which  your  table  has  been  loaded  with  so  many  peti- 
tions from  millions  of  your  fellow-countrymen.  It  is  right  that  I 
should  first  remind  your  lordships  of  the  anxious  apprehensions  which 
were  entertained  in  1833,  when  the  act  was  passed,  because  a  com- 
parison of  those  fears  with  the  results  of  the  measure,  will  form  a  most 
important  ingredient  of  the  argument  which  I  am  about  to  urge  for 
the  immediate  liberation  of  the  apprentices.  I  well  remember  how 
uneasy  all  were  in  looking  forward  to  the  first  of  August,  1834,  when 
the  state  of  slavery  was  to  cease,  and  I  myself  shared  in  those  feelings 
of  alarm  when  I  contemplated  the  possible  event  of  the  vast  but  yet 
untried  experiment.  My  fears  proceeded  first  from  the  character  of 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  455 

the  masters.  I  knew  the  nature  of  man,  fond  of  power,  jealous  of  any 
interference  with  its  exercise,  uneasy  at  its  being  questioned,  offended 
at  its  being  regulated  and  constrained,  averse  above  all  to  have  it 
wrested  from  his  hands,  especially  after  it  has  been  long  enjoyed,  and 
its  possession  can  hardly  be  severed  from  his  nature.  But  I  also 
am  aware  of  another  and  a  worser  part  of  human  nature.  I  know- 
that  whoso  has  abused  power,  clings  to  it  with  a  yet  more  convul- 
sive grasp.  I  dreaded  the  nature  of  man  prone  to  hate  whom  he 
has  injured — because  I  knew  that  law  of  human  weakness  which 
makes  the  oppressor  hate  his  victim,  makes  him  who  has  injured 
never  forgive,  fills  the  wrong-doer  with  vengeance  against  those 
whose  right  it  is  to  vindicate  those  injuries  on  his  own  head.  I  knew 
that  this  abominable  law  of  our  evil  nature  was  not  confined  to  dif- 
ferent races,  contrasted  hues  and  strange  features,  but  prevailed  also 
between  white  man  and  white — for  I  never  yet  knew  any  one  hate 
me,  but  those  whom  I  had  served,  and  those  who  had  done  me  some 
grievous  injustice.  Why  then  should  I  expect  other  feelings  to  burn 
within  the  planter's  bosom,  and  govern  his  conduct  towards  the  un- 
happy beings  who  had  suffered  so  much  and  so  long  at  his  hands? 
But,  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  I  was  not  without  some  anxiety,  when 
I  considered  the  corrupting  effects  of  that  degrading  system  under 
which  they  had  for  ages  groaned,  and  recognised  the  truth  of  the  say- 
ing in  the  first  and  the  earliest  of  profane  poets,  that  "  the  day  which 
makes  a  man  a  slave  robs  him  of  half  his  value."  I  might  well  think 
that  the  West  India  slave  offered  no  exception  to  this  maxim;  that  the 
habit  of  compulsory  labour  might  have  incapacitated  him  from  volun- 
tary exertion;  that  over  much  toil  might  have  made  all  work  his 
aversion;  that  never  having  been  accustomed  to  provide  for  his  own 
wants,  while  all  his  supplies  were  furnished  by  others,  he  might  prove 
unwilling  or  unfit  to  work  for  himself,  the  ordinary  inducements  to 
industry  never  having  operated  on  his  mind.  In  a  word,  it  seemed 
unlikely  that  long  disuse  of  freedom,  might  have  rendered  him  too 
familiar  with  his  chains  to  set  a  right  value  on  liberty;  or  that,  if  he 
panted  to  be  free,  the  sudden  transition  from  the  one  state  to  the  other, 
the  instantaneous  enjoyment  of  the  object  of  his  desires,  might  prove 
too  strong  for  his  uncultured  understanding,  might  overset  his  princi- 
ples, and  render  him  dangerous  to  the  public  peace.  Hence  it  was 
that  I  entertained  some  apprehensions  of  the  event,  and  yielded  re- 
luctantly to  the  plan  proposed  of  preparing  the  Negroes  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  perfect  freedom  by  passing  them  through  the  intermediate 
state  of  indentured  apprenticeship.  Let  us  now  see  the  results  of  their 
sudden  though  partial  liberation,  and  how  far  those  fears  have  been 
realized;  for  upon  this  must  entirely  depend  the  solution  of  the  pre- 
sent question — Whether  or  not  it  is  safe  now  to  complete  the  emanci- 
pation, which,  if  it  only  be  safe,  we  have  not  the  shadow  of  right  any 
longer  to  withhold. — Well,  then,  let  us  see. 

The  first  of  August  came,  the  object  of  so  much  anxiety  and  so 
many  predictions — that  day  so  joyously  expected  by  the  poor  slaves, 
so  sorely  dreaded  by  their  hard  taskmasters;  and  surely  if  ever  there 


456  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

was  a  picture  interesting,  even  fascinating  to  look  upon — if  ever 
there  was  a  passage  in  a  people's  history  that  redounded  to  their  eter- 
nal honour — if  ever  triumphant  answer  was  given  to  all  the  scanda- 
lous calumnies  for  ages  heaped  upon  an  oppressed  race,  as  if  to  justify 
the  wrongs  done  them — that  picture,  and  that  passage,  and  that  an- 
swer were  exhibited  in  the  uniform  history  of  that  auspicious  day  all 
over  the  islands  of  the  Western  sea.  Instead  of  the  horizon  being  lit 
up  with  the  lurid  fires  of  rebellion,  kindled  by  a  sense  of  natural 
though  lawless  revenge,  and  the  just  resistance  to  intolerable  oppres- 
sion— the  whole  of  that  wide-spread  scene  was  mildly  illuminated 
with  joy,  contentment,  peace,  and  good-will  towards  men.  No  civilized 
nation,  no  people  of  the  most  refined  character,  could  have  displayed 
after  gaining  a  sudden  and  signal  victory,  more  forbearance,  more 
delicacy,  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  triumph,  than  these  poor  untutored 
slaves  did  upon  the  great  consummation  of  all  their  wishes  which  they 
had  just  attained.  Not  a  gesture  or  a  look  was  seen  to  scare  the  eye 
— not  a  sound  or  a  breath  from  the  Negro's  lips  was  heard  to  grate 
on  the  ear  of  the  planter.  All  was  joy,  congratulation,  and  hope. 
Everywhere  were  to  be  seen  groups  of  these  harmless  folks  assembled 
to  talk  over  their  good  fortunes;  to  communicate  their  mutual  feelings 
of  happiness;  to  speculate  on  their  future  prospects.  Finding  that 
they  were  now  free  in  name,  they  hoped  soon  to  taste  the  reality  of 
liberty.  Feeling  their  fetters  loosened,  they  looked  forward  to  the  day 
which  should  see  them  fall  off,  and  the  degrading  marks  which  they 
left  be  effaced  from  their  limbs.  But  all  this  was  accompanied  with 
not  a  whisper  that  could  give  offence  to  the  master  by  reminding  him 
of  the  change.  This  delicate,  calm,  tranquil  joy,  was  alone  to  be 
marked  on  that  day  over  all  the  chain  of  the  Antilles.  Amusements 
there  were  none  to  be  seen  on  that  day — not  even  their  simple 
pastimes  by  which  they  had  been  wont  to  beguile  the  hard  hours  of 
bondage,  and  which  reminded  that  innocent  people  of  the  happy  land 
of  their  forefathers,  whence  they  had  been  torn  by  the  hands  of  Chris- 
tian and  civilized  men.  The  day  was  kept  sacred  as  the  festival  of 
their  liberation:  for  the  Negroes  are  an  eminently  pious  race.  They 
enjoy  the  advantages  of  much  religious  instruction,  and  partake  in  a 
large  measure  of  spiritual  consolation.  These  blessings  they  derive 
not  from  the  ministrations  of  the  Established  Church — not  that  the  aid 
of  its  priests  is  withheld  from  them,  but  the  services  of  others,  of 
zealous  missionaries,  are  found  more  acceptable  and  more  effectual, 
because  they  are  more  suited  to  the  capacity  of  the  people.  The  meek 
and  humble  pastor,  although  perhaps  more  deficient  in  secular  accom- 
plishments, is  far  more  abounding  in  zeal  for  the  work  of  the  vineyard, 
and  being  less  raised  above  his  flock,  is  better  fitted  to  guide  them  in 
the  path  of  religious  duty.  Not  made  too  fine  for  his  work  by  pride 
of  science,  nor  kept  apart  by  any  peculiar  refinement  of  taste,  but 
inspired  with  a  fervent  devotion  to  the  interests  of  his  flock,  the  mis- 
sionary pastor  lives  but  for  them;  their  companion  on  a  week-day,  as 
their  instructor  on  the  Sabbath;  their  friend  and  counsellor  in  temporal 
matters,  as  their  guide  in  spiritual  concerns.  These  are  the  causes  of 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  457 

the  influence  he  enjoys — this  the  source  from  whence  the  good  he  does 
them  flows.  Nor  can  I  pass  by  this  part  of  the  West  Indian  picture 
without  rendering  the  tribute  of  heartfelt  admiration  which  I  am  proud 
to  pay,  when  I  contemplate  the  pious  zeal,  the  indefatigable  labours 
of  these  holy  and  disinterested  men;  and  I  know  full  well  that  if  I 
make  my  appeal  to  my  noble  friend*  he  will  repeat  the  testimony  he 
elsewhere  bore  to  the  same  high  merits,  when  he  promulgated  his 
honest  opinion,  that  "  for  the  origin  of  all  religious  feeling  among  the 
Negroes,  it  is  among  the  missionaries,  and  not  the  clergy,  we  must 
look."  Therefore  it  was  that  fourteen  years  ago,  I  felt  all  the  deep 
anxiety  to  which  I  this  night  began  by  referring,  when  it  was  my  lot 
to  drag  before  the  Commons  of  England  the  persecutors  of  one  among 
the  most  useful,  most  devoted,  and  most  godly  of  that  most  estimable 
class  of  men,  who  for  his  piety  and  his  self-devotion  had  been  hunted 
down  by  wicked  men,  conspiring  with  unjust  judges,  and  made  to  die 
the  death  for  teaching  to  the  poor  Negroes  the  gospel  of  peace.  I  am 
unspeakably  proud  of  the  part  I  then  took;  I  glory  mightily  in  reflect- 
ing that  I  then  struck,  aided  and  comforted  by  far  abler  men,t  the  first 
of  those  blows,  of  which  we  are  now  aiming  the  last,  at  the  chains  that 
bind  the  harmless  race  of  our  colonial  peasantry.  The  first  of  August 
came — and  the  day  was  kept  a  sacred  holiday,  as  it  will  ever  be  kept 
to  the  end  of  time  throughout  all  the  West  Indies.  Every  church 
was  crowded  from  early  dawn,  with  devout  and  earnest  worshippers. 
Five  or  six  times  in  the  course  of  that  memorable  Friday  were  all 
those  churches  filled  and  emptied  in  succession  by  multitudes  who 
came,  not  coldly  to  comply  with  a  formal  ceremonial,  not  to  give 
mouth  worship  or  eye  worship,  but  to  render  humble  and  hearty 
thanks  to  God  for  their  freedom  at  length  bestowed.  In  countries 
where  the  bounty  of  nature  provokes  the  passions,  where  the  fuel  of 
intemperance  is  scattered  with  a  profuse  hand,  I  speak  the  fact  when 
I  tell  that  not  one  Negro  was  seen  in  a  state  of  intoxication.  Three 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  si  ives  in  Jamaica  were  at  once  set  free 
on  that  day,  and  the  peaceful  festivity  of  these  simple  men  was  dis- 
turbed only  on  a  single  estate,  in  one  parish,  by  the  irregular  conduct 
of  three  or  four  persons,  who  were  immediately  kept  in  order,  and 
tranquillity  in  one  hour  restored. 

But  the  termination  of  slavery  was  to  be  the  end  of  all  labour;  no 
man  would  work  unless  compelled — much  less  would  any  one  work 
for  hire.  The  cart-whip  was  to  resound  no  more,  and  no  more  could 
exertion  be  obtained  from  the  indolent  African.  I  set  the  fact  against 
these  predictions.  I  never  have  been  in  the  West  Indies;  I  was  one 
of  those  whom,  undt-r  the  name  of  reasoners,  and  theorists,  and  vision- 
aries, all  planters  pitied  for  incurable  ignorance  of  Colonial  affairs;  ono 

*  Lord  Sligo. 

f  The  great  exertions  on  that  memorable  occasion  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Den  man, 
Dr.  Lushington,  and  others,  are  well  known;  and  the  report  of  the  interesting  cie- 
hato  does  them  justice.  Hut  no  one  from  merely  reading  it  can  form  an  adequate 
idea  of  Mr.  Justice  Williams's  admirable  Rpeech,  distinguished  alike  for  closeness 
of  argument  and  for  the  severity  of  Attic  taste. 
VOL.  I.— 39 


458  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

of  those  who  were  forbidden  to  meddle  with  matters  of  which  they 
could  only  judge  who  had  the  practical  knowledge  of  experienced  men 
on  the  spot  obtained.  Therefore  I  now  appeal  to  the  fact — and  I  also 
appeal  to  one  who  has  been  iu  the  West  Indies,  is  himself  a  planter, 
and  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  things  upon  which  I  call  for  his  con- 
firmatory testimony.  It  is  to  my  noble  friend*  that  I  appeal.  He 
knows,  for  he  saw,  that  ever  since  slavery  ceased,  there  has  been  no 
want  of  inclination  to  work  in  any  part  of  Jamaica,  and  that  labour 
for  hire  is  now  to  be  had  without  the  least  difficulty  by  all  who  can 
afford  to  pay  wages — the  apprentices  cheerfully  working  for  those  who 
will  pay  them,  during  the  hours  not  appropriated  to  their  masters. 
My  noble  friend  made  an  inquisition  as  to  the  state  of  this  important 
matter  in  a  large  part  of  his  government;  and  I  have  his  authority  for 
stating,  that,  in  nine  estates  out  of  ten,  labourers  for  hire  were  to  be 
had  without  the  least  difficulty.  Yet  this  was  the  people  of  whom  we 
were  told  with  a  confidence  that  set  all  contradiction  at  defiance,  with 
an  insulting  pity  for  the  ignorance  of  us  who  had  no  local  experience, 
that  without  the  lash  there  would  be  no  work  done,  and  that  when  it 
ceased  to  vex  him  the  African  would  sink  into  sleep.  The  prediction 
is  found  to  have  been  ridiculously  false;  the  Negro  peasantry  is  as 
industrious  as  our  own;  and  wages  furnish  more  effectual  stimulus 
than  the  scourge.  0  but,  said  the  men  of  Colonial  experience — the 
true  practical  men — this  may  do  for  some  kinds  of  produce.  Cotton 
may  be  planted — coffee  may  be  picked— indigo  may  be  manufactured 
— all  these  kinds  of  work  the  Negro  may  probably  be  got  to  do;  but 
at  least  the  cane  will  cease  to  grow — the  cane-piece  can  no  more  be 
hoed,  nor  the  plant  be  hewn  down,  nor  the  juice  boiled,  and  sugar 
will  utterly  cease  out  of  the  land.  Now,  let  the  man  of  experience 
stand  forward — the  practical  man,  the  inhabitant  of  the  Colonies — I 
require  that  he  now  come  forth  with  his  prediction,  and  I  meet  him 
with  the  fact.  Let  him  but  appear,  and  I  answer  for  him,  we  shall 
hear  him  prophesy  no  more.  Put  to  silence  by  the  fact,  which  even 
these  confident  men  have  not  the  courage  to  deny,  they  will  at  length 
abandon  this  untenable  ground.  Twice  as  much  sugar  by  the  hour 
was  found,  on  my  noble  friend'st  inquiry,  to  be  made  since  the  Ap- 
prenticeship as  under  the  slave  system,  and  of  a  far  better  quality;  and 
one  planter  on  a  vast  scale  has  said,  that,  with  twenty  free  labourers, 
he  could  do  the  work  of  a  hundred  slaves.  But  linger  not  on  the 
islands  where  the  gift  of  freedom  has  been  but  half  bestowed — look  to 
Antigua  and  Bermuda,  where  the  wisdom  and  the  virtue  has  been  dis- 
played, of  at  once  giving  complete  emancipation.  To  Montserrat  the 
same  appeal  might  have  been  made,  but  for  the  folly  of  the  Upper 
House,  which  threw  out  the  bill  passed  in  the  Assembly  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  planters.  But  in  Antigua  and  Bermuda,  where,  for 
the  last  three  years  and  a  half,  there  has  not  even  been  an  Apprentice 
— where  all  have  been  at  once  made  as  free  as  the  the  peasantry  of 

*  Lord  Sligo.  |  Lord  Sligo. 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  459 

this  country — the  produce  has  increased,  not  diminished,  and  increased 
notwithstanding  the  accidents  of  bad  seasons,  droughts,  and  fires. 

But  then  we  were  told  by  those  whose  experience  was  reckoned 
worth  so  much  more  than  our  reasoning,  that  even  if  hy  some  miracle 
industry  should  be  found  compatible  \vilh  liberty,  of  which  indeed  we 
in  our  profound  ignorance  of  human  nature  had  been  wont  to  regard 
it  as  the  legitimate  offspring;  at  all  events,  the  existence  of  order  and 
tranquillity  was  altogether  hopeless.  After  so  long  being  inured  to 
the  abject  state  of  slavery,  its  sudden  cessation,  the  instant  transition 
from  bondage  to  freedom,  must  produce  convulsions  all  over  the  Colo- 
nies, and  the  reign  of  rebellion  and  anarchy  must  begin.  Not  content 
with  reasoning,  the  practical  men  condescend  to  tax  their  luxuriant 
imagination  for  tropes  to  dazzle  and  delude  whom  their  arguments 
might  fail  to  convince.  The  child  could  not  walk  alone  if  his  leading- 
strings  were  cut  away — the  full-grown  tree  could  not  be  transplanted 
— the  limbs  cramped  by  the  chain  could  not  freely  move — the  maniac 
might  not  safely  be  freed  from  the  keeper's  control; — and  Mr.  Wynd- 
ham  used  to  bring  the  play  of  his  own  lively  fancy  upon  the  question, 
and  say,  that  if  it  was  a  cruel  thing  to  throw  men  out  of  the  window, 
he  saw  no  great  kindness  in  making  np  for  the  injury  you  had  done 
by  throwing  them  back  again  into  the  house.  Alas!  for  all  those 
prophecies,  and  reasonings,  and  theories,  and  figures  of  speech.  The 
dawn  of  the  First  of  August  chased  away  the  phantoms,  and  instead 
of  revolt  and  conspiracy,  ushered  in  order  and  peace.  But  the  fanciful 
men  of  experience,  the  real  practical  visionaries  of  the  West  Indies, 
though  baffled,  were  not  defeated.  Only  wait,  they  said,  till  Christmas 
— all  who  know  the  Negro  character  then  dread  rebellion — all  experi- 
ence of  Negro  habits  shows  that  to  be  the  true  season  of  revolt.  We 
did  wait  till  Christmas — and  what  happened?  I  will  go  to  Antigua, 
because  there  the  emancipation  began  suddenly,  without  any  prepara- 
tory state  of  apprenticeship — with  no  gradual  transition,  but  the  chains 
knocked  off  at  once,  and  the  slave  in  an  instant  set  free.  Let  then 
the  men  of  practical  experience  hear  the  fact.  For  the  first  time  these 
thirty  years  on  that  day,  Christmas  1834,  martial  law  was  not  pro- 
claimed in  Antigua.  You  call  for  facts;  here  is  a  fact— a  fact  that 
speaks  volumes.  You  appeal  to  experience — here  is  our  experience, 
your  own  experience;  and  now  let  the  man  who  scoffed  at  reasoning — 
who  laughed  us  to  scorn  as  visionaries,  deriding  our  theories  as  wild 
fancies,  our  plans  of  liberty  as  frantic  schemes  which  never  could  be 
carried  into  effect,  whose  only  fruit  must  be  wide  spreading  rebellion, 
and  which  must  entail  the  loss  of  all  other  colonies — let  him  come  for- 
ward now;  I  dare  him  to  deny  one  of  the  statements  I  have  made. 
Lot  those  who  thought  the  phrases  "Jamaica  Planter'* — "Colonial 
interest" — "West  Indian  residence'' — flung  into  the  scale  of  oppres- 
sion, could  make  that  of  morcy  and  freedom  kick  the  beam — let  them 
now  hear  the  fact,  find  hold  their  peace;  the  fact,  that  neither  on  the 
first  day  of  emancipation,  nor  on  the  Christmas  following  the  N«'gro 
festival,  was  there  any  breach  of  the  peace  committed  over  all  the  West 
Indian  world.  Then,  after  these  predictions  had  all  failed — these 


460  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

phantasies  been  all  dispelled — the  charges  against  the  Negro  race 
been  thoroughly  disproved — surely  we  might  have  looked  for  a  sub- 
mission to  the  test  of  experience  itself,  from  the  men  of  experience,  and 
an  acquittal  of  those  so  unjustly  accused,  after  the  case  against  them 
had  been  so  signally  defeated.  No  such  thing.  The  accusers,  though 
a  second  time  discomfited,  were  not  subdued;  and  there  was  heard  a 
third  appeal  to  a  future  day — an  appeal  which,  had  1  not  read  it  in 
print,  and  heard  of  it  in  speeches,  I  could  riot  have  believed  possible. 
Only  wait,  said  these  planters,  till  the  anniversary  of  the  first  of  August, 
and  then  you  will  witness  the  effects  of  your  rash  counsels!  Mon- 
strous effort  of  incurable  prejudice — almost  judicial  blindness!  As  if 
they  whom  the  event  of  liberation  itself  could  not  excite  to  commit  the 
least  disorderly  act,  would  be  hurried  into  rebellion  by  the  return  next 
year  of  the  day  on  which  it  had  happened;  and  having  withstood  all 
temptation  to  irregular  conduct  in  the  hour  of  triumph,  would  plunge 
into  excess  in  celebrating  its  anniversary!  I  will  not  insult  the  under- 
standings of  your  lordships  by  adding  that  this  prediction  shared  the 
fate  of  all  the  rest.  And  are  we  then  now  to  set  at  nought  all  the 
lessons  of  real  and  long  continued  and  widely  extended  experience? 
Are  we  never  to  profit  by  that  of  which  we  are  for  ever  to  prate?  I 
ask  you  not  to  take  advantage  of  other  men's  experience,  by  making 
its  fruits  your  own — to  observe  what  they  have  done  or  have  suffered, 
and,  wise  by  the  example,  to  follow  or  to  avoid.  That  indeed  is  the 
part  of  wisdom,  and  reflecting  men  pride  themselves  upon  pursuing 
such  a  course.  But  I  ask  nothing  of  the  kind — my  desires  are  more 
humble — my  demand  is  more  moderate  far.  I  only  ask  you  to  be 
guided  by  the  results  of  your  own  experience,  to  make  some  gain  by 
that  for  which  you  have  paid  so  costly  a  price.  Only  do  not  reject  the 
lesson  which  is  said,  in  the  Book  you  all  revere,  to  teach  even  the  most 
foolish  of  our  foolish  kind;  only  show  yourselves  as  ready  to  benefit 
by  experience  as  the  fool  whom  it  proverbially  is  able  to  teach — and 
all  I  desire  is  gained. 

But  now,  my  lords,  my  task  is  accomplished,  my  work  is  done.  I 
have  proved  my  case,  and  may  now  call  for  judgment.  I  have  demon- 
strated every  part  of  the  proposition  which  alone  it  is  necessary  that  I 
should  maintain,  to  prove  the  title  of  the  apprentice  to  instant  freedom 
from  his  task-masters,  because  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  liberation 
of  the  slave  has  been  absolutely,  universally  safe — attended  with  not 
even  inconvenience — nay,  productive  of  ample  benefits  to  his  master. 
I  have  shown  that  the  apprentice  works  without  compulsion,  and  that 
the  reward  of  wages  is  a  better  incentive  than  the  punishment  of  the 
lash.  I  have  proved  that  labour  for  hire  may  anywhere  be  obtained 
as  it  is  wanted  and  can  be  purchased — all  the  apprentices  working 
hours  for  hire,  and  all  the  free  Negroes,  wherever  their  emancipation 
has  been  complete,  working  harder  by  much  for  the  masters  who  have 
wherewithal  to  pay  them,  than  the  slave  can  toil  for  his  owner  or  the 
apprentice  for  his  master.  Whether  we  look  to  the  noble  minded 
Colonies  which  have  at  once  freed  their  slaves,  or  to  those  who  still 
retain  them  in  a  middle  and  half-free  condition,  I  have  shown  that  the 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  461 

industry  of  the  Negro  is  undeniable,  and  that  it  is  constant  and  produc- 
tive in  proportion  as  he  is  the  director  of  its  application  and  the  master 
of  its  recompense.  lint  I  have  gone  a  great  deal  further — I  have  de- 
monstrated by  a  reference  to  the  same  experience — the  same  unques- 
tioned facts — that  a  more  quiet,  peaceful,  inoffensive,  innocent  race,  is 
not  to  be  found  on  the  face  of  this  earth,  than  the  Africans — not  while 
dwelling  in  their  own  happy  country,  and  enjoying  freedom  in  a  natu- 
ral state,  under  their  own  palm  trees,  and  by  their  native  streams — but 
after  they  have  been  torn  away  from  it,  enslaved,  and  their  nature 
perverted  in  your  Christian  land,  barbarized  by  the  policy  of  civilized 
states — their  whole  character  disfigured,  if  it  were  possible  to  disfigure 
it — all  their  feelings  corrupted,  if  you  could  have  corrupted  them. 
Every  effort  has  been  made  to  spoil  the  poor  African — every  resource 
of  wicked  ingenuity  exhausted  to  deprave  his  nature — all  the  incen- 
tives to  misconduct  placed  around  him  by  the  fiend-like  artifice  of 
Christian,  civilized  men — and  his  excellent  nature  has  triumphed  over 
all  your  arts;  your  unnatural  culture  has  failed  to  make  it  bear  the 
poisonous  fruit  that  might  well  have  been  expected  from  such  abomi- 
nable husbandry — though  enslaved  and  tormented,  degraded  and  de- 
based, so  far  as  human  industry  could  effect  its  purpose  of  making  him 
blood-thirsty  and  savage,  his  gentle  spirit  has  prevailed,  and  preserved, 
in  spite  of  all  your  prophecies,  ay,  and  of  all  your  efforts,  unbroken 
tranquillity  over  the  whole  Caribbean  chain !  Have  I  not  then  proved 
my  case?  I  show  you  that  the  whole  grounds  of  the  argument  of 
1833,  the  very  pretext  for  withholding  complete  emancipation,  alleged 
incapacity  for  labour,  and  risk  of  insurrection,  utterly  fail.  I  rely  on 
your  own  records;  I  refer  to  that  record  which  cannot  be  averred 
against;  I  plead  the  record  of  your  own  statute.  On  what  ground  does 
its  preamble  rest  the  necessity  of  the  intermediate,  or  apprentice  state; 
all  admitting  that  nothing  but  necessity  could  justify  it?  "  Whereas 
it  is  expedient  that  provision  should  be  made  for  promoting  the  indus- 
try, and  securing  the  good  conduct  of  the  manumitted  slaves."  These 
are  the  avowed  reasons  for  the  measure — these  its  only  defence.  All 
men  confessed,  that,  were  it  not  for  the  apprehension  of  liberated 
slaves  not  working  voluntarily,  and  not  behaving  peaceably — of  sla- 
very being  found  to  have  unfitted  them  for  industry,  and  of  a  sudden 
transition  to  complete  freedom  being  fraught  with  danger  to  the  peace 
of  society — you  had  no  right  to  make  them  indented  apprentices,  and 
must  at  once  set  them  wholly  free.  But  the  fear  prevailed,  which,  by 
the  event,  I  have  now  a  right  to  call  a  delusion;  and  the  apprentice- 
ship was  reluctantly  agreed  to.  The  delusion  went  further.  The 
planter  succeeded  in  persuading  us  that  he  would  be  a  vast  loser  by 
the  change,  and  we  gave  him  twenty  millions  sterling  money  to  indem- 
nify him  for  the  supposed  loss.  The  fear  is  found  to  be  utterly  base- 
less— the  loss  is  a  phantom  of  the  brain — a  shape  conjured  up  by  the 
interested  parties  to  frighten  our  weak  minds — and  the  only  reality  in 
this  mockery  is  the  payment  of  that  enormous  sum  to  the  crafty  and 
fortunate  magician  for  his  incantations.  The  spell  is  dissolved — tho 
charm  is  over; — the  unsubstantial  fabric  of  calculating  alarm,  reared 

39* 


462  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

by  the  Colonial  body  with  our  help,  has  been  crushed  to  atoms,  and 
its  fragments  scattered  to  the  wind.  And  now,  I  ask,  suppose  it  had 
been  ascertained  in  1833,  when  you  made  the  apprenticeship  law,  that 
these  alarms  were  absolutely  groundless — the  mere  phantom  of  a  sick 
brain,  or  contrivance  of  a  sordid  ingenuity — would  a  single  voice  have 
been  raised  in  favour  of  the  intermediate  state?  Would  the  words 
Indentured  Apprenticeship  ever  have  been  pronounced?  Would  the 
man  have  been  found  endued  with  the  courage  to  call  for  keeping  the 
Negro  in  chains  one  hour  after  he  had  been  acknowledged  entitled  to 
his  freedom? 

I  freely  admit  that  formerly,  and  before  the  event,  when  the  mea- 
sure was  passed,  the  proof  was  upon  us,  who  maintained  that  the  ex- 
periment of  emancipation  was  safe.  We  did  not  pretend  to  deny  all 
risk;  we  allowed  the  possibility  of  a  loss  being  sustained  by  the 
planters;  nay,  we  did  more;  we  took  for  granted  there  would  be  a 
loss,  and  a  loss  to  the  amount  of  twenty  millions,  and  that  vast  sum 
we  cheerfully  paid  to  indemnify  them.  Then  we  had  not  the  facts 
with  us;  all  experience  was  said  to  be  the  other  way;  and  because  we 
could  only  offer  argument  against  the  opinions  of  practical  men  of 
local  knowledge,  we  were  fain  to  let  them  take  everything  their  own 
way,  and  receive  our  money  by  way  of  securing  them  against  the 
possibility  of  damage.  But  now  the  case  is  reversed;  the  facts  are  all 
with  us;  experience  has  pronounced  in  our  favour,  and  the  burthen 
of  the  proof  is  thrown  on  the  planter,  or  whoever  would  maintain, 
contrary  to  the  result  of  the  trial  already  made,  that  there  is  any  risk 
whatever  in  absolute  emancipation.  The  case  lies  in  a  narrow  com- 
pass; the  sudden  transition  from  absolute  slavery  to  apprenticeship  — 
from  the  condition  of  chattels  to  that  of  men — has  been  made  without 
the  least  danger  whatever,  though  made  without  the  least  prepara- 
tion. It  is  for  those  who,  in  spite  of  this  undoubted  fact,  maintain  that 
the  lesser  step  of  substituting  freedom  for  apprenticeship  will  be  dan- 
gerous, though  made  after  a  preparation  of  three  years,  to  prove  their 
position.  Therefore  I  am  not  bound  to  maintain  the  opposite  propo- 
sition, by  any  one  argument  or  by  a  single  fact.  Nevertheless,  I  do 
prove  the  negative,  against  those  upon  whom  it  lies  to  prove  the  affir- 
mative; I  gratuitously  demonstrate,  both  by  argument  and  by  fact, 
that  the  transition  to  freedom  from  apprenticeship  may  be  safely  made. 
I  appeal  to  the  history  of  Antigua  and  Bermuda,  where  the  whole 
process  took  place  at  once — where  both  steps  were  taken  in  one — and 
where,  notwithstanding,  there  was  more  tranquillity  than  had  ever 
before  been  enjoyed  under  the  death-like  silence  of  slavery.  Nay,  I 
prove  even  more  than  the  safety  of  the  step  in  question;  for  in  those 
colonies  the  transition  being  so  made  at  once,  it  follows,  a  fortiori, 
that  the  making  the  half  transition,  which  alone  remains  to  be  made 
in  the  rest,  is  doubly  free  from  all  possible  risk  of  any  kind,  either  as 
to  voluntary  labour  or  orderly  demeanour. 

But  this  is  not  all — let  us  look  at  the  subject  from  another  point. 
The  twenty  millions  have  been  paid  in  advance,  on  the  supposition 
of  a  loss  being  incurred.  No  loss,  but  a  great  gain  has  accrued  to  the 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  463 

planter.  Then  he  has  received  our  money  for  nothins;  it  is  money- 
paid  under  a  mistake  in  fact,  to  propagate  which  he  himself  contri- 
buted. If  such  a  transaction  had  happened  between  private  parties, 
I  know  not  that  the  payer  of  the  money  might  riot  have  claimed  it 
back  as  paid  under  mistake;  or  if  deception  had  been  practised,  that 
he  was  not  equitably  entitled  to  recover  it.  lint  without  going  so  far, 
of  this  I  am  certain,  that  all  men  of  honourable  minds  would  in  such 
circumstances  have  felt  it  hard  to  keep  the  party  to  his  bargain.  Again, 
view  the  matter  from  a  different  point,  for  I  am  desirous  to  have  it 
narrowly  examined  on  all  sides.  Suppose  it  is  still  maintained  that 
the  second  step  we  require  to  be  taken  will  be  attended  with  risk — 
how  much  is  the  loss  likely  to  be?  Six  years  apprenticeship  and  the 
emancipation  were  reckoned  at  twenty  millions.  No  loss  has  as  yet 
accrued,  and  four  years  have  elapsed.  Then  what  right  have  you  to 
estimate  the  loss  of  the  two  years  that  remain  at  more  than  the  whole 
sum?  But  unless  it  exceeds  that  sum,  the  planter,  by  giving  up  these 
two  years,  manifestly  loses  nothing  at  all;  for  he  has  his  compensation, 
even  supposing  the  total  loss  to  happen  in  two  years,  for  which  the 
money  was  given,  on  the  supposition  of  a  six  years'  diminished  in- 
come. But  suppose  I  make  a  present  of  this  concession  likewise,  and 
admit  that  there  may  be  a  loss  in  the  next  two  years  as  there  has  been 
a  gain  in  the  former  four,  have  not  I  a  right  to  set  off  that  gain  against 
any  loss,  and  then  unless  twice  as  much  shall  be  lost  yearly  in  future 
as  has  been  gained  in  past  years,  the  planter  is  on  the  whole  a  gainer, 
even  without  taking  the  twenty  millions  into  the  account,  and  although 
there  should  be  that  double  rate  of  loss,  contrary  to  all  probability: 
even  without  these  twenty  millions,  he  will  on  the  whole  have  lost 
nothing.  But  I  will  not  consent  to  leave  that  vast  sum  out  of  the 
account.  It  shall  go  in  diminution  of  the  loss,  if  any  has  been  suf- 
fered. It  shall  be  reckoned  as  received  by  the  planters,  and  unless 
they  lose,  during  the  next  two  years,  more  than  twenty  millions  over 
and  above  the  gains  they  have  made  during  the  last  four,  I  insist  upon 
it  that  they  be  deemed  to  have  suffered  no  loss  at  all, even  if, contrary 
to  all  experience  and  all  reason,  they  lose  by  the  change.  What  is 
the  consequence  of  all  this?  That  at  the  very  least  we  have  a  right 
to  make  the  planters  bring  their  twenty  millions  to  account,  and  give 
us  credit  for  that  sum — so  that  until  their  losses  exceed  it,  they  shall 
have  no  right  whatever  to  complain.  Take,  now,  a  new  view  of  the 
subject,  in  order  that  we  may  have  left  no  stone  unturned,  no  part  of 
the  whole  subject  unexplored — have  we  not  at  the  very  least  a  title 
to  call  upon  the  planters  to  consign  the  money  into  a  third  party's 
(Kinds,  to  pay  it,  as  it  were,  into  court,  until  it  shall  be  ascertained 
whether  they  sustain  any  loss  at  all,  and,  if  any,  to  what  amount?  I 
defy  all  the  quibblers  in  the  world  to  show  what  right  the  planters 
can  have,  if  they  insist  upon  retaining  our  money,  now  given  for 
nothing,  to  keep  the  Negroes  out  of  their  liberty,  that  money  having 
been  paid  to  compensate  a  supposed  loss,  and  experience  having  de- 
monstrated that  instead  of  loss,  the  present  change  has  already  been 
to  them  a  gain.  My  proposal  is  this,  and  if  the  planters  be  of  good 


464  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

faith  it  must  at  once  settle  the  question,  at  least  it  must  bring  their 
sincerity  to  the  test.  They  say  they  are  afraid  of  a  loss  by  the  ap- 
prenticeship ceasing — then  let  them  either  pay  the  money  into  court, 
or  keep  an  account  of  their  losses,  and  if  they,  at  the  end  of  the  two 
years,  after  emancipating  the  apprentices,  shall  be  found  to  have  in- 
curred any  loss,  let  them  be  repaid  out  of  the  money.  I  agree  that 
they  should  be  further  compensated  should  their  losses  exceed  the 
twenty  millions,  provided  they  will  consent  to  repay  all  the  money 
that  exceeds  the  losses  actually  sustained.  This  is  my  proposal — and 
I  am  as  certain  of  its  being  fair  as  I  am  convinced  it  will  be  rejected 
with  universal  horror  by  the  planters. 

Once  more  I  call  upon  your  lordships  to  look  at  Antigua  and  Ber- 
muda. There  is  no  getting  over  that — no  answering  it — no  repelling 
the  force  with  which  our  reason  is  assailed  by  the  example  of  thirty 
thousand  Negroes  liberated  in  one  night — liberated  without  a  single 
instance  of  disturbance  ensuing,  and  with  the  immediate  substitution 
of  voluntary  work  for  hire  in  the  stead  of  compulsory  labour  under 
the  whip.  There  is  no  getting  over  that — no  answering  it — no  repel- 
ling the  force  with  which  it  assails  the  ordinary  reason  of  ordinary 
men.  But  it  is  said  that  those  islands  differ  from  Jamaica  and  Bar- 
badoes,  because  they  contain  no  tracts  of  waste  or  woody  ground  to 
•which  Negroes  may  flee  away  from  their  masters,  conceal  them- 
selves, and  subsist  in  a  Maroon  state.  I  meet  the  objection  as  one  in 
front,  and  I  pledge  myself  to  annihilate  it  in  one  minute  by  the  clock. 
Why  should  free  Negroes  run  away  arid  seek  refuge  in  the  woods,  if 
slaves,  or  half  slaves,  like  apprentices,  never  think  of  escaping?  That 
the  slave  should  run  away — that  the  apprentice  should  fly — is  intelli- 
gible; but  if  they  don't,  why  should  a  bettering  of  their  condition  in- 
crease their  inclination  to  fly?  They  who  do  not  flee  from  bondage 
and  the  lash,  why  should  they  from  freedom,  wages,  independence, 
and  comfort?  But  this  is  not  all.  If  you  dread  their  escape  and 
Marooning  now,  what  the  better  will  you  be  in  1840?  Why  are  they 
to  be  less  disposed  then  than  now  to  fly  from  you?  Is  there  anything 
in  the  training  of  the  present  system  to  make  two  years  more  of  it 
disarm  all  dislike  of  white  severity,  all  inclination  for  the  life  of  the 
Maroon?  The  minute  is  not  yet  out,  and  I  think  I  have  disp.osed  of 
the  objection. 

Surely,  surely,  we  are  here  upon  ground  often  trodden  before  by 
the  advocates  of  human  improvement,  the  friends  of  extended  rights. 
This  is  the  kind  of  topic  we  have  so  often  been  fated  to  meet  on  other 
questions  of  deep  and  exciting  interest.  The  argument  is  like  that 
against  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws  respecting  Catholics — if  it  proves 
anything,  it  proves  far  too  much — if  there  be  any  substance  in  it,  the 
conclusion  is,  that  we  have  gone  too  far  already,  arid  must  retrace  our 
steps — either  complete  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  or  re-enact 
the  penal  code.  The  enemies  of  freedom,  be  it  civil  or  religious — be 
it  political  or  personal — are  all  of  the  same  sect,  and  deal  in  the  same 
kind  of  logic.  If  this  argument,  drawn  from  the  danger  of  Negroes 
eloping  in  1838,  should  we  emancipate  the  apprentices,  is  worth  any- 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  465 

thing  at  all,  it  is  a  reason  for  not  emancipating  them  in  1840,  and, 
consequently,  for  repealing  altogether  the  law  of  1S33.  But  I  shall 
not  live  to  hear  any  one  man  in  any  one  circle  of  any  one  part  of  the 
globe,  either  in  the  eastern  hemisphere  or  in  the  western,  venture  to 
breathe  one  whisper  in  favour  of  so  monstrous  a  course.  But  I  will 
not  stop  here.  Lives  there,  my  lords,  a  mnn  so  ignorant  of  West 
Indian  society,  so  blind  to  all  that  is  passing  in  those  regions,  as  to 
suppose  that  the  continuance  of  the  apprenticeship  can  either  better 
the  Negro's  condition,  or  win  him  over  to  more  love  for  his  master? 
I  am  prepared  to  grapple  with  this  part  also  of  the  argument.  I  un- 
dertake to  demonstrate  that  the  state  of  the  Negro  is  in  but  a  very  few 
instances  better,  and  in  many  beyond  all  comparison  worse,  than  ever 
it  was  in  the  time  of  slavery  itself. 

I  begin  by  freely  admitting  that  an  immense  benefit  has  been  con- 
ferred by  the  cart-whip  being  utterly  abolished.  Even  if  the  lash 
were  ever  so  harshly  or  unsparingly  or  indiscriminately  applied  in 
execution  of  sentences  pronounced  by  the  magistrate,  still  the  differ- 
ence between  using  it  in  obedience  to  judicial  command,  and  using  it 
as  the  stimulus  to  labour,  is  very  great.  The  Negro  is  no  longer 
treated  as  a  brute,  because  the  motive  to  his  exertions  is  no  longer 
placed  without  himself,  and  in  the  driver's  hand.  This  is,  I  admit,  a 
very  considerable  change  for  the  better  in  his  condition,  and  it  is  the 
only  one  upon  which  he  has  to  congratulate  himself  since  the  act  of 
emancipation  was  passed.  In  no  one  other  respect  whatever  is  his 
condition  improved — in  many  it  is  very  much  worse.  I  shall  run 
over  a  few  of  these  particulars,  because  the  view  of  them  bears  most 
materially  upon  this  whole  question,  and  I  cannot  better  prove  the 
absolute  necessity  of  putting  an  immediate  end  to  the  state  of  ap- 
prenticeship, than  by  showing  what  the  victims  of  it  are  daily  fated 
to  endure. 

First  of  all,  as  to  the  important  article  of  food,  to  secure  a  supply  of 
which  in  sufficient  abundance  the  slave-regulating  acts  of  all  the 
islands  have  always  been  so  anxiously  directed — I  will  compare  the 
prison  allowance  of  Jamaica  with  the  apprentice  allowance  in  Barba- 
does,  and  other  colonies,  from  which  we  have  the  returns,  there  being 
none  in  this  particular  from  Jamaica  itself.  The  allowance  to  pri- 
soners is  fourteen  pints  weekly  of  Indian  corn,  and  different  quantities 
of  other  grain,  but  comparing  one  will  be  sufficient  lor  our  purpose. 
In  Barbadoes  the  allowance  to  apprentices  is  only  ten  pints,  while  in 
the  Leeward  Islands  and  Dominica  it  is  no  more  than  eight  pints;  for 
the  crown  colonies,  the  slave  allowance,  before  1S34,  was  twenty-one 
pints;  in  the  same  colonies  the  apprentice  receives  but  ten;  so  that  in 
the  material  article  of  food  there  is  the  very  reverse  of  an  improve- 
ment effected  upon  the  Negro's  condition.  Next  as  to  time — it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  should  have  half  a  day  in  the  week,  the  Friday,  to  work 
his  own  provision-ground,  besides  Saturday  to  attend  the  market,  and 
the  Sabbath  for  rest  and  religious  instruction.  The  emancipation  art 
specifies  forty-five  hours  as  the  number  which  he  shall  work  weekly 
for  his  master.  But  these  are  now  so  distributed  as  to  occupy  tho 


466  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

whole  of  Friday,  and  even  in  some  cases  to  trench  upon  Saturday  too. 
The  planter  also  counts  those  hours  invariably  from  the  time  when 
the  Negro,  having  arrived  at  the  place  of  work,  begins  his  labour. 
But  as  it  constantly  happens  that  some  at  least  of  the  Negroes  on  an 
estate  have  several  miles  to  walk  from  their  cottages,  all  the  time  thus 
consumed  in  going  and  returning  is  wholly  lost  to  the  Negro.  Nay, 
it  is  lost  to  the  master  as  well  as  the  apprentice,  and  so  long  as  he  is 
not  compelled  to  reckon  it  in  the  statutory  allowance,  it  will  continue 
a  loss  to  both  parties.  For  as  no  reason  whatever  can  be  assigned 
why  the  Negro  huts  should  be  on  the  frontier  of  the  plantation,  only 
make  the  time,  frequently  as  much  at  present  as  three  or  four  hours  a 
day,  consumed  in  going  and  returning,  count  for  part  of  the  forty-five 
hours  a  week,  and  I'll  answer  for  it,  all  the  Negroes  will  be  provided 
with  cottages  near  the  place  of  their  toil. 

I  come  now  to  the  great  point  of  the  Justice  administered  to  the  peo- 
ple of  colour.  And  here  let  me  remind  your  lordships  how  little  that 
deserves  the  name  of  juctice,  which  is  administered  wholly  by  one 
class,  and  that  the  dominant  class,  in  a  society  composed  of  two  races 
wholly  distinct  in  origin  and  descent,  whom  the  recollection  of  wrongs 
and  sufferings  has  kept  still  more  widely  apart,  and  taught  scarcely  to 
regard  each  other  as  brethren  of  the  same  species.  All  judicial  offices 
are  filled  by  those  whose  feelings,  passions,  and  interests  are  constantly 
giving  them  a  bias  towards  one,  and  from  the  other,  of  the  parties 
directly  appearing  before  the  judgment-seat.  If  to  a  great  extent  this 
is  an  unavoidable  evil,  surely  you  are  bound,  by  every  means  possible, 
to  prevent  its  receiving  any  unnecessary  aggravation.  Yet  we  do 
aggravate  it  by  appointing  to  the  place  of  Puisne  Judge  natives  of  the 
Colonies,  and  proprietors  of  estates.  From  the  same  privileged  class 
are  taken  all  who  compose  the  juries,  both  in  criminal  and  in  civil 
cases,  to  assess  damages  for  injuries  done  by  whites  to  blacks— to  find 
bills  of  indictment  for  crimes  committed  upon  the  latter  class — to  try 
those  whom  the  Grand  Jury  presents — to  try  Negroes  charged  with 
offences  by  their  masters.  Nay,  all  magistrates,  gaolers,  turnkeys — 
all  concerned  in  working  every  part  of  the  apparatus  of  jurisprudence, 
executive  as  well  as  administrative,  are  of  one  tribe  alone.  What  is 
the  consequence?  It  is  proverbial  that  no  bills  are  found  for  maltreat- 
ment, how  gross  soever,  of  the  Negroes.  Six  were  preferred  by  a 
humane  individual  at  one  assize,  and  all  flung  out.  Some  were  for 
manslaughter,  others  for  murder.  Assize  after  assize  presents  the 
same  result.  A  wager  was  on  one  occasion  offered,  that  not  a  single 
bill  would  be  found  that  assize,  and  nobody  was  found  to  take  it;  pru- 
dent was  the  refusal  proved  by  the  result:  for  all  the  bills  were  ignored, 
without  any  exception.  Now,  your  lordships  will  observe  that  in  no 
one  case  could  any  evidence  have  been  examined  by  those  Grand  Juries, 
except  against  the  prisoner.  In  cases  of  murder  sworn  to,  as  plainly 
as  the  shining  of  the  sun  at  noonday  tide,  by  witness  after  witness — 
still  they  said,  "No  Bill."  Nay,  they  sometimes  said  so  when  only 
part  of  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  had  been  heard,  and  refused 
to  examine  the  others  that  were  tendered. 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  467 

The  punishments  inflicted  are  of  monstrous  severity.  The  law  is 
wickedly  harsh;  its  execution  is  committed  to  hands  that  exasperate 
that  cruelty.  Fur  the  vague,  undefinable  offence  of  insolence,  thirty- 
nine  lashes;  the  same  number  for  carrying  a  knife  in  the  pocket;  for 
cutting  the  shoot  of  a  cane-plant,  fifty  lashes,  or  three  months  imprison- 
ment in  that  most  loathsome  of  all  dungeons,  a  West  Indian  gaol. 
There  seems  to  have  prevailed  at  all  times  among  the  lawgivers  of  the 
Slave  Colonies  a  feeling,  of  which — 1  grieve  to  say,  those  of  the  mother 
country  have  partaken;  that  there  is  something  in  the  nature  of  a 
slave — something  in  the  disposition  of  the  African  race — something  in 
the  habits  of  those  hapless  victims  of  our  crimes,  our  cruelties  and 
frauds — which  requires  a  peculiar  harshness  of  treatment  from  their 
rulers,  and  makes  what  in  other  men's  cases  we  call  justice  and 
mercy,  cruelty  to  society  and  injustice  to  the  law  in  theirs;  inducing 
us  to  visit  with  the  extremity  of  rigour  in  the  African  what  if  done  by 
our  own  tribes  would  be  slightly  visited  or  not  at  all,  as  though  there 
were  in  the  Negro  nature  something  so  obdurate  that  no  punishment 
with  which  they  can  be  punished  would  be  too  severe.  Prodigious, 
portentous  injustice!  As  if  we  had  a  right  to  blame  any  but  ourselves 
for  whatever  there  may  be  of  harsh  or  cunning  in  our  slaves — as  if 
we  were  entitled  to  visit  upon  them  that  disposition,  were  it  obdurate, 
those  habits,  were  they  insubordinate,  those  propensities,  were  they 
dishonest,  (all  of  which  I  deny  them  to  be,  and  every  day's  experience 
justifies  my  denial,)  but  were  these  charges  as  true  as  they  are  foully 
slanderous  and  absolutely  false — is  it  for  us  to  treat  our  victims  harshly 
for  failings  or  for  faults  with  which  our  treatment  of  them  has  cor- 
rupted and  perverted  their  nature,  instead  of  taking  to  ourselves  the 
blame — punishing  ourselves  at  least  with  self-abasement,  and  atoning 
with  deepest  shame  for  having  implanted  vice  in  a  pure  soil?  If  some 
capricious  despot  were,  in  the  career  of  ordinary  tyranny,  to  tax  his 
pampered  fancy  to  produce  something  more  monstrous,  more  unnatu- 
ral than  himself;  were  he  to  graft  the  thorn  upon  the  vine,  or  place  the 
dove  among  vultures  to  be  reared— much  as  we  might  marvel  at  this 
freak  of  a  perverted  appetite,  we  should  marvel  still  more  if  we  saw 
tyranny  exceed  even  its  own  measure  of  proverbial  unreasonableness, 
and  complain  because  the  grape  was  not  gathered  from  the  thorn,  or  be- 
cause the  dove  so  trained  had  a  thirst  for  blood.  Yet  this  is  the  unnatu- 
ral caprice — this  the  injustice — the  gross,  the  foul,  the  outrageous,  the 
monstrous,  the  incredible  injustice  of  which  we  are  daily  and  hourly 
guilty  towards  the  whole  of  the  ill-fated  African  race! 

My  lords,  we  fill  up  the  measure  of  this  injustice  by  executing  laws 
wickedly  conceived,  in  a  yet  more  atrocious  spirit  of  cruelty.  Our 
whole  punishments  smell  of  blood.  Lest  the  treadmill  stop,  from  the 
weary  limbs  and  exhausted  frame  of  the  sufferers  no  longer  having  the 
power  to  press  it  down  the  requisite  number  of  turns  in  a  minute — the 
lash  instantly  resounds  through  the  mansion  of  woe!  Lest  the  stone 
spread  out  to  be  broken,  crumble  not  fast  enough  beneath  the  arms 
already  scarred,  flayed,  and  wealed  by  the  whip — again  the  scourge 
tears  afresh  the  halt-healed  flesh!  Within  the  last  hour  before  I  en- 


468  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

tered  this  House,  I  heard  from  an  eye-witness  of  the  fact  as  disgusting 
as  it  was  appalling,  that  a  leper  among  the  prisoners  was  cut,  to  pieces 
by  stripes  with  the  rest.  And  in  passing,  let  me  here  note  the  univer- 
sal but  cruel  practice  of  placing  the  patients  stricken  with  infectious 
diseases  in  hospitals,  and  in  prisons  among  others,  upon  almost  all 
private  estates;  and  the  no  less  unjust  and  exclusively  West  Indian 
practice  of  cruelly  and  stingily  compelling  the  prisoners  to  go  out  daily 
and  find  their  own  food,  instead  of  the  master  supplying  them  in  the 
gaol — a  refinement  of  harshness  and  meanness  not,  I  venture  to  assert, 
ever  reached  by  the  tyrant  master  of  the  Siberian  mines.  But  I  was 
speaking  of  the  public  prison,  and  there  as  the  leper  had  been  scourged, 
so  when  a  miserable  wretch,  whose  legs  were  one  mass  of  ulcerated 
flesh  from  former  inflictions,  gave  some  offence  to  his  task-masters,  he 
was  on  those  limbs  mangled  anew  by  the  merciless  application  of  the 
lash.  I  have  told  you  how  the  bills  for  murdering  Negroes  were  sys- 
tematically thrown  out  by  the  Grand  Juries.  But  you  are  not  to 
imagine  that  bills  are  never  found  by  those  just  men,  even  bills  against 
Whites.  A  person  of  this  cast  had,  unable  to  bridle  his  indignation, 
roused  by  the  hideous  spectacle  I  have  described  (so  disgusting,  but 
that  all  other  feelings  are  lost  in  pity  for  the  victim,  and  rage  against 
his  oppressor,)  repaired  to  the  Governor, and  informed  him  of  what  he 
had  witnessed.  Immediately  the  Grand  Jury,  instead  of  acknowledg- 
ing his  humane,  and,  in  a  slave  colony,  his  gallant  conduct,  found  a 
bill  against  him,  and  presented  him  as  a  nuisance! 

My  lords,  I  have  had  my  attention  directed  within  the  last  two 
hours  to  the  new  mass  of  papers  laid  on  our  table  from  the  West 
Indies.  The  bulk  I  am  averse  to  break;  but  a  sample  I  have  culled 
of  its  hateful  contents.  Eleven  females  were  punished  by  severe  flog- 
ging— and  then  put  on  the  treadmill,  where  they  were  compelled  to 
ply  until  exhausted  nature  could  endure  no  more.  When  faint,  and 
about  to  fall  off,  they  were  suspended  by  the  arms  in  a  manner  that 
has  been  described  to  me  by  a  most  respectable  eye-witness  of  similar 
scenes,  but  not  so  suspended  as  that  the  mechanism  could  revolve 
clear  of  their  persons;  for  the  wheels  at  each  turn  bruised  and  galled 
their  legs,  till  their  sufferings  had  reached  the  pitch  when  life  can  no 
longer  even  glimmer  in  the  socket  of  the  weary  frame.  In  the  course 
of  a  few  days  these  wretched  beings  languished,  to  use  the  language 
of  our  law — that  law  which  is  thus  so  constantly  and  systematically 
violated — and  "languishing  died."  Ask  you  if  crimes  like  these, 
murderous  in  their  legal  nature  as  well  as  frightful  in  their  aspect, 
passed  unnoticed — if  inquiry  was  neglected  to  be  made  respecting 
these  deaths  in  a  prison!  No  such  thing!  The  forms  of  justice  were 
on  this  head  peremptory,  even  in  the  West  Indies — and  those  forms, 
the  handmaids  of  justice,  were  present,  though  their  sacred  mistress 
was  far  away.  The  coroner  duly  attended — his  jury  was  regularly 
impannelled — eleven  inquisitions  were  made  in  order — and  eleven 
verdicts  returned.  Murder!  manslaughter!  misdemeanour!  miscon- 
duct! No — but  "  Died  by  the  visitation  of  God!"  Died  by  the  visi- 
tationofGod!  A  lie! — a  perjury! — a  blasphemy!  The  visitation  of 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  469 

God!  Yes,  for  it  is  among  the  most  awful  of  those  visitations  by 
which  the  inscrutable  purposes  of  his  will  are  mysteriously  accom- 
plished, that  he  sometimes  arms  the  wicked  with  power  to  oppress  the 
guiltless;  and  if  there  beany  visitation  more  dreadful  than  another — 
any  which  more  tries  the  faith  and  vexes  the  reason  of  erring  mortals, 
it  is  when  Heaven  showers  down  upon  the  earth  the  plague — not  of 
scorpions,  or  pestilence,  or  famine,  or  war — but  of  unjust  judges  and 
perjured  jurors — wretches  who  pervert  the  law  to  wreak  their  per- 
sonal vengeance  or  compass  their  sordid  ends,  forswearing  themselves 
on  the  Gospels  of  God,  to  the  end  that  injustice  may  prevail,  and  the 
innocent  be  destroyed! 

Sed  nos  immensum  spatiis  confecimus  nequor, 
Et  jam  tempus  equum  fumantia  solvere  colla. 

I  hasten  to  a  close.  There  remains  little  to  add.  It  is,  my  lords, 
with  a  view  to  prevent  such  enormities  as  I  have  feebly  pictured  be- 
fore you,  to  correct  the  administration  of  justice,  to  secure  the  com- 
forts of  the  Negroes,  to  restrain  the  cruelty  of  the  tormentors,  to  amend 
the  discipline  of  the  prisons,  to  arm  the  governors  with  local  authority 
over  the  police;  it  is  with  these  views  that  I  have  formed  the  first  five 
of  the  resolutions  now  upon  your  table,  intending  they  should  take 
effect  during  the  very  short  interval  of  a  few  months  which  must 
elapse  before  the  sixth  shall  give  complete  liberty  to  the  slave.  I  en- 
tirely concur  in  the  observation  of  Mr.  Burke,  repeated  and  more 
happily  expressed  by  Mr.  Canning,  that  the  masters  of  slaves  are  not 
to  be  trusted  with  making  laws  upon  slavery;  that  nothing  they  do  is 
ever  found  effectual;  and  that  if  by  some  miracle  they  ever  chance  to 
enact  a  wholesome  regulation,  it  is  always  found  to  want  what  Mr. 
Burke  calls  "  the  executory  principle;"  it  fails  to  execute  itself.  But 
experience  has  shown  that  when  the  lawgivers  of  the  colonies  find 
you  are  firmly  determined  to  do  your  duty,  they  anticipate  you  by 
doing  theirs.  Thus,  when  you  announced  the  bill  for  amending  the 
emancipation  act,  they  outstript  you  in  Jamaica,  and  passed  theirs 
before  yours  could  reach  them.  Let  then  your  resolutions  only  show 
you  to  be  in  good  earnest  now,  and  I  have  no  doubt  a  corresponding 
disposition  will  be  evinced  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  These 
improvements  are,  however,  only  to  be  regarded  as  temporary  expe- 
dients— as  mere  palliatives  of  an  enormous  mischief,  for  which  the 
only  effectual  remedy  is  that  complete  emancipation  which  1  have  de- 
monstrated by  the  unerring  and  incontrovertible  evidence  of  facts,  as 
well  as  the  clearest  deductions  of  reason,  to  be  safe  and  practicable, 
and  therefore  proved  to  be  our  imperative  duly  at  once  to  proclaim. 

From  the  instant  that  glad  sound  is  wafted  across  the  ocean,  what 
a  blessed  change  begins;  what  an  enchanting  prospect  unfolds  itself! 
The  African,  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  other  men,  becomes  in 
reality  our  fellow-citizen — to  our  fecliims,  as  well  as  in  his  own  na- 
ture our  equal,  our  brother.  No  difference  of  origin  or  of  colour  can 
now  prevail  to  keep  the  two  castes  apart.  The  Negro,  master  of  his 
own  labour,  only  induced  to  lend  his  assistance  if  you  make  it  his 
VOL.  i. — 40 


470  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

interest  to  help  you,  yet  that  aid  being  absolutely  necessary  to  pre- 
serve your  existence,  becomes  an  essential  portion  of  the  community, 
nay,  the  very  portion  upon  which  the  whole  must  lean  for  support. 
This  ensures  him  all  his  rights;  this  makes  it  not  only  no  longer  pos- 
sible to  keep  him  in  thraldom,  but  places  him  in  a  complete  and  inti- 
mate union  with  the  whole  mass  of  colonial  society.  Where  the 
driver  and  the  gaoler  once  bore  sway,  the  lash  resounds  no  more;  nor 
does  the  clank  of  the  chain  any  more  fall  upon  the  troubled  ear;  the 
fetter  has  ceased  to  gall  the  vexed  limb,  and  the  very  mark  disappears 
which  for  a  while  it  had  left.  All  races  and  colours  run  together  the 
same  glorious  race  of  improvement.  Peace  unbroken,  harmony  un- 
interrupted, calm  unruffled,  reigns  in  mansion  and  in  field — in  the 
busy  street,  and  the  fertile  valley,  where  nature,  with  the  lavish  hand 
she  extends  under  the  tropical  sun,  pours  forth  all  her  bounty  pro- 
fusely, because  received  in  the  lap  of  cheerful  industry,  not  extorted 
by  hands  cramped  with  bonds.  Delightful  picture  of  general  pros- 
perity and  social  progress  in  all  the  arts  of  civility  and  refinement! 
But  another  form  is  near! — and  I  may  not  shut  my  eyes  to  that  less 
auspicious  vision.  I  do  not  deny  that  danger  exists — I  admit  it  not  to 
be  far  distant  from  our  path.  I  descry  it,  but  not  in  the  quarter  to 
which  West  Indian  eyes  for  ever  turn.  The  planter,  as  usual,  looks 
in  the  wrong  direction.  Averting  his  eyes  from  the  real  risk,  he  is 
ready  to  pay  the  price  of  his  blindness,  and  rush  upon  his  ruin.  His 
interest  tells  him  he  is  in  jeopardy,  but  it  is  a  false  interest,  and  misleads 
him  as  to  the  nature  of  the  risk  he  runs.  They,  who  always  dreaded 
emancipation  —  who  were  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  Negro  indolence 
— who  stood  aghast  at  the  vision  of  Negro  rebellion  should  the  chains 
cease  to  rattle,  or  the  lash  to  resound  through  the  air — gathering  no 
wisdom  from  the  past,  still  persist  in  affrighting  themselves  and  scaring 
you,  with  imaginary  apprehensions  from  the  transition  to  entire  free- 
dom out  of  the  present  intermediate  state.  But  that  intermediate 
state  is  the  very  source  of  all  their  real  danger;  and  I  disguise  not  its 
magnitude  from  myself.  You  have  gone  too  far  if  you  stop  here  and 
go  no  further;  you  are  in  imminent  hazard  if,  having  loosened  the 
fetters,  you  do  not  strike  them  off — if,  leaving  them  ineffectual  to  re- 
strain, you  let  them  remain  to  gall,  and  to  irritate,  and  to  goad.  Be- 
ware of  that  state,  yet  more  unnatural  than  slavery  itself — liberty 
bestowed  by  halves — the  power  of  resistance  given — the  inducement 
to  submission  withheld.  You  have  let  the  slave  taste  of  the  cup  of 
freedom;  while  intoxicated  with  the  draught,  beware  how  you  dash 
the  cup  away  from  his  lips.  You  have  produced  the  progeny  of 
liberty — see  the  prodigious  hazard  of  swathing  the  limbs  of  the  gigan- 
tic infant — you  know  not  the  might  that  may  animate  it.  Have  a 
care,  I  beseech  you  have  a  care,  how  you  rouse  the  strength  that 
slumbers  in  the  sable  peasant's  arm!  The  children  of  Africa,  under 
the  tropical  sun  of  the  west,  with  the  prospect  of  a  free  Negro  republic 
in  sight,  will  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  tormented  when  they  no 
longer  can  be  controlled.  The  fire  in  St.  Domingo  is  raging  to  wind- 
ward, its  sparks  are  borne  on  the  breeze,  and  all  the  Caribbean  sea  is 


NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP.  471 

studded  with  the  materials  of  explosion.  Every  tribe,  every  shade  of 
the  Negro  race  will  combine  from  the  fiery  Koromantin  to  the  peace- 
ful Eboe,  and  the  ghastly  shape  of  colonial  destruction  meets  the 
astonished  eye — 

"If  shape  it  may  be  called  that  shape  has  none 
Distinguishable  in  member,  joint,  or  limb; 
Or  substance  may  be  called  that  shadow  seems, 
For  each  seems  either;  black  it  stood  as  night, 
Fierce  as  ten  furies,  terrible  as  hell!" 

I  turn  away  from  the  horrid  vision  that  my  eye  may  rest  once  more 
on  the  prospect  of  enduring  empire,  and  peace  founded  upon  freedom. 
I  regard  the  freedom  of  the  Negro  as  accomplished  and  sure.  Why? 
because  it  is  his  right — because  he  has  shown  himself  fit  for  it;  because 
a  pretext,  or  a  shadow  of  a  pretext,  can  no  longer  be  devised  for  with- 
holding that  right  from  its  possessor.  I  know  that  all  men  at  this  day 
take  a  part  in  the  question,  and  they  will  no  longer  bear  to  be  imposed 
upon,  now  they  are  well  informed.  My  reliance  is  firm  and  unflinch- 
ing upon  the  great  change  which  I  have  witnessed — the  education  of 
the  people,  unfettered  by  party  or  by  sect — witnessed  from  the  begin- 
ning of  its  progress,  I  may  say  from  the  hour  of  its  birth.  Yes!  It  was 
not  for  a  humble  man  like  me  to  assist  at  royal  births  with  the  illus- 
trious Prince  who  condescended  to  grace  the  pageant  of  this  opening 
session,  or  the  great  captain  and  statesman  in  whose  presence  I  am 
now  proud  to  speak.  But  with  that  illustrious  Prince,  and  with  the 
father  of  the  Queen,  I  assisted  at  that  other  birth,  more  conspicuous 
still.  With  them,  and  with  the  head  of  the  House  of  Russell,  incom- 
parably more  illustrious  in  my  eyes,  I  watched  over  its  cradle — I 
marked  its  growth — I  rejoiced  in  its  strength — I  witnessed  its  maturity; 
I  have  been  spared  to  see  it  ascend  the  very  height  of  supreme  power; 
directing  the  councils  of  state;  accelerating  every  great  improvement; 
uniting  itself  with  every  good  work;  propping  all  useful  institutions; 
extirpating  abuses  in  all  our  institutions;  passing  the  bounds  of  our 
European  dominion,  and  in  the  New  World,  as  in  the  Old,  proclaim- 
ing that  freedom  is  the  birthright  of  man — that  distinction  of  colour 
gives  no  title  to  oppression — that  the  chains  now  loosened  must  be 
struck  off,  and  even  the  marks  they  have  left  effaced — proclaiming 
this  by  the  same  eternal  law  of  our  nature  which  makes  nations  the 
masters  of  their  own  destiny,  and  which  in  Europe  has  caused  every 
tyrant's  throne  to  quake!  Hut  they  need  feel  no  alarm  at  the  progress 
of  light  who  defend  a  limited  monarchy  and  support  popular  institu- 
tions— who  place  their  chiefest  pride  not  in  ruling  over  slaves,  be  (hey 
white  or  be  they  black,  not  in  protecting  the  oppressor,  but  in  wearing 
a  constitutional  crown,  in  holding  the  sword  of  justice  with  the  hand 
of  mercy,  in  being  the  first  citizen  of  a  country  whose  air  is  too  pure 
for  slavery  to  breathe,  and  on  whose  shores,  if  the  captive's  foot  but 
touch,  his  fetters  of  themselves  fall  otf.  To  the  resistless  progress  of 
this  great  principle  I  look  with  a  confidence  which  nothing  can  shake; 
it  makes  all  improvement  certain;  it  makes  all  change  safe  which  it 


;472  NEGRO  APPRENTICESHIP. 

produces;  for  none  can  be  brought  about  unless  all  has  been  prepared 
in  a  cautious  and  salutary  spirit.  So  now  the  fulness  of  time  is  come 
for  at  length  discharging  our  duty  to  the  African  captive.  I  have  de- 
monstrated to  you  that  everything  is  ordered — every  previous  step 
taken — all  safe,  by  experience  shown  to  be  safe,  for  the  long-desired 
consummation.  The  time  has  come,  the  trial  has  been  made,  the 
hour  is  striking:  you  have  no  longer  a  pretext  for  hesitation,  or  fal- 
tering, or  delay.  The  slave  has  shown,  by  four  years'  blameless  be- 
haviour, and  devotion  to  the  pursuits  of  peaceful  industry,  that  he  is  as 
fit  for  his  freedom  as  any  English  peasant,  ay  or  any  lord  whom  I 
now  address.  I  demand  his  rights;  I  demand  his  liberty  without  stint. 
In  the  name  of  justice  and  of  law — in  the  name  of  reason — in  the 
name  of  God,  who  has  given  you  no  right  to  work  injustice;  I  demand 
that  your  brother  be  no  longer  trampled  upon  as  your  slave!  I  make 
my  appeal  to  the  Commons,  who  represent  the  free  people  of  England; 
and  I  require  at  their  hands  the  performance  of  that  condition  for 
which  they  paid  so  enormous  a  price — that  condition  which  all  their 
constituents  are  in  breathless  anxiety  to  see  fulfilled !  I  appeal  to  this 
House.  Hereditary  judges  of  the  first  tribunal  in  the  world — to  you 
I  appeal  for  justice!  Patrons  of  all  the  arts  that  humanize  mankind  — 
under  your  protection  I  place  humanity  herself!  To  the  merciful 
Sovereign  of  a  free  people  I  call  aloud  for  mercy  to  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands for  whom  half  a  million  of  her  Christian  sisters  have  cried  aloud 
— I  ask  that  their  cry  may  not  have  risen  in  vain.  But  first  I  turn  my 
eye  to  the  throne  of  all  justice,  and  devoutly  humbling  myself  before 
Him  who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  such  vast  iniquities,  I  implore 
that  the  curse  hovering  over  the  head  of  the  unjust  and  the  oppressor 
be  averted  from  us — that  your  hearts  may  be  turned  to  mercy — and 
that  over  all  the  earth  His  will  may  at  length  be  done! 


SPEECH 

UPON  THE 

EASTERN    SLAVE    TRADE. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS, 
MARCH  6,  1838. 


DEDICATION. 

TO 

ARTHUR   DUKE   OF  WELLINGTON,  K.  G. 

ETC.  ETC.  ETC. 

THE  uniform  candour  which  guides  your  public  conduct,  and  so  often  makes  you 
sacrifice  what  ordinary  men  would  reckon  fair  party  advantages,  induces  me  to  hope 
that  you  will  listen  to  the  earnest  entreaty  which  I  now  make,  that  you  would 
peruse  the  arguments  and  the  statements  of  this  speech,  with  the  attention  certainly 
due  to  the  subject,  though  not  to  the  speaker.  If  you  do,  I  feel  very  confident  that 
you  will  be  disposed  to  admit  that  your  moving  the  previous  question  upon  my 
resolutions  last  night,  was  ill-considered;  and  even  if  you  should  not  arrive  at  this 
conclusion,  I  still  entertain  the  most  sanguine  hope  that  a  further  attention  to  the 
subject  will  incline  you  to  support  the  next  proposition  which  may  be  brought  for- 
ward upon  the  same  matter. 

There  is  hut  one  meaning  of  a  previous  question.  It  never  can  with  propriety 
be  moved  unless  when  the  original  motion  was  held  to  be  irresistible  on  its  own 
merits.  Consequently,  no  ministry  ever  before,  within  my  knowledge,  would  con- 
sent to  accept  ot  an  escape  from  a  vote  of  censure  by  a  proceeding  which  admits 
their  guilt  or  their  error,  and  only  professes  an  unwillingness  to  condemn  them. 
Unless  the  truth  of  the  resolutions  was  undeniable,  the  previous  question  last  night 
could  have  no  meaning,  and  my  motion  should  have  been  met  with  a  direct  nega- 
tive. 

The  eagerness  with  which  the  ministers  caught  at  your  offer  of  letting  them 
escape,  censured  in  substance  though  without  a  formal  sentence  pronounced  against 
them,  provided  they  would  adopt  and  enact  your  plan  themselves,  was  very  remark- 
able. IJut  this  mad(!  no  difference  in  their  former  conduct.  Nay,  all  the  regula- 
tions which  they  can  make  must  leave  the  worst  parts  of  their  whole  error  untouch- 
ed; because  they  cannot  make  laws  for  the  coast  of  Africa  or  the  settlements  of 
foreign  crowns. 

Hut  if  it  is  certain,  nay,  if  it  is  admitted  by  yourself  and  others,  that  this  order 
should  not  have  been  issued,  at  all  events  without  guards  and  precautions,  surely 
it  was  not  expecting  loo  much  to  look  for  an  expression  of  disapproval  from  I'arlia- 

40* 


474  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

merit  when  a  measure  for  ENCOURAGING  THE  SLAVE  TRADE  was  brought  before  it. 
The  character  of  the  country  and  its  success  in  all  negotiations  on  the  foreign  traffic 
seemed  imperatively  to  require  that  step. 

I  have  in  this  address  to  your  grace  employed  not  the  language  of  panegyric, 
•which  you  of  all  men  would  the  most  despise,  but  the  language  of  truth  which  you 
know  well  how  to  value.  "The  treachery  which  deceives  is  as  criminal  as  that 
which  would  dethrone  you" — was  the  memorable  saying  of  the  great  French  orator 
to  a  sovereign*  who  loved  the  treason  of  pleasing  flattery  more  than  the  loyalty  of 
unpalatable  truth. 

It  is  a  thing  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  honour  and  interest  of  the  country, 
that  one  who  stands  in  your  pre-eminent  position  should  upon  such  a  question  as 
the  slave  trade  have  his  eyes  opened,  in  order  that  he  may  be  found  to  side  with  all 
the  other  great  statesmen  of  his  age. 

BROUGHAM. 

March  7,  1838. 


SPEECH, 


IP,  my  lords,  of  all  the  subjects  that  ever  engaged  the  attention  of 
this  country,  and  of  its  Parliament,  the  one  which  I  am  about  to 
broach  before  your  lordships  has  been  found  to  possess  at  all  times  the 
most  commanding  attractions;  and  if,  after  struggling  in  the  public 
mind  and  in  the  chambers  of  the  legislature  through  a  long  course  of 
years,  it  at  length  ended  in  the  most  brilliant  victory  ever  gained  by 
truth  for  humanity  and  justice;  I  will  venture  to  affirm  that  now,  when 
we  had  been  fain  to  hope  the  battle  was  won,  the  doom  of  the  slave 
trade  pronounced  by  the  universal  voice  of  mankind,  and  the  state  of 
slavery  itself  condemned — the  only  question  being  as  to  the  precise 
moment  for  executing  the  sentence — the  question  of  the  traffic  will  be 
found  to  have  lost  nothing  of  its  pristine  and  enduring  interest,  but 
that  the  attention  of  the  world  will  be  arrested,  and  the  feelings  of 
mankind  be  around  in  greater  excess  than  ever,  by  the  new  ingredient 
mingled  in  the  cup  of  bitter  disappointment  at  finding  our  hopes  still 
so  far  from  realized  and  marking  the  efforts  once  more  making  to 
revive  that  execrable  traffic  which  all  men  had  believed  to  have  been 
for  ever  destroyed.  For  when  I  look  at  this  order  in  council,  and 
compare  its  frame,  its  professed  object,  its  inevitable  consequences, 
with  everything  that  the  history  of  the  past  has  taught  us  of  the  slave 
trade,  I  am  compelled  to  express  the  bitterness  of  the  anguish  which 
fills  my  bosom  on  reflecting  that  towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  full  fifty  years  after  that  monstrous  iniquity  was  dragged  into 
the  light  of  public  discussion,  and  thirty  years  after  we  believed  it  ex- 

*  Massillon — "La  perfidie  qui  vous  trompe  cst  aussi  criminelle  que  celle  qui  vous  de- 
troneroit." 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  475 

tirpated  from  the  British  world,  I  am  actually  standing  here  to  grapple 
with  a  measure  which  all  but  professes  to  plant  it  anew,  and  of  neces- 
sity must  have  the  effect  of  extending  its  range  to  coasts  which  hitherto 
it  had  spared. 

But  in  thus  coming  forward,  no  man  can  accuse  me  of  proposing  a 
censure  against  the  government  without  giving  ample  warning,  and 
affording  abundant  opportunity  for  escape  or  amendment.  It  is 
upwards  of  six  weeks  since  I  dragged  to  light  this  reluctant  act  of 
council  —  I  say  reluctant — because  though  passed  in  July  last,  not  the 
least  intimation  of  its  existence  was  ever  given,  by  publication  in  the 
Gazette,  the  ordinary  repertory  of  much  less  important  proceedings 
of  state.  I  am  told,  indeed,  that  it  is  the  practice  not  to  publish  such 
orders — but  I  am  sure  it  is  a  course  "  more  honoured  in  the  breach 
than  in  the  observance."  For  when  we  consider  that  such  orders, 
framed  in  private  by  the  minister,  make  the  law  of  the  crown  colonies 
as  absolutely  as  the  law  of  England  is  made  by  the  enactments,  the 
open  and  public  enactments,  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  surely  it  is 
not  too  much  to  desire  that  those  resolutions  of  the  executive  govern- 
ment, thus  private  in  their  adoption,  and,  it  may  be,  little  considered 
before  made,  should  not  be  consigned  at  once  to  the  council  books, 
where  they  can  only  be  accessible  to  the  clerks,  but  should  be  pro- 
mulged  to  the  whole  people  whose  interests  they  concern,  whose  con- 
duct they  govern.  When  I  denounced  this  order,  I  stated  shortly  but 
distinctly  my  reasons  for  condemning  it;  I  showed  in  some  detail  how 
it  must  work;  I  referred  to  the  former  history  of  slave  trading  to  illus- 
trate my  meaning;  and  believing,  or  willing  to  believe,  that  it  had 
been  issued  through  inattention,  or  negligence,  or  indolence,  or  igno- 
rance of  the  subject,  I  said,  "  Let  it  only  be  withdrawn,  and  I  shall 
never  again  advert  to  the  subject  in  any  way — nor  comment  upon  the 
issuing  it — nor  in  any  manner  make  it  the  subject  of  observation." 
I  have  waited  since  then,  anxiously  looking  for  its  recall;  but  I  find 
my  not  unfriendly  suggestion  was  thrown  away,  and  that  the  measure 
is  persisted  in,  maintained,  defended,  by  its  authors.  No  man,  then, 
can  accuse  me  of  having  stood  by  while  mischief  was  brewing,  and 
only  spoken  out  after  it  was  done.  No  man  can,  without  the  most 
indecent  disregard  of  truth,  charge  me  here  with  crying,  "  I  warned 
you,"  when  the  event  is  o'er.  And  yet  I  have  seen,  what  on  no  other 
evidence  than  the  testimony  of  my  own  senses  I  could  have  believed, 
this  charge  made  against  me  when  it  was  just  as  false  as  it  would  be 
now.  I  have  been  vilely,  impudently,  most  falsely  aspersed  for  stand- 
ing by  and  saying  nothing  on  the  great  Canada  question — charged  in 
the  records  of  the  government  press,  with  being  like 

Juggling  friends,  who  never  spoke  before, 

Hut  cry,  "  I  warned  you," — when  the  event  is  o'er. 

—  Incredible — but  true!     I  have  often  heard  it  disputed  among  critics 
which  of  all  quotations  was  the  most  appropriate — the  most  closely 


476  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

applicable  to  the  subject-matter  illustrated;  and  the  palm  is  generally 
awarded  to  that  which  applied  to  Dr.  Franklin  the  line  in  Claudian, 

"  Eripuit  fulmen  coelo,  mox  sceptra  tyrannis," 

yet  still  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion,  and  even  that  citation,  admi- 
rably close  as  it  is,  has  rivals.  But  who  has  hit  upon  the  most  inap- 
plicable quotation,  no  critic  will  hereafter  presume  to  doubt.  The 
government  scribe  must  be  allowed  by  universal  consent  to  bear  away 
the  palm  of  inaptness  and  falsehood  from  all  his  rivals  in  the  art  of 
false  quoting  as  of  fabrication.  So  far  from  standing  by  till  after  the 
event,  I  addressed  your  lordships  and  the  government  as  long  ago  as 
March  last,  and  afterwards  warned  them,  with  full  reasons,  and  in 
much  detail,  both  in  my  place  and  in  an  elaborate  protest,  which  yet 
stands  on  your  journals  to  record  the  warning  my  voice  had  given. 
So  far  from  waiting  till  the  event  justified  my  warning,  and  then  cry- 
ing, "  I  warned  you,"  I  never  even  said  so — never  once,  that  I  can 
recollect,  taunted  them  with  having  neglected  my  warning  voice  after 
the  rebellion  broke  out  of  which  I  had  bidden  them  to  beware.  If, 
then,  I  now  say  that  I  do  not  expect  any  one  will  have  the  effrontery 
to  bring  a  similar  charge  on  this  occasion,  it  is  riot  because  as  great 
effrontery  has  not  been  displayed  before,  but  because  such  audacity 
can  hardly  be  repeated  a  second  time  by  any  one  at  so  short  an  inter- 
val after  a  former  exposure  to  the  indignation  and  scorn  of  the  world, 
under  which,  unless  all  feeling  be  extinct,  its  author  must  now  be 
writhing. 

I  must  now  begin  by  shortly  restating  what  I  six  weeks  ago  said 
of  the  nature  and  import  of  this  order  in  council. — An  order  of  March 
1837  had  sanctioned  the  ordinance  made  by  the  Court  of  Policy  in 
Guiana,  with  the  intention  of  confining  the  period  of  apprenticeship 
to  three  years.  In  July,  representations  were  made  by  some  planters, 
that  if  this  term  were  not  extended  to  five  years,  no  man  could  possi- 
bly bring  any  labourers  into  the  colony.  No  cargoes  of  human  beings 
could  be  imported  to  share  the  lot  of  the  half-freed  slaves,  by  becoming 
indentured  apprentices,  if  they  could  only  be  bound  for  three  years. 
The  papers  on  your  table  give  both  the  memorials  of  the  planters,  and 
the  statement  of  the  colonial  department,  that  with  the  request  of  the 
memorialists  they  had  complied,  and  for  the  reasons  assigned  in  the 
memorial.  My  noble  friend*  says,  in  so  many  words,  when  an- 
nouncing to  the  governor  of  Guiana  the  change  made  in  the  former 
ordinance,  that  it  was  made  because  without  it  the  importer  of  such 
cargoes  of  apprentices  would  not  find  it  worth  his  while  to  carry  on 
the  traffic,  and  that  no  apprentices  could  be  brought  from  the  east.  It 
was  therefore  avowedly  for  the  express  purpose,  and  with  the  delibe- 
rate intention  of  facilitating,  of  encouraging,  of  stimulating  this  traffic, 
that  the  law  was  thus  changed.  It  was  with  the  view  of  enabling 
those  to  carry  on  the  traffic  who  otherwise  could  not  do  so,  that  the 

*  Lord  Glenelg. 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  477 

order  was  framed  and  issued,  being,  I  think,  about  the  first  after  the 
Queen's  accession.  This  is  the  account  given  by  the  ministers  them- 
selves of  their  own  conduct  and  of  its  motives.  With  their  eyes  open, 
in  league  with  the  planters,  and  to  give  every  facility  for  the  importa- 
tion of  apprentices  into  Guiana,  they  adopted  this  measure.  It  is  easy 
indeed  for  them  and  their  West  Indian  confederates  to  speak  in  soft 
language  of  bringing  over  free  men — of  introducing  labourers — of  in- 
creasing the  number  of  hands  employed — of  enabling  the  owners  of 
estates  to  find  workmen  as  they  wanted  them.  But  1  will  tear  away 
all  these  flimsy  disguises — I  will  show  you  what  it  is  that  lurks  under 
these  fair  words — I  will  demonstrate  to  you,  and  by  facts  rather  than 
by  mere  arguments,  what  is  distinctly  felt  and  loudly  proclaimed  by 
every  one  of  those  whose  acquaintance  with  the  slave  trade  is  the  most 
enlarged  and  the  most  minute,  who  have  for  half  a  century  and  more 
been  occupied  in  tracing  it  through  all  its  forms,  and  pursuing  it  in 
each  disguise  which  it  unceasingly  assumes — that  nothing  but  slave 
trading  is,  and  that  nothing  but  slave  trading  can  be,  the  meaning  and 
the  result  of  all  that  is  thus  doing. 

And  for  this  purpose  1  must  first  desire  your  lordships  to  accompany 
me  while  I  cast  a  retrospective  glance  over  the  sad  history  of  that  dread- 
ful commerce,  and  to  mark  with  me  its  origin  and  its  progress  in  va- 
rious parts  of  the  globe.  The  task  I  know  is  painful:  for  we  are  going 
to  contemplate  by  far  the  blackest  page  in  the  annals  of  our  race. 
When  the  great  satirist  of  England  described  our  species,  reduced  by 
his  sarcastic  fancy  to  a  diminutive  stature,  as  the  most  vile,  cunning, 
cruel,  and  detestable  vermin  that  nature  had  suffered  to  crawl  on  and 
to  infest  the  face  of  the  earth — he  was  held  to  have  presented  an  ex- 
aggerated picture  of  human  vices,  by  those  who  remembered  that  he 
only  professed  to  draw  it  from  the  court  and  the  camp — the  perfidies 
of  politicians  and  the  cruelties  of  soldiers.  But  if  he  had  thrown  into 
the  canvass  the  crimes  of  sordid  avarice,  combining  in  one  all  the 
frauds  that  distinguish  the  one  class  with  all  the  heartless  cruelty 
ascribed  to  the  other;  if  he  had  darkened  his  picture  with  that  worst 
of  all  the  monstrous  births  which  that  execrable  vice  has  ever  engen- 
dered— if  his  page  had  not  only  been  disfigured  with  the  details  of 
the  wholesale  cunning,  and  heartless  ingratitude,  and  mean  trickery, 
that  shine  in  the  statesman's  life,  and  the  reckless  and  desperate  feats 
that  mark  the  course  of  the  warrior  with  blood,  but  been  tinged  with 
the  far  deeper  dye,  of  the  African  slave  trade,  combining  within  itself 
all  the  most  infernal  lineaments  of  human  guilt — no  tongue  ever  could 
have  complained  of  the  exaggerated  terms  which  Swift  has  employed, 
and  all  would  have  confessed  that  the  fidelity  of  truth  had  been  the 
guide,  and  not  the  gall  of  misanthropy  the  distiltment  of  his  pen. 

It  seems  strange  that  a  traffic  of  all  others  the  most  unnatural  and 
the  most  revolting  to  our  feelings  should  nevertheless  be  found  in  every 
age  and  nation  a  practice  among  men.  as  if  a  propensity  to  it  were  in- 
herent in  the  human  constitution.  Whether  it  be  from  the  innate 
thirst  of  gain,  or  the  irrepressible  love  of  dominion,  or  the  deep-rooted 
selfishness  of  our  nature,  anxious  to  save  our  own  toil  at  another's 


478  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

expense — certain  it  is  that  a  traffic  in  the  persons,  liberties,  labours, 
and  lives  of  our  fellow-men,  is  to  be  found  in  one  age  or  another  of 
society  wherever  men  have  existed.  In  the  most  savage  state  the 
fruit  of  war  is  slavery,  and  captives  become  the  property  of  the  con- 
querors, to  be  used  and  to  be  transferred  and  dealt  in  at  his  pleasure. 
In  the  islands  discovered  by  our  illustrious  navigator,  and  nnvisited 
before  by  the  foot  of  civilized  man,  slavery  was  found  in  various  forms, 
sometimes  in  the  state  of  absolute  bondage,  sometimes  of  qualified  vas- 
salage, resembling  our  indentured  apprenticeship;  and  for  a  limited 
period  of  time  as  well  as  for  life.  Slavery,  and  a  constant  traffic  in 
slaves  polluted  the  most  refined  states  of  antiquity;  and  in  the  days 
when  this  Island  formed  but  a  remote  and  barbarous  member  of  the 
Roman  world,  our  coasts  were  ravaged  by  the  heathen  slave  trade, 
as  those  of  Africa  are  laid  waste  by  the  Christian  commerce.  Bristol, 
by  a  singular  coincidence,  since  the  great  emporium  of  the  African 
trade,  and  a  principal  wrong-doer  in  the  modern  enormity,  was  in 
ancient  times  a  great  emporium  of  the  Roman  slave  traffic,  and  a  vic- 
tim of  the  crimes  she  afterwards  imitated  in  the  days  of  her  civility 
and  refinement.  The  feudal  times  in  the  western  world  were  familiar 
with  slavery  and  slave  dealing  in  all  its  forms.  Every  kind  of  bondage 
was  then  known.  There  was  the  villein  in  gross,  liable  to  be  pos- 
sessed and  to  be  dealt  in  as  a  beast  or  any  other  chattel — the  villein 
regardant,  native,  or  ascriptus  glebas,  who  could  not  be  removed 
from  the  place  of  his  birth,  but  belonged  to  the  land  and  to  its  owner. 
The  slave  under  a  contract  affixing  terms  and  time,  was  also  the  growth 
of  the  same  system  which  made  so  little  of  human  rights  and  feelings, 
and  gave  to  mere  force  so  much  dominion.  The  state  of  hired  slavery 
and  of  apprenticeship,  or  a  mitigated  slavery,  arising  out  of  contract 
and  for  a  consideration,  whether  of  hire  or  of  being  taught  some  trade, 
was  a  genuine  produce  of  feudality  and  its  servile  tenures  and  oppres- 
sive practices. 

In  the  East  the  history  of  our  race  presents  the  same  features,  ex- 
cepting that  the  mild  influence  of  Christianity  was  there  wanting,  and 
the  perpetration  of  similar  crimes  was  less  inexcusable.  To  supply 
those  countries  with  slaves,  the  centre  of  Africa  was  traversed  by  cara- 
vans, which  carried  her  children  into  the  more  wealthy  and  civilized 
regions  of  Asia.  But  the  life  of  domestic  slaves  mitigated  the  lot  of 
those  captives — living  in  the  houses  of  their  masters,  and  sharing  in 
their  comforts — little  exposed  to  extremes  of  climate — hardly  ever 
doomed  to  severe  toil — often  admitted  to  confidential  stations — not 
unfrequently  rising  to  even  high  employment — they  tasted  as  little  of 
the  bitterness  of  slavery  as  is  compatible  with  the  mildest  form  of  that 
always  bitter  cup.  But  an  event  now  happened  which  gave  to  slavery 
an  aspect  far  more  hideous  than  it  had  ever  before  worn  even  in  the 
most  barbarous  regions,  and  in  the  darkest  times. 

For  then  succeeded  things  the  record  of  which  tinges  with  its  deepest 
shades  the  darkest  page  in  the  history  of  man;  and  yet  that  page  was 
next  to  the  most  brilliant  by  far  of  the  eventful  volume.  As  if  to  bring 
down  Spain  from  the  summit  of  glory  to  which  her  fame  had  been 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  479 

elevated  by  the  daring  genius  of  Columbus,  she  plunged  into  an  abyss 
of  crimes,  and  mingling  all  perfidy  with  all  cruelty,  the  sordid  thirst 
for  gold  with  the  inhuman  appetite  for  blood,  enacted  such  scenes  as 
have  called  down  upon  the  Spanish  name  the  reprobation  of  the  world, 
and  as  the  just  execration  of  centuries  has  left  still  inadequately  con- 
demned. The  simple,  unoffending  Indians  were  seized  upon,  dis- 
tributed in  lots  like  cattle,  like  cattle  worked,  but  not  spared  like  cattle; 
for  they  were  worked  to  death  by  their  hard  task-masters  exacting  far 
more  than  their  feeble  frames  could  sustain.  Nor  was  it  till  the  total 
extirpation  of  their  race  approached,  and  there  seemed  reason  to  fear 
that  the  field  could  no  longer  be  tilled  nor  the  mine  explored  to  allay 
the  fierceness  of  Spanish  avarice,  that  a  thought  was  given  to  their 
sufferings,  or  the  means  sought  for  their  relief.  The  substitution  of 
African  for  Indian  labourers  was  the  expedient  resorted  to  by  an  un- 
natural union  between  short-sighted  philanthropy  and  clear-sighted 
interest;  and  out  of  this  union  was  engendered,  and  under  this  appel- 
lation was  cloaked,  the  monster  which  we  have  since  learned  to  loathe 
and  detest  as  the  African  Slave  Trade.  The  course  taken  then,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  the  same  with  that  which  in 
this  country  was  pursued  last  year.  Memorials  were  presented  to  the 
Colonial-office  in  the  Down  ing-street  of  Madrid;  representations  were 
made  that  the  decrease  of  the  Indians  had  begotten  apprehensions  of 
the  hands  no  longer  sufficing  for  the  work  of  the  West  Indian  estates; 
the  necessity  was  urged  of  introducing  into  the  West  labourers  from 
the  East,  (as  the  process  was  termed  in  either  case,)  and  the  facilities 
were  asked,  which  government  alone  could  give,  to  favour  this  impor- 
tant operation,  on  which  it  was  alleged  the  fortunes  of  the  planters, 
and  the  fate  of  the  Colonial  empire  depended.  I  might  easily,  from 
these  papers  before  you,  cull  out  the  very  expressions  used  in  the  cor- 
respondence between  the  parties  at  Madrid.  In  neither  the  sixteenth 
century  nor  the  nineteenth,  were  the  terms  of  slave  trading,  or  anything 
equivalent,  employed:  but  in  boih  instances  it  was  the  supply  of  hands, 
the  introduction  of  labourers,  the  encouragement  of  emigrants,  the 
obtaining  of  workmen — phrases  which  dance  through  these  dispatches 
in  various  collocation,  and  in  apparently  innocent  array.  To  this 
scheme  a  man  lent  himself  whose  name  will  descend  to  the  latest  ages 
as  a  pattern  of  persevering  and  disinterested  benevolence,  and  a  monu- 
ment of  its  uselessiiess,  nay,  its  mischiefs,  if  the  good  will  only  exist, 
and  is  not  under  the  control  of  sound  reason;  a  lasting  proof,  that,  to 
serve  mankind,  the  act  must  keep  pace  with  the  intention.  Rtitholo- 
mew  de  Las  Casas  was  that  ill-judging  and  well-meaning  philanthro- 
pist, who,  having  devoted  his  blameless  life  to  mitigating  the  sufferings 
of  the  Indian,  could  see  nothing  but  clnrity  and  kindness  in  relieving 
him,  by  substituting  the  hardier  African  in  his  stead;  and  he  joined 
with  the  planters  in  the  application  to  the  Colonial  Secretary  of  the 
day,  for  so  the  Prime  Minister  of  Spam  may  well  be  called,  as  Ameri- 
can affairs  formed  the  hulk  of  his  administration.  Hut  in  Cardinal 
Ximeiies  they  found  a  statesman  of  equal  humanity  and  wisdom;  he 
agreed  with  the  benevolent  "1'rotector  of  the  Indians,"  in  desiring  to 


480,  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

relieve  that  injured  race,  but  he  said  that  he  understood  not  the  left- 
handed,  one-eyed  philanthropy  which  would  take  the  burthen  from 
the  shoulders  of  one  people  to  lay  it  still  more  heavily  on  those  of 
anolhcr;  and  that  the  speculation  in  African  labourers  should  receive 
no  aid  from  him.  This  sagacious  statesman,  however,  was  now  in 
the  extremity  of  old  age;  on  his  death  the  young  Emperor  took  the 
helm  of  government  into  his  own  hands;  ignorant  of  Colonial  affairs, 
and  surrounded  by  Flemish  counsellors,  who  knew  no  better,  he 
listened  to  the  plans  of  the  speculators;  he  granted  a  patent  for  the 
yearly  introduction  of  4000  Negroes,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  regular  slave  traffic  which  had  before  only  occasionally  and  on  a 
very  trifling  scale  been  driven  by  a  few  Portuguese  settled  in  the  Bra- 
zils. Thus  was  established  that  infernal  policy  which  for  above  three 
centuries  has  been  the  scourge  of  Africa.  After  it  had  desolated  that 
unhappy  continent  for  many  ages,  by  the  blackest  crimes  ever  com- 
mitted systema.tically  by  men,  there  happily  arose  in  this  our  country 
a  man,  who,  to  the  pure  benevolence,  the  pious  zeal,  the  inextinguish- 
able love  of  his  fellow-creatures,  the  indomitable  perseverance  of  Las 
Casas,  united  the  only  merit  which  was  wanting  in  his  character,  a 
strict  love  of  justice  and  a  sound  judgment,  the  guide  of  his  principles 
and  his  conduct.  Need  I  name  him  whose  venerable  form  already 
stands  before  you  even  in  my  feeble  picture?  Thomas  Clarkson  yet 
lives,  till  lately  happy  in  the  reflection  that  he  first  brought  to  light  the 
horrors  of  the  African  traffic,  but  now  tasting,  with  all  the  surviving 
friends  of  the  Abolition,  the  bitter  mortification  of  finding  that  their 
labours  are  to  begin  again, since  the  government  has  become  the  patron 
of  a  new  slave  trade;  and  there  is,  I  tell  you  plainly,  but  one  opinion 
and  one  feeling  pervading  every  place  where  an  Abolitionist  is  to  be 
found,  and  that  is  the  opinion  and  the  feeling  which  all  have  urged 
me  to  lose  not  a  moment  in  expressing  to  your  lordships.  With 
Thomas  Clarkson,  and  with  his  early  associate,  the  learned,  pious,  and 
truly  humane  Granville  Sharpe,  was  joined  soon  after  another  and 
their  most  powerful  fellow-labourer,  Mr.  Wilberforce,  whose  name 
will  be  revered  as  long  as  wisdom  and  eloquence  attract  the  admira- 
tion, or  virtue  and  piety  command  the  love  of  mankind.  He  it  was 
who  brought  the  slave  trade  before  Parliament  for  trial.  And  now 
let  us  attend  for  a  moment  to  the  way  in  which  the  traffic  was  defended, 
because  we  shall  find  the  self-same  topics  adduced,  nay,  and  the  same 
language  used,  as  are  now  employed  to  defend  the  present  measure. 

The  slave  trader  took  high  ground.  He  was  not  to  be  cowed  by  the 
big  words  of  the  philanthropists;  he  would  not  be  put  down  by  sense- 
less clamour,  or  silenced  by  the  cry  of  mistaken  humanity.  The  threats 
of  the  Abolitionists  should  not  drive  him  from  his  honest  occupation, 
nor  the  calumnies  of  his  adversaries  destroy  an  important  branch  of 
trade  which  (and  here  I  blush  to  say  he  did  speak  the  truth,)  the 
legislature  had  sanctioned,  and  even  encouraged.  He  would  show 
that  the  African  was  happier  by  far  in  the  West  Indies  than  at  home; 
that  he  was  not  stolen  and  carried  over  by  force,  but  rescued  from 
murder,  or,  if  not,  from  a  more  cruel  slavery  in  Africa;  and  that  this 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  481 

great  branch  of  commerce,  this  importation  of  labourers,  as  it  was 
called,  both  in  17SS  and  1838,  proved  no  less  beneficial  to  the  continent 
they  were  drawn  from,  than  to  the  islands  they  were  brought  to  culti- 
vate. Thus  General  Tarleton  asserted  that  the  Africans  themselves 
had  no  objection  to  the  slave  trade — complained  that  people  were  led 
away  by  a  mistaken  humanity — affirmed  that  the  greatest  misrepre- 
sentations were  abroad — denied  the  miseries  of  the  middle  passage,  in 
which  he  said  only  five  in  a  hundred  died,  while  ten  and  a  half  per 
cent,  perished  of  our  regiments  on  board  of  West  Indian  transports; 
and  cited,  in  proof  of  the  happiness  and  comfort  of  the  Negro  slave 
exceeding  that  of  the  English  peasant,  the  authority  of  a  governor,  two 
admirals,  one  captain,  and  a  commodore — all  naval  officers  being, 
through  the  whole  controversy,  friendly  to  the  slave  trade,  and  wil- 
ling witnesses  to  the  blessings  of  Negro  slavery  in  the  West  Indies; 
as  military  men,  who  saw  far  more  of  those  blessings,  were  generally 
observed  to  take  the  opposite  side  of  the  question.  The  report  of 
General  Tarleton's  speech  I  take  from  the  Parliamentary  History  for 
1791;  but  Sir  William  Young's,  which  follows,  bears  internal  evidence 
of  having  proceeded  from  his  own  pen,  for  I  am  very  sure  no  reporter 
in  modern  times  ever  used  the  words  "hath"  and  "doth,"  as  this 
account  of  the  worthy  Baronet's  speech  does  throughout.  "  Far  be  it 
from  me,"  says  he,  "  to  defend  a  traffic  in  human  beings."  But  then 
he  did  not  regard  the  African  commerce  at  all  in  that  light.  He  denied 
that  a  system  of  kidnapping  supplied  the  slaves.  They  were  captives 
in  war,  or  they  sold  themselves  into  bondage,  or  were  men  who  must 
perish  in  a  famine,  or  be  murdered  by  wholesale  at  the  funeral  of  their 
chiefs,  but  for  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Liverpool  trader,  who  rescued 
them  from  hunger  or  the  sword.  Then  to  cultivate  the  colonies  with- 
out this  trade,  was  wholly  impossible;  the  decrease  was  2  or  2$  per 
cent,  a  year  in  the  slave  population,  the  same  proportion  as  I  find  now 
given  in  the  papers  before  us;  but  in  one  colony  especially,  this  neces- 
sity is  so  strongly  represented,  says  Sir  William,  that  he  who  runs  may 
read.  And  what  colony,  think  your  lordships,  is  that  whose  cry  for 
more  hands — new  workmen — a  supply  of  labourers  from  the  East — 
went  up  so  loudly  half  a  century  ago?  Why  the  very  Colony  of  Guiana, 
upon  whose  demand  and  for  whose  use  the  present  Order  in  Council 
is  framed!  But  there  is  this  difference,  that  in  1791  Africa  alone  was 
required  to  supply  the  wants  of  Guiana;  whereas  we  are  now  extend- 
ing the  drain  to  all  the  territories  within  the  East  India  Company's 
charter.  General  Phipps  and  others  contended  that  all  Africans  were 
slaves;  that  the  traffic  was  supplied  in  almost  every  instance  volunta- 
rily, not  by  kidnapping;  and  that  the  Negro  was  far  better  off  in  our 
islands  than  in  his  own  country.  It  never  struck  these  advocates  of 
crime  that  the  poor  African,  who  had  never  seen  the  ocean,  could  by 
po  possibility  form  an  idea  of  the  suffering  he  was  about  to  endure,  or 
the  scenes  into  which  he  was  to  be  conveyed;  and  that  to  give  him 
any  such  notions  would  have  been  as  difficult  as  to  make  him  com- 
prehend the  transactions  of  another  planet.  Memorable  were  the 
words  of  Mr.  Pitt; — memorable  the  sudden  reply  with  which  he  swept 
VOL.  i. — \  I 


482  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

all  those  sophistries  away!  Would  that  his  awful  voice  could  now 
sound  them  in  his  successor's  ears!  Would  to  God  that  he  were  still 
among  us  to  make  these  walls  echo  the  language  of  his  indignation, 
and  chase  away  at  once  and  for  ever  the  miserable  pretences,  the 
shadows  of  an  excuse  urged  for  these  abominable  proceedings!  "Alas! 
alas!"  said  that  great  man,  "you  make  human  beings  the  subjects  of 
your  commerce,  as  if  they  were  merchandise,  and  you  refuse  them  the 
benefit  of  the  great  law  which  governs  all  commercial  dealings — that 
the  supply  must  ever  adapt  itself  to  the  demand."  But  on  the  slave 
traders  all  appeals  to  reason  or  to  feeling  were  thrown  away.  The 
very  next  time  that  the  subject  was  brought  before  Parliament,  we 
find  them  reiterating  their  assertions,  that  no  wars  and  no  kidnappings 
were  caused  by  the  trade,  and  their  contrasts  of  West  Indian  happi- 
ness with  African  distress.  Alderman  Brook  Watson,  representing 
the  great  city  of  London,  was  heard  to  avow,  that  were  humanity  con- 
cerned in  the  abolition,  he  should  at  once  support  the  measure,  but  it 
was  all  the  other  way — the  Negro  being  removed  from  a  worse  to  a 
better  state.  Your  lordships  will  give  me  credit  for  not  adverting  to  a 
topic  urged,  hardly  to  an  expression  used  in  these  memorable  debates 
for  the  support  of  the  slave  trade,  to  which  a  match  may  not  be  found 
in  the  papers  before  you  upon  the  proposed  Guiana  importation.  The 
worthy  magistrate's  comparison  is  paralleled  by  a  similar  contrast  in 
the  papers,  between  the  state  of  the  Coolies  in  Asia,  and  after  their 
removal  to  the  Mauritius. 

The  alderman,  too,  like  my  noble  friend*  and  his  West  Indian  allies, 
had  no  kind  of  objection  to  regulate  the  trade.  No  one  who  defended 
it  ever  had.  From  1788  to  the  period  of  its  extinction,  I  never  yet 
found  one,  either  of  those  engaged  in  it,  or  of  those  who  defended  it, 
make  the  least  objection  to  put  it  under  as  many  regulations  as  the  wit 
of  man  could  devise.  And  why?  Because  these  men  knew,  what 
we  too  know  as  to  the  new  traffic  sanctioned  by  government,  that  all 
regulations  must  of  necessity  fail  and  go  for  nothing — that  all  efforts 
to  prevent  the  abuses  with  which  it  is  inseparably  connected,  of  cruelty 
and  fraud,  both  in  procuring  and  in  conveying,  and  in  employing  the 
slaves  or  apprentices,  must  infallibly  fail,  if  the  regulations  were  de- 
vised by  the  wisdom  of  an  angel.  But  again,  they  said  in  17.91,  as 
they  say  now — "You  need  not  be  disturbed  as  to  treatment  on  the 
voyage;  trust  to  men's  interests  if  you  won't  confide  in  their  honesty 
and  humanity" — and  surely,  said  Lord  Penryn,  then  member  for 
Liverpool,  it  is  the  trader's  interest  to  carry  over  as  many  Negroes  in 
a  healthy  state  as  possible.  Such  was  the  reasoning  by  which  we 
were  argued  out  of  a  belief  even  in  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage; 
such  the  grounds  on  which  were  denied  all  the  atrocities — the  torments 
— the  murders  of  which  the  slave-ship  is  universally  the  scene — and 
on  which  those  men  expected  to  make  the  world  reject  the  frightful 
history  of  those  prodigious  crimes,  as  the  fabrications  of  calumny,  or 
the  creatures  of  a  distempered  imagination.  I  shall  presently  show 

*  Lord  Glenelg. 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  483 

you  that  already  the  new  traffic  encouraged  by  onr  government,  and 
incapable  of  being  driven  at  all  without  its  help,  has  led  to  scenes  of 
nearly  the  same  description,  which  before  long  will  almost  equal  the 
horrors  of  the  middle  passage  itself. 

The  same  advocates  of  the  traffic  have  recorded  their  defence  of 
slavery  and  slave  trading  in  their  works.  I  have  this  morning  refreshed 
my  recollection  of  Sir  William  Young's  writings,  by  reading  his  West 
Indian  Tour,  undertaken  immediately  after  the  debate  of  which  I  have 
given  you  an  abstract.  In  St.  Vincent's,  he  says  to  a  friend,  the  day 
of  his  landing,  that  far  from  the  slaves  being  an  oppressed  race,  the 
proudest  human  being  he  ever  beheld  was  a  Negro  woman.  After 
passing  the  winter  months  there,  he  exclaims,  "  All  you  know  in 
England  of  jolly  Christmas  falls  very  far  short  of  the  Negro's  three 
days'  Christinas  in  this  Island."  He  visits  a  slave  ship  just  arrived, 
and  vows  he  can  see  nothing  unpleasant  belonging  to  it.  The  slaves 
laughed  and  joked  with  him,  he  says,  like  a  Davus  of  Terence.  In- 
deed he  is  fond  of  adorning  the  West  Indies  with  classical  allusions, 
having  himself  written  a  very  poor  history  of  Athens.  The  squares 
and  streets  remind  him  of  the  Forum  and  great  ways  of  old  Rome, 
with  groups  of  slaves  here  and  there.  He  goes  to  Antigua,  and  there 
the  slaves  dance  with  more  spirit  and  grace  than  the  most  fashionable 
circles  in  England.  In  Tobago  it  is  still  the  same  happy  scene.  "  The 
Negroes  seem  treated  like  the  planter's  favourite  children."  I  dare 
to  say  in  one  respect  the  love  of  the  parent  was  conspicuous  enough, 
I  mean  in  not  sparing  the  rod. 

Such  were  the  pictures  of  slavery  comforts,  of  Negro  happiness, 
with  which  the  patience  of  the  country  was  worn  out.  and  the  reason 
of  Parliament  beguiled  for  many  a  long  year;  and  such  the  arguments 
by  which  men  were  persuaded  that  there  was  something  wholly  un- 
reasonable in  the  objections  we  were  always  urging  against  wholesale 
robbery  and  cruelty  and  murder.  Nevertheless,  our  strange  and  para- 
doxical opinions  daily  gained  ground.  The  carrying  over  70  or  80,000 
human  beings  from  their  own  country  to  labour  in  America,  of  whom 
above  15.000  were  brought  to  our  settlements,  began  to  be  universally 
reprobated.  Men  came  to  feel  that  such  a  traffic  could  no  longer  bo 
suffered,  whether  the  objects  of  it  were  termed  labourers  or  appren- 
tices, or  more  fairly  and  honestly  slaves.  We  were  no  longer  described 
as  visionaries  and  theorists.  Our  statements  were  no  more  regarded 
as  fictions  or  calumnies;  and  at  length,  in  spite  of  every  attempt  to 
ward  of!'  the  blow,  the  doom  of  the  traffic  was  pronounced — to  the 
immortal  honour  of  thn  Cabinet  of  IfiOO,  with  which  it  may  soem 
unaccountable,  but  is  yet  true,  that  some  of  the  present  government 
were  closely  connected.  Lord  Grey,  in  concert  with  Mr.  Wilberforco, 
brought  in  the  Abolition  Hill — and  thus  performed  what  I  really  think, 
and  I  believe  my  noble  and  most  valued  friend  himself  considers,  the 
most  glorious  act  of  his  long,  useful,  and  brilliant  public  life.  It  was 
passed  by  the  greatest  majority  ever  known  on  a  great  measure  long 
the  subject  of  controversy.  The  Commons,  by  sixteen  to  one,  .sealed 
the  fate  of  the  slave  trade. 


484  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

The  predictions  of  the  planters  that  the  Negroes  must  decrease  con- 
tinued to  haunt  them  for  some  years,  and  various  schemes  were  pro- 
posed for  keeping  up  the  numbers  of  labourers.  This  led  Mr.  Barham 
in  181 1  to  propose  the  introduction  of  free  labourers  from  Asia,  and 
his  motion  forms  the  next  event  of  importance  in  this  history.  He 
was  one  of  the  very  best  masters  and  most  successful  planters  in  An- 
tigua; and  his  proposal  was  rested  wholly  upon  motives  of  kindness 
towards  the  slaves.  These  being,  as  he  thought,  reduced  in  numbers 
while  there  was  the  same  work  to  perform,  in  consequence  of  the 
embarrassments  of  West  Indian  property  not  permitting  the  produce 
to  be  diminished  which  went  to  satisfy  creditors,  there  seemed  reason 
to  apprehend  the  effects  of  the  Negro  labour  being  so  much  increased. 
The  reception  of  this  plan  in  Parliament  was  very  remarkable.  Mr. 
Anthony  Browne,  then  and  now  the  respectable  agent  for  Antigua, 
cautioned  the  House  against  being  led  astray  by  its  feelings  in  behalf 
of  the  slaves,  to  sanction  an  impracticable  and  visionary  scheme.  13 ut 
Mr.  Stephen  gave  it  his  decided  opposition  upon  higher  grounds. 
Now,  than  Mr.  Stephen's,  there  can  no  higher  authority  be  cited  on 
slavery  and  slave  trading,  and  everything  connected  with  these  sub- 
jects. He  had  long  made  them  his  study;  he  had  been  at  all  times 
the  zealous  co-operator  with  his  friend  and  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Wil- 
berforce,  in  the  Abolition  committee;  he  had  passed  the  best  years  of 
his  life  in  a  slave  colony,  St.  Kitts;  and  since  his  return  to  Europe,  he 
had  never  ceased  to  watch  over  every  branch  of  the  great  questions 
connected  with  West  Indian  affairs.  His  resistance  to  the  proposition 
of  introducing  free  labourers  into  the  colonies,  as  it  was  called  then 
and  is  called  now,  was  grounded  upon  the  injuries  thus  certain  to  be 
inflicted  upon  the  people  whom  it  was  proposed  to  transport  from. 
Asia;  and  Mr.  Huskisson  adopting  the  same  views,  opposed  the  pro- 
ject upon  the  same  grounds.  An  accident  prevented  Mr.  Canning 
from  attending  this  debate,  as  absence  from  town  upon  the  circuit  kept 
me  also  away  from  it.  I  felt  exceedingly  anxious  when  the  subject 
was  announced,  and  when  I  saw  that  eminent  person  after  the  com- 
mittee had  been  appointed,  I  found  he  viewed  the  subject  in  the  same 
light  with  Mr.  Stephen  and  myself.  No,  no,  said  he — it  is  enough  to 
have  desolated  Africa,  without  introducing  this  pest  into  Asia  too. 

The  next  circumstance  to  which  we  must  look  in  pursuing  this  his- 
torical retrospect,  is  the  traffic  which  for  some  years  has  been  going 
on  between  India  arid  the  Mauritius;  for  it  is  to  the  alleged  success  of 
this  experiment  that  we  are  desired  to  look  by  the  patrons  of  the  new 
scheme — the  government  and  the  Guiana  planters.  I  own  that  I  re- 
gard whatever  relates  to  the  Mauritius  with  extreme  jealousy  in  all 
slave  questions.  There  is  no  quarter  of  the  globe  where  more  gross 
abuses  have  been  practised — nay,  more  flagrant  violations  of  the  law, 
from  the  eager  appetite  for  new  hands  which  the  fertile  land  excites 
in  the  uncleared  districts  of  that  island.  It  was  in  1811  that  I  had  the 
happiness  of  passing  the  act  through  Parliament,  declaring  slave 
trading  to  be  a  felony,  and  awarding  to  it  the  punishment  of  transpor- 
tation. Some  years  after  it  was  made  capital.  Yet  in  spite  of  this 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  485 

penal  sanction,  the  Mauritius  planters  were  audacious  enough  to  in- 
troduce, by  slave  traffic,  so  many  Africans,  that  Sir  George  Murray, 
when  secretary  for  the  colonies  some  time  back,  admitted  twenty-five 
thousand  at  least  to  have  been  thus  brought  thither  from  the  coasts  of 
Africa.  No  less  than  twenty-five  thousand  capital  felonies  had  thus 
been  perpetrated  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  by  those  sordid  and 
greedy  speculators.  The  position  of  the  island  is  singularly  adapted 
for  carrying  on  this  detested  commerce.  Near  the  continent,  and  near 
that  part  of  it  where  we  have  no  settlement,  and  keep  hardly  any 
cruisers,  no  effective  check  upon  such  operations  can  ever  be  main- 
tained, if  the  authorities  in  the  island  itself  do  not  exercise  the  most 
vigilant  attention;  and  there  is  but  too  much  reason  to  suspect,  from 
what  came  out  in  Mr.  Buxton's  committee,  that  instead  of  watching, 
they  connived  at  one  time,  while  some  high  in  office  encouraged  the 
offenders,  and  even  partook  in  the  fruits  of  their  crimes.  Doubtless, 
if  the  Guiana  order  in  council  is  suffered  to  subsist,  a  like  privilege 
will  be  extended  to  this  island.  But  in  either  case  the  African  coast 
is  under  the  operation  of  this  new  traffic.  That  order  comprehends  it 
in  terms  the  most  distinct.  Nor  does  it  only  open  the  trade  to 

" them  that  sail 

Beyond  the  Cape  of  Hope,  and  now  are  past 
Mosambique" 

It  stretches  along  Sofala,  and  to  Guardafui  and  Arabia — comprising 
all  the  Asian  Islands — 

"Ceylon  and  Timor,  Ternate  and  Cadore." 

It  then  includes  the  whole  coast  of  India,  and  all  the  regions  of  that 
vast  domain,  stretching 

"  O'er  hills  where  flocks  do  feed,  beyond  the  springs 
Of  Ganges  and  Hydaspes,  Indian  streams/' 

All  those  plains  and  mountains — all  those  ports,  and  bays,  and  creeks 
— long  lines  of  sea-beach  without  a  fort,  or  a  witness,  a  magistrate  to 
control,  or  an  eye  to  see  what  is  done — from  Madagascar  to  the  Red 
Sea — from  the  Arabian  Gulf  along  Malabar,  to  Travancore,  thence 
from  Comorin  to  the  mouths  of  the  Ganges,  and  of  all  the  unknown 
and  unnamed  streams  lhat  water  the  peninsula  and  flow  into  the  In- 
dian Ocean.  It  is  in  such  vast  and  such  desolate  regions  that  we  are 
to  be  told  this  order  will  never  be  abused,  and  none  be  taken  by  force, 
nor  any  circumvented  by  fraud.  When  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  with 
all  men's  eyes  to  watch  him  and  his  agents,  the  King  of  Prussia  could 
drive  his  trade  of  a  crimp,  and  fill  his  army  with  recruits  spirited  away 
from  the  banks  of  the  Rhine — populous,  civilized  countries,  enjoying 
the  blessings  of  regular  government,  the  protection  of  a  vigilant  police, 
and  entertaining  ambassadors  at  the  court  of  Berlin — when  thai  mo- 
narch could,  in  such  countries,  and  in  the  face  of  day,  carry  oil  the 
priest  at  the  altar,  and  the  professor  at  his  desk,  from  the  countries 


486  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

on  the  Rhine,  the  Moselle,  and  the  Oder,  and  these  reverend  and 
learned  recruits  were,  for  months  afterwards,  found  carrying  his  fire- 
locks, and  serving  in  his  ranks — how  can  the  folly  be  sufficiently  de- 
rided which  represents  it  as  difficult  to  abuse  this  abominable  regula- 
tion, and  make  it  the  cover  of  common  slave  trading,  in  the  remote 
desolate  countries  watered  by  the  Niger,  and  the  yet  more  deserted 
shores  of  eastern  Africa,  through  which  nameless  rivers  flow  into  the 
sea?  The  order  was  passed  without  a  single  regulation  being  sub- 
joined, either  here  or  in  the  East  Indies,  to  prevent  such  abuses,  or  to 
limit  their  amount.  But  to  speak  of  regulations  in  such  circumstances, 
is  too  absurd.  What  regulations  can  the  wit  of  man  devise  which 
can  have  any  effect  at  all?  Nay,  in  the  very  places  where  the  abuse 
is  most  likely  to  occur,  you  have  not  the  shadow  of  authority  to  make 
rules.  How  can  you  legislate  for  the  slave  dealers  on  the  eastern 
coast,  north  of  the  Cape?  Yet  there  the  worst  branches  of  the  old 
slave  trade  at  this  moment  exist.  I  saw  only  yesterday  a  person  who 
had  been  present  at  the  capture  of  a  Portuguese  slave  ship,  which  had 
sailed  from  the  coast  of  Zanguebar  with  eight  hundred  Negroes  on 
board,  and  lost  above  two  hundred  before  she  reached  her  port  of 
destination  in  the  Brazils.  Let  it  not  then  be  said  that  regulations 
may  be  devised  for  preventing  abuse.  But  none  have  been  attempted 
or  thought  of.  The  wretched  beings,  apprentices  you  calUhem,  are 
to  be  carried  without  a  word  said  specifying  the  tonnage — regulating 
the  space  for  accommodation  between  the  decks — fixing  the  propor- 
tion of  water  to  drink,  or  provision  to  sustain  life — ordering  medical 
attendance — directing  the  course  of  the  voyage — or  limiting  its  dura- 
tion. The  order  was  issued  here  in  July,  before  it  could  possibly  be 
known  that  any  law  had  been  promulgated  in  Bengal — for  the  date 
of  the  Bengal  regulation  was  May  1,  and  it  was  sent  over  on  the  7th 
of  June.  That  regulation,  too,  was  and  still  is,  confined  to  the  presi- 
dency of  Fort  William.  Nay  more,  it  is  altogether  silent  on  every 
one  of  the  important  particulars  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  merely 
prescribes  in  vague  and  general  terms  that  the  parties  interested  in 
disobeying  it,  and  on  whose  conduct  it  sets  no  kind  of  watch,  shall 
attend  to  the  comforts  of  the  crew  and  cargo. 

Contrast  now  this  legislation  of  the  Crown  with  the  enactments  of 
the  Parliament  when  giving  laws,  I  will  not  say  in  part  materd,  but 
on  things  incomparably  less  demanding  legislative  care,  because  hardly 
liable  to  any  of  the  like  abuses.  A  band  of  emigrants  are  about  to 
leave  their  native  country,  and  seek  their  fortunes  in  the  western 
world.  They  are  civilized  men — well  acquainted  with  all  that  regards 
their  voyage  and  destination — generally  well  informed — nay,  com- 
pared with  the  Coolies  of  Bengal,  or  the  Negroes  of  the  Mozambique 
coast,  I  have  a  right  to  say  accomplished  persons.  In  the  Thames,  or 
the  Mersey,  or  the  Severn,  the  gallant  ship  that  is  to  convey  them 
forth  is  ready — her  crew  on  board — her  stores  taken  in — her  anchor 
a-peak — her  sails  unfurled.  Every  passenger  i:  there,  and  as  the 
favouring  breeze  sounds  through  the  cordage,  all  are  more  anxious 
to  go  than  the  captain  of  the  vessel  to  make  sail.  Shall  she  go?  The 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  487 

foretop-sail  dangles  from  the  mast  in  token  of  her  readiness  to  drop 
down  the  river,  if  she  only  may.  Shall  she  go?  No.  The  act  of 
Parliament  interposes.  The  act  of  Parliament  says,  No.  The  act  of 
Parliament  commands,  under  penalties  which  may  not  be  risked,  that 
she  shall  stay  and  be  examined.  "  Come  ashore  thou  captain,"  says 
the  law  of  the  land,  "and  show  thyself  worlhy  to  take  charge  of  so 
many  British  subjects  on  the  ocean.  Come  ashore  you  crew,  and 
muster,  that  the  equipment  be  seen  sufficient.  Come  ashore  thou 
surgeon,  and  prove,  by  the  testimonials  of  Surgeon's  Hall,  the  requi- 
site fitness  to  be  entrusted  with  the  health  of  this  emigrant  people!" 
But  at  least  those  emigrants  may  remain  on  board.  They  are  of 
mature  age — fully  aware  of  their  own  intentions — well  fitted  to  look 
after  their  own  interests,  and  guard  themselves  against  all  fraud. 
They  may  keep  in  the  berths  where  they  are  counting  every  minute 
an  hour  that  is  lost  of  the  propitious  wind  which  shall  waft  them  to 
the  wished-for  region  of  all  their  hopes.  They  surely  may  remain  in 
the  ship.  Again,  the  act  of  Parliament  says,  No.  Still  it  calls  aloud, 
"  Come  on  shore,  you  emigrants,  that  you  may  be  mustered,  and  the 
King's  officer  who  marshals  you  examining  into  each  man's  case,  may 
ascertain  that  none  are  carried  forth  against  their  will,  and  that  no 
fraud,  nor  circumvention,  nor  delusive  misrepresentation  has  been, 
practised  upon  any."  And  whence  all  this  jealousy,  this  excessive 
care,  which  seems  even  to  protect  men  from  the  consequences  of  their 
own  imprudence,  and  almost  interferes  with  their  personal  liberty  in 
order  to  make  their  maltreatment  impossible?  It  is  because  the  law 
was  framed  by  wise  and  provident  men,  who  had  well  weighed  the 
importance  of  throwing  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  sordid  cunning, 
and  had  maturely  calculated  the  hazards  of  deception  being  practised, 
and  abuses  of  every  kind  creeping  into  a  traffic  so  little  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  human  affairs  as  the  removing  masses  of  the  people  from 
one  hemisphere  to  the  other.  It  is  because  the  laws  so  joalously 
guard  the  safety  of  the  subject,  that  they  will  take  every  elaborate 
precaution  to  exclude  even  the  possibility  of  a  single  person  being 
entrapped,  or  inveigled,  or  spirited  away,  lost  among  a  crowd  of  emi- 
grants, whose  general  information  about  all  they  are  doing  —  whose 
general  design  to  go — and  of  their  own  free  will  to  go — and  with  their 
eyes  open  to  go — no  man  who  ever  made  these  laws  ever  doubted  for 
an  instant.  Therefore  are  all  these  regulations  prescribed,  with  the 
additional  penally  of  no  less  than  £500  for  any  passenger  taken  on 
board  in  any  place  where  no  custom-house  stands,  and  no  officers  are 
ready  to  perform  the  examination  —  lest  peradventure  a  single  Knglish- 
mnn  may  by  some  improbable  combination  of  accidents  be  kidnapped 
and  carried,  innocently  or  ignoranily,  into  a  foreign  land.  And  then 
comes  my  noble  friend,*  with  his  order  in  council — his  crown-made 
law — to  encourage  the  shipment — not  of  enlightened  Englishmen,  but 
simple  Hindoos  and  savage  Africans,  in  distant,  desert  coasts,  in  remote 
creeks  and  bays  of  the  sea,  laid  down  in  no  charts,  bearing  no  name, 

•   Lord  Glenelg. 


488  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

at  the  mouth  of  rivers  which  drain  unknown  regions  far  inland,  and 
carry  down  their  streams  the  barbarous  natives  to  an  ocean  which 
they  had  never  beheld.  Knowing  the  watchful  care,  the  scrupulous 
and  suspicious  jealousy  of  the  English  law  made  by  Parliament  on  all 
that  relates  to  the  emigration  of  our  own  civilized  people — knowing 
that  the  shipper  would  be  ruined  who  should  suffer  an  Englishman 
to  embark  of  his  own  free  will,  and  more  desirous  to  go  than  he  to 
take  him,  where  there  was  no  custom-house  officer  to  watch  the  ope- 
ration— my  noble  friend  makes  his  colonial  law  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  enabling  thousands  arid  thousands  of  simple,  ignorant,  unci- 
vilized men  to  be  taken  in  any  speculating  trader's  vessel,  in  obscure, 
nameless  places,  where,  instead  of  revenue  establishments  and  public 
offices  being  stationed,  the  footstep  of  no  European,  save  the  slave 
trader  and  the  crimp,  ever  was  known  to  have  trodden  since  the  cre- 
ation. The  law  made  by  Parliament  suspects  all  engaged  in  the  trade 
of  emigration,  even  from  the  city  of  London;  and  the  lawgivers  have 
framed  its  enactments  on  the  assumption  that  abuse  and  offence  must 
come.  The  law  of  the  Colonial  office  suspect  no  one, even  of  those  who 
navigate  the  Indian  seas,  and  sweep  the  coasts  of  Southern  Africa — it 
proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  neither  abuse  nor  offence  can  ever 
come  where  the  temptation  is  the  strongest,  and  the  difficulty  of  pre- 
vention the  most  insurmountable.  The  Parliament  adds  regulation  to 
regulation  for  securing  safety,  where  all  men's  eyes  are  directed  and 
nothing  can  be  done  unseen.  The  colonial  office  despises  all  regula- 
tions, and  trusts  the  slave  trader  and  the  crimp,  where  no  eye  but  his 
own  can  see,  and  no  hand  is  uplifted  to  restrain  his  arm. 

But  let  us  turn  towards  the  place  of  destination,  and  see  what  the 
consequences  will  be  of  this  scheme,  even  if  nothing  illegal  shall  be 
done — if  the  most  strictly  correct  course  of  conduct  be  pursued  by 
every  one  engaged  in  the  new  traffic — if  nothing  whatever  is  done 
but  introducing  a  number  of  apprenticed  labourers  into  the  West 
Indies,  all  of  whom  go  there  knowingly  and  willingly.  Let  us  see 
the  consequences  to  the  Negroes  who  are  already  there,  who  are  now 
apprentices  working  partly  for  wages,  and  whose  complete  emanci- 
pation is  approaching.  On  the  first  of  August,  1840,  as  the  law  now 
stands— on  the  first  of  August,  1S38,  as  1  fervently  hope — the  whole 
of  these  poor  people  will  have  the  command  of  their  own  time,  and 
the  right  to  derive  from  their  own  labour  its  just  reward.  Then  see 
how  you  are  treating  them!  Just  at  the  moment  when  their  volun- 
tary industry  should  begin  to  benefit  them,  and  the  profits  of  their  toil 
no  longer  belong  to  their  masters — just  as  they  are  about  to  earn  a 
pittance  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  wherewithal  to  support  them- 
selves and  their  families — just  at  that  instant  comes  your  order  in 
council  to  prepare  for  them  a  competition,  with  crowds  of  labourers 
brought  over  by  wholesale  from  the  east,  and  able  by  their  habits  to 
work  for  little  and  live  upon  nothing.  You  let  in  upon  them  a  supply 
of  hands  sufficient  to  sluice  the  labour-market  and  reduce  its  gains  to 
the  merest  trifle,  by  this  forced  and  unnatural  emigration  thither  of  men 
habituated  all  their  lives  to  subsist  upon  a  handful  of  rice  and  a  pinch 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  489 

of  pepper.  Can  anything  be  conceived  more  cruel  and  unjust?  This 
is  the  avowed  object  of  the  whole  proceeding.  It  is  stated  in  express 
terms  by  the  planters,  whose  representations  obtained  the  order  in 
council — "The  emancipated  slaves,"  say  they,  (p.  25,)  "are  very 
likely  to  form  combinations  for  the  purpose  of  restricting  the  ordinary 
and  necessary  periods  of  labour,  as  well  as  to  compel  the  planters  to 
pay  them  wages  at  rates  much  above  their  means  and  ability  to  com- 
ply with." 

Do,  I  beseech  you,  my  lords,  let  us  make  the  case  our  own.  Sup- 
pose such  an  experiment  were  tried  for  lowering  the  wages  in  Kent,  or 
Essex,  or  Sussex,  by  the  planters  there,  who  are  always  complaining  of 
their  high  rents  and  low  profits.  Suppose  in  that  county,  happy  under 
the  mild  government  of  my  noble  friend,*  the  rumour  should  spread  of 
3000  or  4000  Coolies  being  expected  there,  men  who  could  work  for 
twopence  and  threepence  a  day,  and  be  better  off  than  in  their  own 
country — that  the  Colonial  office  were  petitioned  by  the  Sussex  farmers 
to  give  such  facilities  as  were  necessary  to  make  this  importation  prac- 
ticable— that  the  farmers  were  persuading  the  Secretary  of  State  and 
his  Under  Secretaries,  of  the  benefit  this  help  must  prove  to  the  over- 
worked day  labourers  of  the  county — and  that  the  measures  required 
by  the  speculators  were  about  to  be  adopted  so  as  to  make  the  opera- 
tion feasible — I  won't  say  that  the  Sussex  peasantry  would  instantly 
meet  and  mob  and  riot  and  threaten  the  castle  of  my  noble  friend,  and 
the  office  in  Downing-street;  but  I  venture  to  assert  that  my  noble 
friend,  with  a  train  of  all  his  deputy  lieutenants,  and  magistrates,  and 
squires,and  clergy,  wouldspeedily  darken  the  doors  of  that  department, 
and  that  to  issue  the  dreaded  order  would  become  an  absolute  impossi- 
bility. Nothing  could  ever  make  its  issuing  possible  but  itsbeing  secretly 
agreed  upon  and  passed  without  any  publication  in  the  Gazette;  and 
as  soon  as  its  existence  became  known,  its  recall  would  be  matter  of 
perfect  certainty.  Surely,  surely,  the  unhappy  African  has  been  treat- 
ed at  all  times  as  never  race  under  the  sun  was  suffered  by  Providence 
to  be  treated.  All  men  and  all  things  conspire  to  oppress  him.  After 
enduring  for  ages  the  most  bitter  miseries  of  slavery,  privations  un- 
exampled, hardships  intolerable,  unrequited  toil,  he  is  at  last  relieved 
from  his  heavy  burthen,  and  becomes  a  free  labourer,  ready  to  work 
for  wages  on  his  own  account.  Straightway  he  is  met  by  myriads  of 
other  labourers,  not  naturally  belonging  to  the  soil  or  climate,  and 
habituated  to  the  lowest  hire  and  the  scantiest  and  the  worst  suste- 
nance; and  after  having  been  so  long  kept  out  of  the  hire  he  earned  by 
the  bondage  of  his  condition,  he  is  now  defrauded  of  it  by  the  craft  of 
his  former  master,  in  revenge  for  his  tyranny  being  at  an  end. 

But  this  is  the  very  least  part  of  the  evil  inflicted  by  the  measure; 
this  is  taking  the  argument  on  the  lowest  ground.  Look  to  the  inevita- 
ble consequences  of  the  system  upon  the  Eastern  coast  of  Africa,  and 
all  our  Indian  dominions.  The  language  used  by  its  patrons  and  their 
abettors  in  Downing-street,  is  just  what  used  to  be  heard  in  the  days 

*  The  Duke  of  Richmond. 


490  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

of  open  slave  trading.  "  We  wish  to  bring  over  a  number  of  labour- 
people  from  Asia,"  says  one  planter — "  We  contemplate  drawing  a 
supply  of  labourers  for  our  estates,"  say  others — respectable  men, 
whom  I  personally  know.  It  is  "  the  engaging  of  labourers,"  accord- 
ing to  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  under  whose  protection 
India  is  placed;  while  the  Colonial  Secretary,  under  whose  care  all 
our  other  settlements  repose,  speaks  of  the  "Emigration  from  India" 
and  "  East  India  Emigrants."  The  voyage  which  brings  these  poor 
creatures  from  the  indolence  of  their  native  plains  to  the  hard  and 
unwholesome  toils  of  Guiana,  can  hardly  yet  be  described  as  proving 
an  agreeable  passage,  for  time  has  not  yet  been  allowed  to  carry  any 
over.  But  the  experiment  already  made  in  the  Mauritius  furnishes 
the  means  of  commendation,  and  that  passage  has  been  distinctly 
termed  by  the  schemers  one  of  no  suffering,  but  of  sufficient  ease  and 
comfort  to  the  cargoes.  So  they  have  described  the  change  of  the 
Coolie's  situation  as  beneficial  to  him.  "  They  are  represented,"  it  is 
said,  (p.  23,)  "to  be  much  pleased  with  their  new  situation,  it  being 
considered  by  them  as  more  desirable  and  beneficial  than  that  from 
which  they  have  been  removed" — in  the  very  language,  your  lordships 
observe,  of  the  slave  traders  and  their  defenders  fifty  years  ago.  The 
experience  of  the  Mauritius  planters  is  in  these  papers  cited  at  large. 
and  paraded  through  many  a  long  page,  to  show  how  happy  is  the  lot 
of  the  transported  labourer  in  the  bondage  of  that  blissful  land.  The 
queries  sent  to  various  proprietors  are  given  at  length,  with  the  an- 
swers returned  by  them.  The  fourth  question,  as  to  the  comforts  and 
happiness  of  the  imported  apprentices,  is  answered  alike  by  all  but 
one,  from  whom  the  truth  escapes.  The  others  say,  the  men  are  quite 
contented  and  happy,  exactly  as  Sir  William  Young  found  the  African 
slaves  in  the  Leeward  Islands.  They  represent,  too,  the  Mauritius 
Negroes  as  quite  pleased  with  their  new  helpmates;  and  in  short, 
never  was  such  a  picture  of  felicity  in  that  island,  since  those  halcyon 
days  when  25,000  capital  felonies  were  perpetrated  by  the  importation 
of  as  many  labourers — days  which  it  was  feared  had  been  gone  never 
to  return,  but  which  this  order  in  council  fills  the  Mauritian  bosom 
with  hopes  of  once  more  living  to  see  restored.  That  one  planter, 
however,  gives  a  somewhat  different  account  of  the  matter.  "Has 
any  feeling  of  uneasiness  and  discontent  been  observable  among  the 
Indian  labourers  on  your  estate  as  arising  out  of  separation  from  their 
families,  or  from  any  other  similar  cause?"  The  answer  is  signed 
Bickagee;  and  this  name  seems  to  indicate  a  Malabar  origin;  so  that 
probably  the  reason  why  the  account  is  so  different  from  that  of  other 
proprietors  may  be,  that  Bickagee  could  converse  with  the  poor  Indians 
in  their  own  language,  as  another  witness  who  gives  a  similar  account 
certainly  could.  The  answer  is  "Yes;  and  for  these  reasons— In 
their  country  they  live  happy  and  comfortable  with  their  wives  and 
families,  on  three  or  four  rupees  a  month.  They  engage  to  leave  their 
native  country  on  a  small  increase  of  salary,  say  five  rupees  and 
rations,  in  the  hope  of  receiving  the  same  comfort  here,  but  experience 
has  proved  the  reverse.  Uneasiness  and  discontent  arise  from  these 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  491 

privations,  besides  their  being  deprived  of  the  holidays  their  religion 
entitles  them  to."  (p.  83.)  So  Mr.  Scott,  a  gentleman  resident  in 
Bengal,  and  acquainted  with  the  people,  their  language,  and  habits, 
plainly  says,  that  "  with  very  rare  exceptions,  he  doubts  if  there  are 
any  who  congratulate  themselves  on  the  bargain  they  have  made." 
(125.)  He  makes  an  observation  of  much  wisdom  upon  the  inefficacy 
of  all  regulations  respecting  treatment,  and  of  all  conditions  in  contracts 
for  apprenticeship.  "  The  main  result  of  my  inquiry,"  says  he,  "leads 
me  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  condition  of  the  labourer  practically 
depends  on  the  individual  character  of  his  employer,  and  that  the 
terms  of  the  agreements  are  trifling  compared  with  the  spirit  in  which 
they  are  interpreted." 

But  let  us  look  to  the  far  more  pressing  consideration  of  the  way  in 
which  these  poor  people  are  brought  over  from  their  own  country;  for 
upon  that,  two  very  important  matters  arise  out  of  these  papers,  and 
especially  Mr.  Scott's  report.     I  must,  however,  first  turn  aside  for  a 
moment  to  show  your  lordships  that  the  abuses  of  the  measure  had  not 
been  unforseen.     My  noble  friend  himself  at  one  time  was  awake  to 
this  important  consideration.    He  could  see  it  in  the  measures  of  others, 
but  in  his  own,  all  such  suspicions  are  lulled  asleep.     When  he  first 
received  the  ordinance  made  by  the  Court  of  Policy  in  Demerara,  he 
at  once  warned  them  against  letting  it  become  the  cover  for  slave  deal- 
ing, describing  it  as  essential  that  no  apprentice  from  Africa  should  be 
brought  over.     His  words  are  remarkable,  and  I  apply  them  distinctly 
to  the  measure  of  my  noble  friend  himself,  now  under  your  considera- 
tion.  "  If,  (said  he,  in  a  despatch  dated  October  3,  1836,  p.  11,)  labour- 
ers should  be  recruited  on  any  part  of  the  African  coast,  the  conse- 
quence would  inevitably  be  direct  encouragement  to  the  slave  trade  in 
the  interior,  and  a  plausible,  if  not  a  just,  reproach  against  this  country 
of  insincerity  in  our  professions  on  that  subject."     A  plausible,  if  not 
a  just  reproach !     Truly  the  reproach  is  still  more  just  than  it  is  plausi- 
ble; and  so  my  noble  friend's  colleague,*  under  whom  the  foreign 
concerns  of  this  country  flourish  as  much  as  our  colonial  affairs  do  under 
himself,  will  find  in  the  first  attempt  which  he  may  make  to  treat  for 
the  abolition  of  the  foreign  slave  traffic.     I  can  tell  him  that  far  less 
ingenuity  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  Spanish,  and  above  all  Portuguese 
negotiators,  will  be  required  to  shut  his  mouth  with  this  Order  in  Coun- 
cil, as  soon  as  he  tries  to  open  it  against  the  Portuguese  or  Spanish 
enormities  which  all  England,  and  both  Houses  of  its  Parliament,  are 
vociferously  urging  him  to  put  down.     They  will  hold,  and  truly,  that 
they  have  a  just  right  to  tax  us  with  insincerity,  and  with  fraud  and 
dishonesty,  if,  while  we  affect  to  reprobate  slave  trading  in  them  under 
its  own  name,  we  continue  to  carry  it  on  ourselves,  under  false  pre- 
tences, and  by  a  false  and  borrowed  title.     As  long  as  Africans  are 
brought  over    under   the    vile    order   by  the   name   of  apprenticed 
labourers,  it  is  still  more  just  than  it  is  plausible  to  accuse  us  of  that 
insincerity  and  those  frauds;  and  how  docs  my  noble  friendt  escape 

*  Lord  Palmerston.  f  Lord  Glcncljj. 


492  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

the  charge?  By  a  regulation  which  he  adds  to  the  ordinance,  and 
which  I  pledge  myself  instantly  to  demonstrate  does  nothing  whatever 
to  prevent  the  very  thing  here  denounced.  Nothing  of  the  kind,  abso- 
lutely nothing  has  been  done  by  the  additional  provision  of  my  noble 
friend.  For  what  is  that  provision?  You  will  find  it  in  page  twenty- 
one,  and  it  only  makes  indentures  of  apprenticeship  void  if  executed 
in  Africa,  or  the  adjacent  islands  inhabited  wholly  or  in  part  by  the 
Negro  race.  Why,  what  signifies  that?  Who  is  prevented  by  such  a 
flimsy  folly  as  that  article,  from  carrying  over  as  many  Africans  as  he 
pleases,  and  in  whatever  way  he  likes?  To  escape  this  most  ridiculous 
check,  the  slave  trader  (my  noble  friend  himself  calls  him  by  this  name) 
has  only  to  take  the  Negroes  on  board  of  the  slave  ships,  and  there 
execute  their  indentures,  or  to  Brazil,  or  to  Cuba,  or  to  Monte  Video, 
or,  indeed,  to  Guiana  itself;  and  then  he  complies  with  the  conditions 
of  this  inconceivable  restriction,  and  imports  as  many  Negroes  as  he 
pleases,  and  can  afford  to  buy.  To  be  sure,  there  is  added  another 
provision  of  the  same  notable  kind,  requiring  that  all  contracts  be  made 
and  witnessed  before  two  justices,  or,  it  is  added,  magistrates.  What 
then?  The  slave  trader  has  only  to  carry  his  prey,  his  human  victims, 
to  the  Mauritius,  where  he  will  find  two,  ay,  twenty,  magistrates  full 
ready  to  help  him,  and  to  do  anything  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
business  there  most  popular,  the  slave  trade;  or  if  it  be  the  western 
coast  of  Africa  which  he  has  been  desolating  with  his  traffic,  under  the 
encouragement  of  this  Order  in  Council,  he  has  only  to  touch  at  the 
Brazils,  where  all  slave  traders  are  at  home;  oral  Monte  Video,  where 
the  governor  took  a  bribe  of  £10,000  to  allow,  in  the  teeth  of  the 
Spanish  law,  two  thousand  slaves,  which  he  termed,  in  the  language 
of  these  papers,  and  this  Order  in  Council,  labourers,  to  be  introduced; 
or  at  Cuba,  where  the  governor  does  not  suffer  the  sailing  of  slave  ships 
to  be  announced  in  the  newspapers,  for  fear  of  our  cruisers  being 
thereby  warned  and  stopping  them.  In  all  these  slave  trading  ports, 
justices,  and  magistrates,  and  governors  too,  will  ever  be  ready  to  wit- 
ness indentures  for  Guiana,  and  make  this  most  ludicrous  provision 
utterly  void  and  of  no  effect. 

But  the  despatches  of  my  noble  friend  are  not  the  only  documents 
which  show  that  the  abuses  of  this  intercourse  have  been  alluded  to 
before  now — though  no  precautions  whatever  have  been  adopted  to 
prevent  them.  Some  few  years  ago,  a  Mr.  Letord  propounded  to  the 
governorof  the  Mauritius  a  plan  for  importing  twenty  thousand  African 
labourers,  as  he  called  them,  in  the  phraseology  of  the  Order  in  Coun- 
cil so  familiar  to  all  slave  traders.  He  was  to  obtain  them  by  negotia- 
tion with  the  chiefs  of  the  country,  and  to  apprentice  them  for  a  limited 
time.  His  plan  was  circumstantially  and  elaborately  framed,  and 
reminds  me  of  what  a  learned  friend  of  mine,  now  Advocate-general 
in  Bengal,*  used  to  say  at  Guildhall,  on  such  estimates,  that  with  a 
little  pen  and  ink  he  would  undertake  by  figures  to  pay  the  national 
debt  in  half  an  hour.  The  ingenious  projector,  (who  I  understand  was 

*  Mr.  Pearson. 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  493 

one  of  those  most  deeply  concerned  in  the  Mauritian  slave  trading 
some  time  ago,  and  therefore  well  versed  in  the  subject,)  gave  his  plan 
the  name  of  "Prqjet  d'Emancipation  Africane" — for  he  was  of  course 
to  liberate  all  the  slaves  he  bought  of  the  chiefs,  or  kidnapped  on  his 
own  account,  and  to  convert  them,  as  the  plan  of  our  government  pro- 
poses, into  Indentured  Apprentices.  Your  lordships  smile  at  the  plan 
and  its  title,  because  you  see  through  the  trick  at  once — so  did  the 
worthy  Governor  General  Nicolay — whose  answer  was  short — whose 
refusal  was  flat  and  unqualified — just  such  as  the  government  at  home 
should  have  given  to  the  Letords  of  Guiana.  He  said  he  had  read  the 
details  of  the  plan  "  with  much  interest,  and  felt  bound  to  give  it  his 
unqualified  refusal,  considering  it,  however  speciously  coloured,  as 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  renewal  of  the  slave  trade,  and  therefore 
entirely  inadmissible,"  p.  24.  And  so  to  be  sure  it  was.  Your  lord- 
ships saw  through  the  cunning  trick  and  its  flimsy  disguise  at  once, 
and  you  smiled  when  I  stated  it.  But  I  now  ask  if  there  is  one  single 
tittle  of  the  plan  thus  instantly  seen  through,  which  differs  from  the 
present  project  for  Guiana?  I  defy  the  most  ingenious,  subtle,  and 
astute  person  who  now  hears  me  to  show  any  one  thing  that  could 
have  been  done  under  Letord's  plan,  denounced  by  Sir  W.  Nicolay, 
as  common  slave  trading — in  other  words  felony — which  may  not  be 
done  exactly  in  the  same  manner  if  this  Order  in  Council  is  suffered  to 
continue  in  operation.  My  noble  friend  will  answer  me  and  defend 
or  explain  his  measure.  I  call  upon  him  to  point  out,  if  he  can,  one 
single  particular  in  which  the  project  rejected  as  felonious  by  Governor 
Nicolay,  with  the  entire  approval  of  the  government  at  home,  differs 
from  the  project  aided  and  sanctioned  by  that  same  government,  and 
under  their  auspices  inflicted  upon  Africa  and  Asia  too,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Guiana  planters  and  their  slave  trading  captains.  My  noble 
friend  is  now  challenged  to  this  comparison,  and  having  given  him 
ample  notice,  and  in  very  distinct  terms,  I  expect — I  am  entitled  to 
expect — that  he  shall  point  out  wherein  the  two  schemes  differ,  and 
what  act  of  slave  trading — that  is  of  felony — can  be  perpetrated  under 
the  one,  which  may  not,  with  the  most  perfect  ease  and  safety,  be  per- 
petrated under  the  other. 

Here,  my  lords,  I  might  rest,  and  safely  rest,  my  case.  For  I  have 
shown  to  demonstration  not  only  that  abuse  is  inevitable — that  no 
regulation  can  prevent  it,  but  also  that  none  have  ever  been  attempted 
— if  I  have  further  shown,  out  of  my  noble  friend's  own  mouth,  and 
that  of  the  Mauritius  government,  whose  proceedings  he  wholly  ap- 
proved and  adopted,  that  without  precautions,  which  never  have  been 
taken  or  thought  of,  the  project  is  one  of  disguised,  and  but  thinly 
disguised,  slave  trading:  surely  I  am  not  bound  to  go  further,  and 
prove  that  already,  and  while  in  its  infancy,  the  results  pYoved  to  be 
inevitable  have  actually  flowed  from  it; — that  kidnapping  lias  filled 
our  vessels, — and  that  waste  of  life,  and  misery  has  been  endured  on 
the  middle  passage.  Nevertheless,  I  am  prepared  to  prove  this  like- 
wise, superfluous  though  it  be;  and  thus  to  remove  the  very  last  vcs- 
VOL.  i. — 42 


494  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

t!ge  of  doubt,  to  preclude  every  opening  through  which  a  cavil  can 
enter  into  the  discussion. 

I  here  again  revert,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  report  of  the  only  per- 
sons, or  one  of  the  only  two  persons,  who  were  capable  of  giving  in- 
formation on  the  subject,  by  their  knowledge  of  the  language  in  which 
alone  these  poor  Hindoos  can  converse.  Mr.  Scott  gives  this  truly 
remarkable  statement;  his  words  are  few,  but  the  single  sentence  speaks 
volumes.  "  They  all  stated  (says  he,  page  125)  that  they  left  Cal- 
cutta under  the  impression  that  they  were  going  to  the  Company  Ra- 
bustie  (Company's  Village),  the  name  by  which  the  Mauritius  is 
designated" — but  by  whom?  In  the  vernacular  tongue  of  India?  By 
all  men  in  common  parlance?  Oh  no,  nothing  of  the  kind!  But  "by 
the  agents  in  India!"  —  by  the  slave  trader's  agents;  by  his  crimps,  his 
inveiglers,  his  kidnappers.  Mr.  Scott  adds,  "  How  far  the  term  was 
complimentary  or  compulsory  I  cannot  say;" — so  that  he  has  his  sus- 
picions of  these  poor  ignorant  people  being  made  to  believe  that  they 
might  be  compelled  to  go  to  the  Mauritius  as  a  part  of  the  company's 
territory.  He  adds  this  remarkable  observation:  "While  I  make  no 
charge  of  misrepresentation,  I  ain  bound  to  acknowledge  the  difficulty 
of  correctly  and  intelligibly  describing  an  island  in  the  Indian  Ocean 
to  a  person  who  had  never  seen  the  sea,  or  knew  what  an  island  was." 
Some  there  may  doubtless  be  who  will  say,  that  this  representation  of 
the  Mauritius,  where  the  powers  of  Leadenhall-street  have  not  one 
servant,  and  possess  not  one  yard  of  ground,  being  a  village  of  the 
company,  was  plausibly  rather  than  justly  made.  For  my  part  I  hold 
it  to  have  been  wickedly,  deceitfully,  fraudulently,  crimpingly,  kid- 
nappingly  done,  and  with  the  purpose  of  inveigling,  and  cheating,  and 
carrying  away  the  natives  of  Asia,  after  the  most  approved  practices 
of  slave  trading,  in  their  nefarious  proceedings  on  the  African  coast. 
My  noble  friend  must  have  turned  his  attention  to  this  subject  as  well 
as  Mr.  Scott.  He  long  presided  at  the  India  Board — he  had  under 
his  protection  the  natives  of  the  country,  to  whom  he  and  his  re- 
spected family  have  long  been  the  friends;  he  had  studied  their  tem- 
per and  their  habits  from  his  youth;  he  had  an  acquaintance  possessed 
by  few,  an  hereditary  acquaintance  with  all  that  belongs  to  this  subject; 
and,  before  he  issued  an  order  for  the  emigration  of  these  poor  crea- 
tures, he  must  have  well  weighed  all  its  consequences,  having  regard 
to  their  nature,  and  their  knowledge.  This  matter  is  not  one  that  arises 
indirectly,  or  unexpectedly,  or  by  any  unforeseen  accident,  out  of  the 
scheme.  On  the  front  of  that  scheme  it  is  graven  in  legible  letters;  it 
is  a  plan  for  enabling  planters  in  the  west  to  import  natives  of  the 
east  into  their  colonies.  Then  my  noble  friend  must  have  often  asked 
himself  the  natural  and  indeed  unavoidable  question  which  I  now  ask 
him,  as  Mr.  Scott  has  suggested  it  from  a  knowledge  of  Indian  affairs 
far  less  extensive  than  his  own — What  hopes  can  we  entertain  of 
ever  being  able  to  make  a  Hindoo,  a  Coolie  from  the  inland  territory 
of  the  company,  a  poor  native  who  has  never  seen  the  ocean,  or  any 
sheet  of  water  larger  than  the  tank  of  his  village,  or  the  stream  in 
which  he  bathes — comprehend  the  nature  of  a  ship  and  a  voyage,  the 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  495 

discomforts  of  a  crowded  hold,  the  sufferings  of  four  months  at  sea,  the 
labours  of  a  sugar  plantation,  the  toils  of  hoeing,  and  cutting,  and  sugar 
boiling  under  a  tropical  sun — toils  under  which  even  the  hardy  Negro  is 
known  to  pine,  and  which  must  lay  the  feeble  and  effeminate  Asiatic 
prostrate  in  the  scorched  dust?  Bui  will  my  noble  friend  really  take 
upon  him  to  say  that  one  single  Hindoo  is  embarked  for  Guiana,  who 
can  form  the  idea  of  what  the  voyage  alone  must  expose  him  to?  We 
are  here  not  left  without  proof.  Experience  lias  already  pronounced 
upon  the  voyage  from  Hindostan  to  the  Mauritius;  these  papers  paint 
it  as  a  worthy  companion  for  the  middle  passage.  I  hold  in  my  hand 
the  despatch  from  the  Mauritius  government  of  April  last,  in  which 
three  vessels  are  said  to  have  carried  over,  one  of  them  two  hundred 
and  twenty-four,  the  other,  two  hundred,  and  the  third,  seventy-two 
labourers,  as  you  are  pleased  to  term,  what  I  plainly  name  slaves. 
Each  had  a  full  cargo  of  rice  besides — so  that  the  despatch  says,  they 
could  not  have  proper  accommodation  for  the  Indians,  nor  protection 
from  the  weather, — nor  had  any  one  of  the  three  a  medical  officer. 
The  William  Wilson,  out  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-four,  lost  thirty- 
one  on  the  voyage — a  sacrifice  to  the  pestilential  hold  in  which  they 
were  compelled  to  breathe.  The  Adelaide,  still  worse,  lost  twenty-six 
out  of  seventy-two — between  a  third  and  a  half  in  five  or  six  weeks. 
The  statements  I  have  given  from  the  slave  trader's  arguments  in 
17S8  and  1701  were  absurd  enough  when  they  represented  the  mor- 
tality of  the  middle  passage  as  one  in  the  hundred.  But  never  did  I 
hear  it  put  higher  than  this,  of  thirty  or  forty  per  cent.  Only  see  once 
more  how  the  record  of  your  own  statute  book  rises  up  in  judgment 
against  your  own  conduct!  While  you  not  merely  allow,  but  encou- 
rage and  stimulate  the  carrying  away  of  untutored  Indians  and  savage 
Africans  from  the  desolate  shores  of  Malabar  and  Ceylon  and  Mo- 
sambique,  giving  free  scope  to  all  the  practices  of  fraud  and  treachery, 
which  the  arts  of  wicked  ingenuity  can  devise  to  entrap  them,  and 
bear  them  into  bondage,  that  the  sordid  desires  of  a  few  grasping 
planters  may  be  gratified, — read  the  wise  and  humane  words  on  the 
front  of  the  British  statute — read  them  and  blush  for  shame!  "  Where- 
as in  various  parts" — Of  Hindostan!  Of  the  Indian  Archipelago!  Of 
the  Mosambique  and  Sofala  coasts?  No — but  "of  the  United  King- 
dom of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  persons  have  been  seduced  to  leave 
their  native  country  under  false  representations,  and  have  suffered 
great  hardships  for  want  of  provisions  and  proper  accommodation,  and 
no  security  whatever  being  afforded  that  they  shall  be  carried  to  (he 
ports  for  which  they  have  agreed — be  it  therefore  enacted.''  Has  the 
faintest  attempt  been  made  to  afford  such  security  to  the  Indian  and 
the  African,  as  this  statute  anxiously  provides  for  the  free  and  en- 
lightened native  of  our  own  island?— any  precaution  against  his  being 
trepanned,  and  seduced  on  board,  under  representations  that  he  is 
only  going  to  another  village  of  his  own  country,  where  he  will  enjoy 
his  own  ease,  work  in  his  own  way, and  worship  according  to  disown 
religion? — any  precautions  against  being  hurried  away  by  force,  while 
others  are  decoyed  by  fraud?— any  precautions  against  being  scantily 


496  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

provided  and  pestilentially  lodged? — any  precaution  against  his  being 
carried  to  one  destination,  after  bargaining  for  another?  Nothing 
whatever  of  the  kind.  But  indeed  such  precautions,  though  practica- 
ble where  they  are  little  wanted — on  the  coasts  of  this  country,  studded 
with  custom-house  establishments,  and  round  which  a  cordon  of  re- 
venue officers  is  drawn  by  day  and  by  night,  must  prove  wholly  inef- 
fectual where  they  are  most  wanted — on  the  desert  strands  of  the 
Eastern  Ocean.  And  you  see  the  results  in  the  documents  I  have 
just  read: — where  the  frauds  and  the  force  of  the  embarkation,  and 
the  dreadful  mortality  of  the  voyage,  are  recorded  in  imperishable 
proofs  of  the  crimes  you  have  dared  to  encourage. 

Therefore  it  is,  my  lords,  that  I  have  deemed  it  my  indispensable 
duty  to  drag  before  you  this  iniquitous  measure;  therefore  it  is  that  I 
have  yielded  to  the  sacred  obligation  of  going  through  a  subject  as 
painful  to  handle  as  it  was  necessary  to  be  examined;  therefore  it  is 
that  I  have  waded,  at  extreme  suffering  to  myself,  through  the  agoniz- 
ing detail  of  the  slave  traffic;  and  therefore  it  is  that  I  have,  with 
unspeakable  anxiety — but  an  anxiety  occasioned  far  more  by  the  im- 
portance of  the  question  than  by  its  difficulty  or  any  disinclination  to 
grapple  with  it — laid  bare  the  enormities  of  this  proceeding,  and  set 
forth  its  glaring  inconsistency  with  the  great  act  of  abolition,  from  the 
principles  of  which,  I  had  fondly  hoped,  no  English  statesman  would 
ever  be  found  daring  enough  to  swerve.  My  lords,  I  have  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  been  the  supporter  in  Parliament  of  that 
great  measure  of  justice.  But  at  every  period  of  my  life  since  I 
reached  man's  estate,  I  have  been  its  active,  zealous,  eager,  though, 
God  knows,  feeble  supporter,  wherever  I  could  hope  to  lend  it  assist- 
ance. For  this  holy  cause  I  have  been  a  fellow-labourer  with  the 
greatest  men  this  country  ever  produced,  whether  in  the  Senate,  in 
the  Courts,  or  at  the  Bar — elevated  to  the  ermine,  or  still  practising  in 
the  forum.  With  them  I  have  humbly  though  fervently  fought  this 
good  fight,  and  worked  at  this  pious  work — with  them  who  are  gone 
from  hence,  as  with  those  who  yet  remain.  And  we  had  indeed  well 
hoped — they  who  are  no  more,  and  they  who  still  survive  to  venerate 
the  names  of  the  forerunners,  and  tread  if  it  be  possible  in  their  foot- 
steps— that  we  had  succeeded  in  putting  down  for  ever  the  monstrous 
traffic  in  human  flesh.  Could  I  then  see  this  attempt  to  revive  it,  and 
hold  my  peace?  I  could  not  have  rested  on  my  couch  and  suffered 
this  execrable  work  to  be  done — uninterrupted  to  be  done.  I  required 
not  to  be  visited  by  those  surviving  friends  of  whom  I  just  now  spake 
— required  not  to  be  roused  by  the  agiiation  of  public  meetings — 
required  not  the  countless  applications  of  those  whose  disinterested 
patriotism,  whose  pure  benevolence,  whose  pious  philanthropy,  en- 
dearing them  to  my  heart,  have  won  for  them  the  universal  confidence 
of  mankind.  No!  my  lords;  I  could  not  slumber  without  seeing  before 
me  in  visions  of  the  night  the  great  and  good  men  who  have  passed 
away,  seeming  as  if  they  could  not  taste  their  own  repose,  while  they 
forbade  me  the  aid  of  rest,  until  I  should  lend  my  feeble  help,  and 
stretch  forth  this  hand  to  chase  away  the  monster  Slave  Trade  from  the 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  497 

light  he  once  more  outrages,  back  to  the  den  where  he  had  been  chain- 
ed up  by  their  mightier  arms.  Justly  famous  of  other  times!  If  it 
be  not  given  us  to  emulate  their  genius,  to  tread  the  bright  path  of 
their  glory,  to  share  in  the  transcendent  virtue  which  formed  their  chief 
renown — let  us  at  least  taste  that  joy  which  they  valued  above  all 
others — for  that  enjoyment  we  too  can  command — to  bask  in  the  in- 
ward sunshine  of  an  approving  conscience,  athwart  which  no  action 
of  their  illustrious  lives  ever  cast  a  shade! 

I  move  you  to  resolve  that  the  Order  in  Council  of  the  12th  July — 
"  1.  That  the  Order  in  Council  of  the  12th  of  July,  1837,  was  passed 
for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  proprietors  of  Guiana  to  import  into 
that  colony,  as  apprenticed  labourers,  the  natives  of  countries  within 
the  limits  of  the  East  India  Company's  charter,  before  it  was  known 
that  any  law  had  been  enacted  in  India  for  their  protection,  and  has 
been  suffered  to  remain  in  force  after  it  was  known  that  the  law  en- 
acted in  India  on  the  1st  of  May,  1837,  and  transmitted  by  a  despatch 
of  the  7th  of  June,  is  wholly  insufficient  to  afford  them  such  protec- 
tion as  is  required,  and  to  prevent  the  evils  to  which  such  traffic  is 
exposed,  while  there  are  no  means  of  preventing  the  greatest  abuses 
from  being  practised,  both  in  Asia  and  in  Africa,  under  colour  of  the 
traffic,  which  it  is  the  professed  object  of  the  Order  in  Council  to  facili- 
tate and  encourage: 

"2.  That  the  said  Order  in  Council  of  the  12th  of  July,  1837,  was 
improperly  issued  and  ought  to  be  recalled." 

THE    REPLY. 

The  masterly  speech  which  has  just  been  delivered  by  my  noble 
friend,*  while  it  calls  for  my  cordial  thanks,  relieves  your  lordships 
from  hearing  many  points,  which  he  has  handled,  discussed  far  less 
effectively  by  me,  in  availing  myself  of  the  right  of  reply,  which  your 
courtesy  bestows,  lint  a  few  words  of  explanation  are  required  by 
one  or  two  things  which  have  fallen  from  the  noble  duke,t  for  whom 
I  entertain  the  most  unqualified  respect,  and  whose  authority,  as  a 
practical  statesman,  I  place  in  the  foremost  rank. 

First,  however,  I  must  express  my  unbounded  astonishment  at  the 
speech  of  my  noble  friend.:}:  Not  only  has  he  left  wholly  unnoticed 
my  distinct  and  formal  challenge,  to  show  wherein  this  measure  differs 
from  the  scheme  of  Letord,  which  all  the  authorities,  both  in  the 
Mauritius  and  at  home,  stigmatized  as  a  mere  blind  for  a  slave  trading 
adventure;  but  he  has  argued  the  whole  question  as  if  there  were  no 
Madras  on  the  map  of  Asia — no  Bombay — no  Ceylon,  for  which  no 
rules  are  made — no  Pondicherry  belonging  to  France,  for  which  we 
cannot  make  any  rule — no  Goa  in  the  hands  of  slave  trading  Portugal 
— no  African  coast  within  the  Company's  limits — and  for  which  there 
exists  not  an  authority  on  earth  that  can  make  a  single  rule,  or  watch 
a  mile  of  the  sea  board.  The  whole  reliance  has  been  placed  on  tho 

•   Lord  Kllcnhorough.  f  The  Duke  of  Wellington. 

£  Lord  Gleneljf. 

42* 


498  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

law  made  at  Calcutta  by  my  noble  kinsman,  the  Governor  General  in 
Council* — a  law  of  no  kind  of  value,  had  it  comprehended  all  Asia 
and  Africa  too — a  law  in  which  my  noble  relation  attempted  little  and 
effected  less — pretending  to  prevent  hardly  anything,  and  really  pre- 
venting nothing  at  all — feeble  in  its  provisions— impotent  in  its  enact- 
ments— insignificant  in  its  rubric — a  blank  in  its  body — when  every 
one  knows,  and  I  had  expressly  so  argued  it,  that  no  law  made  by  the 
governor  in  council  (if  in  council  the  potentate  who  made  such  a  thing 
can  be  said  to  sit)  has  any  force  or  effect  whatever,  were  it  as  omni- 
potent as  it  is  inefficient,  beyond  the  presidency  of  Fort  William,  and 
never  could  affect  a  single  atom  of  the  traffic  which  most  of  all  this 
measure  is  intended  to  encourage,  and  which  most  requires  regulation 
and  control.  But  in  overturning  the  whole  speech  of  my  noble  friend, 
I  have  also  disposed  of  the  noble  duke's.  For  his  only  reason  for 
resisting  the  motion  and  offering  the  government  an  escape  through 
the  previous  question  is  their  acceptance  of  his  offer  to  pass  certain 
regulations.  Suppose  the  noble  duke's  system  were  adopted  to-mor- 
row— and  I  think  I  am  using  sufficiently  complimentary  language 
when  I  call  it  a  system,  for  assuredly  I  do  not  profess  to  admire  it  as 
much  as  I  have  hitherto  been  won^  to  admire  all  its  author's  produc- 
tions, whether  as  a  soldier  or  as  a  statesman — suppose  my  noble  kins- 
mant  had  enacted  every  tittle  of  it  in  council,  instead  of  his  own 
puny  regulation  of  the  first  of  July — still  it  would  have  been  confined 
to  Bengal. 

THE  DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON. — All  are  included. 

LORD  BROUGHAM. — No — not  Pondicherry,  for  there  you  cannot 
legislate — notGoa,  for  that  is  Portuguese — not  any  part  of  the  African 
coast,  over  the  whole  of  which  this  measure  of  July  sweeps,  envelop- 
ing all  in  the  slave  trade.  That  measure,  our  order  in  council,  is  now 
given  up — it  cannot  for  an  instant  stand — for  every  argument  urged 
in  its  defence  assumes  that  it  must  be  accompanied  or  followed  by 
other  regulations,  some  of  which  have  not  been,  others  of  which  never 
can  be  made.  The  noble  duke  admits  this  as  distinctly  as  my  noble 
friend.  Then  I  show  you  places  without  number,  where  no  regula- 
tions whatever  can  be  made  by  all  the  powers  and  authorities  existing 
in  the  empire,  and  that  is  decisive  against  the  order  in  council.  I  have 
waited,  and  in  vain,  for  any  answer  to  this  main  branch  of  the  argu- 
ment from  the  noble  Secretary  of  State — I  put  it  to  him  in  every  form, 
and  he  makes  no  sign.  Therefore  that  order  stands  convicted — namely, 
by  confession  it  stands  convicted — of  leaving  the  door  ajar  to  the 
African  slave  trader,  under  the  fairer  name  of  encouraging  the  trade 
in  apprentices — for  I  call  it  as  bad  as  leaving  the  door  ajar,  to  affect 
shutting  the  main  gate  while  you  leave  half  a  yard  to  the  one  side,  a 
door  wide  open,  through  which  the  whole  body  of  it  may  enter,  and 
which  there  exists  no  power  within  your  reach,  nay,  no  power  on  this 
earth,  that  can  shut  it. 

Much  was  said  by  the  noble  jduke  of  the  value  of  colonial  posses- 

*  Lord  Auckland.  f  Lord  Auckland. 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  499 

sions,  the  necessity  of  more  hands  to  cultivate  onr  plantations,  and  the 
tendency  of  these  resolutions  to  prevent  their  importation.  But  here 
it  is  that  the  noble  duke  has  entirely  mistaken  both  the  tenor  of  my 
opinions,  and  the  scope  of  the  resolutions.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who 
object  to  colonial  establishments.  Many  men  for  whom  I  have  a  great 
and  just  respect  do  go  this  length.  My  opinion  differs  from  theirs. 
I  lately  stated  how  I  draw  the  line.  I  make  a  great  distinction  between 
such  colonies  as  those  on  the  main  land  of  North  America,  where  men 
settle  without  the  plan  of  returning  home,  where  the  property  is  in 
the  hands  of  personal  residents,  and  which  are  extensive  enough  to 
defend  themselves.  When  these  are  able  to  stand  alone,  when  it  is 
no  longer  of  mutual  benefit  that  the  colonial  relation  should  continue, 
the  separation  is  advantageous  to  both  parent  state  and  settlement. 
But  as  I  lately  stated  in  the  argument  I  held  with  my  noble  friend,* 
now  absent,  unfortunately,  from  a  domestic  affliction,  the  slave  colonies 
are  differently  circumstanced;  and  no  one  can  doubt  the  mutual  bene- 
fits of  their  continued  dependence  upon  the  mother  country.  They 
are  important  to  our  commerce,  and  still  more  to  our  income  and 
wealth — we  are  of  use  towards  their  defence — and  in  a  military  point 
of  view  the  connection  may  be  exceedingly  material.  I  have  not 
therefore  a  word  to'say  against  the  noble  duke's  high  value  which  he 
sets  upon  such  possessions.  How  far  their  cultivation,  after  the  eman- 
cipation act  comes  into  full  play,  will  require  an  importation  of  la- 
bourers from  the  East,  is  quite  another  question.  But  then  it  is  one 
on  which  these  resolutions  pronounce  no  opinion  whatever.  I  defy 
any  man  to  point  out  one  line  of  either  resolution  which  even  looks 
in  that  direction.  Why  do  I  thus  confidently  say  so?  Because  I  pur- 
posely framed  them  so  as  to  keep  quite  clear  of  a  subject  on  which  I 
knew  men  might  differ  widely,  while  they  all  agreed  in  the  main  ob- 
ject of  censuring  the  order  in  council.  But  says  the  noble  viscount,t 
following  the  noble  duke,  whose  unwillingness  to  remove  him  from 
the  office  holden  at  his  grace's  pleasure  seems  to  have  excited  a  just 
feeling  of  thankfulness,  a  great  experiment  is  about  to  be  made.  We 
cannot  tell,  he  says,  what  may  happen  in  1S40 — I  hope  and  trust  that 
will  be  all  known  two  years  earlier — therefore,  he  adds,  let  us  be  on 
our  guard.  Why  not?  Certainly  let  us  be  on  our  guard — but  do  you 
say  a  single  word  to  show  that  this  order  in  council  for  importing  more 
apprentices  puts  us  more  on  onr  guard?  What  will  betide  us,  says  the 
noble  duke,  should  the  emancipated  Negroes  refuse  to  work  for  hire? 
How  will  your  estates  then  be  cultivated?  and  how  can  you  tell  that 
they  will  pass  from  the  state  of  slavery  to  that  of  industrious  work- 
men? How  can  I  tell?  Why,  by  looking  at  what  they  are  already 
doing — in  Jamaica  and  Barbadocs,  whore  they  work  every  spare  hour 
voluntarily  for  wages  —  in  Antigua  and  Bermuda,  where  they  have 
boon  as  free  as  the  peasantry  of  Hampshire  for  near  three  years,  and 
have  worked  as  hard  and  behaved  themselves  as  well.  On  this  head, 
then,  I  have  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  nor  am  I  entitled  to  have — 

•   Lord  Asliburton.  f  Lord  Melbourne. 


500  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

if  experience  can  be  trusted  as  a  safe  guide.  But  furthermore — sup- 
pose me  quite  wrong — suppose  the  whole  experience  of  the  past  belied 
by  the  future,  and  that  all  the  Negroes  refuse  to  work  the  moment  the 
hour  of  their  liberation  strikes — here  are  eight  hundred  thousand  idle 
and  dissolute,  and  restless  and  rebellious  Negroes  (for  there  can  be  no 
middle  state  between  peace  with  industry,  and  idleness  with  revolt) — 
and  the  noble  duke  would  keep  all  quiet,  and  reclaim  all  from  idleness, 
by  sprinkling  over  this  vast  mass  three  or  four  thousand  Coolies  from 
Asia.  The  supposition  is  that  all  the  West  Indies  are  in  a  state  of 
inaction  first — presently  after  of  insurrection  and  confusion — no  work 
done  but  that  of  mischief — no  labour,  no  quiet,  no  subordination — 
all  is  a  mass  of  confusion,  and  every  portion  of  the  vast  population  is 
in  a  ferment — when  sprikling  over  the  boiling  mass  a  few  peaceful 
and  indolent  natives  of  Hindostan  will  at  once  restore  universal  quiet, 
and  all  will  suddenly  sink  down  to  rest! 

Hi  raotus  animorum,  atque  hsec  certamina  tanta 
Pulveris  exigui  jactu  compressa  quiescent! 

But  I  have  said,  my  lords,  that  these  resolutions  pronounce  no 
judgment  whatever  upon  the  policy  of  importing  new  hands.  All  my 
opinions  on  this  subject  may  be  as  erroneous  as  you  please — the  noble 
duke's  and  the  government's  under  his  protection,  as  well  grounded 
as  possible — whatever  may  be  my  private  opinion,  you  are  to  vote 
on  the  resolutions,  and  not  on  the  speech  that  introduces  and  defends 
them;  and  he  who  holds  as  high,  as  the  noble  duke,  the  necessity  of 
introducing  new  labourers,  may  most  correctly  and  earnestly  join  with 
him  who  has  no  opinion  of  the  kind,  in  supporting  resolutions  which 
leave  the  question  wholly  untouched.  Nay,  the  more  I  was  of  the 
noble  duke's  opinion — the  higher  I  valued  the  importation  as  a  re- 
source— the  more  should  I  vote  for  these  resolutions — because  they 
go  only  to  condemn  a  most  erroneous  mode  of  trying  this  experiment 
— a  mode  which  its  authors  shrink  from  defending,  and  which  the 
noble  duke  and  every  one  else  join  in  condemning,  as  not  giving  the 
experiment  fair  play.  Can  anything  indeed  be  more  unfair  towards 
that  experiment  than  trying  it  in  such  a  clumsy,  bungling  manner,  as 
to  bring  upon  it  the  odium  of  being  a  new  slave  trade? 

While,  however,  this  is  the  clear  and  undeniable  posture  of  the 
question  in  debate,  I  cannot  at  all  abandon  the  jealousy  and  indeed 
the  aversion  with  which  I  regard  all  plans  whatever  of  wholesale 
shifting  of  populaton.  Nor  am  1  in  the  least  degree  won  over  to  such 
plans  by  hearing  their  defence  clothed  in  language  drawn  from  the 
science  of  political  economy.  My  noble  friend  calls  it  "a  free  circu- 
lation of  labour,"  and  professes  his  reluctance  to  abandon  on  this  sub- 
ject his  tenets  as  an  economist.  I  have  heard  the  terms  and  the  doc- 
trines of  political  economy  turned  to  many  uses  in  my  time.  They 
have  been  used  to  defend  state  lotteries — insurances  in  the  lottery — 
stock-jobbing — time-bargains  in  the  funds.  Why,  it  is  said,  should 
there  be  any  interference  with  the  free  use  of  capital,  or  of  skill  and  of 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  501 

labour  in  these  departments  of  industry?  On  the  Continent  it  has  been 
applied  to  even  baser  uses — and  made  to  defend  the  establishment  of 
public  stews,  under  due  regulations  for  the  benefit  of  the  subject.  But 
I  own  I  have  never  yet  heard  those  principles  applied  where  they 
were  more  out  of  place  and  season  than  to  the  subject  of  the  slave 
trade.  Can  any  man  in  his  sober  senses  think  of  calling  the  whole- 
sale embarking  of  Hindoos,  and  then  transporting  them  to  the  anti- 
podes, to  work  in  ways  wholly  unknown  to  them  and  foreign  to  their 
nature  and  habits,  and  pretend  that  giving  it  facilities — encouragement 
— stimulants — is  furthering  the  free  circulation  of  labour?  The  argu- 
ment against  all  this  plan  is,  that  there  is  mere  slave  trading  in  every 
part  of  it — that  a  felony  lurks  under  each  of  its  arrangements.  Then 
do  the  political  economists  and  my  noble  friend,  who  is  so  vigorous  a 
stickler  for  their  doctrines,  hold  that  the  circulation  of  labour  is  inter- 
rupted by  preventing  the  slave  trade?  If  they  do — nor  can  they  stop 
a  hair's-breadth  short  of  this — then  I  am  for  abiding  by  the  law  of 
God  and  the  law  of  the  land,  let  their  laws  of  political  economy  fare 
how  they  may. 

The  noble  duke  has  proposed  certain  terms  to  the  government,  as 
the  price  df  his  support — "Promise  me  you  will  adopt  my  code  of 
regulations,"  says  he,  "  and  you  shall  not  be  condemned  by  a  vote  of 
censure  this  time."  The  hook  so  baited  was  sure  to  take — the  minis- 
ters bit  immediately — but  they  were  not  caught.  "Oh  yes — by  all 
means" — "Anything  you  please,"  says  the  noble  viscount — "  we  agree 
at  once" — to  what?  Not  to  the  proposal  made;  but  only  to  consider 
of.it — "  We  will  take  it  into  our  best  consideration."  I  don't  much 
think  this  kind  of  acceptance  will  catch  the  noble  duke.  He  saw  the 
noble  viscount  swallow  the  bait — but  he  had  not  caught  his  fish — 
away  it  ran  with  the  line  in  its  mouth,  down  the  stream,  and  buried 
itself  in  "  serious  consideration."  Why,  I  defy  the  noble  duke  to  pro- 
pose any  one  thing  on  any  one  subject,  which  the  government,  and  all 
the  House,  and  the  country  too,  will  not,  as  a  matter  of  course,  take 
into  serious  and  respectful  consideration.  The  noble  viscount  will 
consider  of  it; — so  shall  I; — but  very  possibly  he  may  end  by  thinking 
as  little  of  it  as  I  do.  Considering  of  it  proves  no  assent — Le  Rui 
s'avisera,  is  the  form  of  rejecting  bills — the  sovereign  has  only  once 
or  twice  taken  any  measure  into  consideration  since  the  revolution, 
though  he  has  assented  to  some  thousands;  and  the  minister,  too, may 
consider  and  reject.  The  nature  of  the  noble  viscount's  answer,  then, 
was,  to  use  the  phraseology  of  a  witness  on  a  memorable  occasion,  at 
that  bar,  More  no  than  yes.  So,  as  the  noble  duke  failed  to  catch  the 
noble  viscount,  the  noble  viscount  must  not  expect  to  catch  the  noble 
duke — anxious  as  he  is  to  be  taken  upon  the  present  occasion. 

I  hear  it  said  by  my  noble  friend,*  that  there  is  a  wide  difference 
between  his  plan  and  Mr.  Harham's  in  1811,  inasmuch  as  slavery 
then  existed,  and  the  Chinese  were  to  be  brought  over  as  free  labourers 
— whereas,  apprenticeship  is  now  the  law,  und  the  Hindoos  are  lo 

•  Lord  Glenelg. 


502  EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE. 

come  into  a  colony  of  apprenticed  labourers.  That  is  precisely  my 
argument  to  show  how  much  worse  this  plan  is  than  that;  and  yet 
that  was  not  endured  by  any  one  who  knew  the  subject  ever  so  im- 
perfectly. No  one  would  have  listened  to  Mr.  Barham's  proposition, 
but  that  he  was  to  make  all  the  labourers  he  brought  over  free  at 
once;  they  were  to  be  free  from  every  shackle  imposed  upon  the 
Negroes.  Here  the  Hindoos  are  to  be  subject  to  every  restraint  which 
the  Negroes  endure — nay,  this  plan  is  to  continue  for  years  after  the 
Negroes  are  set  free. 

But  a  new  argument  is  raised  by  the  noble  viscount.*  "  Take  care," 
says  he,  "  how  you  set  men's  interests  against  their  duty,  and  raise 
their  strongest  prejudices  against  Negro  freedom.  The  slavery  of  the 
ancient  world  was  only  extinguished  by  it  becoming  men's  interest  to 
prefer  free  labour  to  slave  labour;  therefore,  if  you  make  free  labour 
so  scarce  in  the  West  Indies  as  to  make  it  dear,  slavery  never  can 
cease."  I  am  not  sensible  of  ever  in  my  life  having  heard  a  piece  of 
reasoning  more  absurd  in  all  its  parts — one  in  which  the  incorrectness 
of  the  facts  assumed,  more  strove  for  the  mastery  with  the  thoughtless- 
ness of  the  inferences  drawn  from  them.  What !  slavery  in  Europe 
extinguished  by  the  high  price  of  slave  labour,  or  any  other  calculation 
of  profit  and  loss  !  Why,  I  had  always  believed  that  it  was  the  mild 
spirit  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  which  worked  by  slow  degrees  this  happy 
change.  I  state  the  sentiments  I  have  always  heard  accounted  just, 
and  not  out  of  deference  to  the  Right  Reverend  Prelates  in  whose 
presence  I  speak,  and  who,  to  their  immortal  honour,  have  never  once 
refused  the+r  support  to  any  one  proposition  adverse  to  the  slave  trade. 
But  never  before  did  I  hear  it  doubted  that  first  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
hostile  to  all  cruelty  and  oppression;  and  afterwards  the  efforts  of 
zealous  priests,  even  refusing  the  rites  of  the  church  to  men  unless 
they  would  free  their  bondsmen,  gradually  wrought  the  happy  change 
which  the  noble  lord  ascribes  to  a  calculation  of  interest.  But  grant 
him  his  facts;  how  do  they  prove  the  emancipation  to  be  in  any  danger 
from  a  rise  in  the  wages  of  labour?  He  talks  as  if  the  act  had  never 
passed,  and  we  were  trusting  to  men's  interests  for  setting  their  slaves 
free.  Happily,  longer  than  August  1840  they  cannot  be  retained  in 
any  form  of  servitude.  Does  he  dread  that  high  wages  will  bring  back 
the  chain  and  the  cartwhip?  I  have  no  share  in  his  chimerical  appre- 
hensions. I  defy  all  the  combinations  which  cruelty  can  effect  with 
avarice  to  restore  that  hideous  state  of  society  of  which  the  knell 
sounded  over  the  Atlantic  in  1S33.  No,  no  !  I  will  trust  the  Negro 
people  for  that.  They  will  keep  what  they  have  got.  Trust  me  they 
will  set  at  defiance  all  the  noble  lord's  calculations,  and  all  the  wishes 
of  their  former  masters,  and  never  more  consent  to  work  one  spell  of 
work,  but  for  their  own  behoof — be  the  terms  of  their  employment 
ever  so  distasteful  to  their  white  neighbours — be  their  desire  for.  a 
restoration  of  the  yoke,  and  the  chain,  and  the  cartwhip  ever  so  in- 
tense. The  renewal  of  the  slave  trade  is  a  very  different  thing.  On 

*  Lord  Melbourne. 


EASTERN  SLAVE  TRADE.  503 

that  rny  fears  arc  indeed  grave  and  perplexing — for  I  know  the  Indian 
crimp  and  the  African  trader — the  inexhaustible  perfidies  of  the  dealers 
in  men,  and  the  scope  which  those  frauds  have  among  hordes  of  un- 
civilized men,  many  of  them  in  their  own  country  slaves — the  comfort 
and  aid  which  those  wretches  may  reckon  upon  receiving  from  accom- 
plices ready  made,  such  as  the  bribed  governor  on  the  Spanish  Main, 
and  the  friendly  authorities  of  Cuba. 

But  I  am  told  to  be  of  good  courage,  and  not  to  despond — there  is 
no  fear  of  abuse — no  prospect  of  the  horrible  traffic  so  much  condemned 
ever  taking  root  in  our  islands.  I  am  bid  to  look  at  the  influence  of 
public  opinion — the  watchfulness  of  the  Press — the  unceasing  efforts 
of  all  the  societies — the  jealous  vigilance  of  Parliament.  Am  I  then  to 
stand  by  and  suffer  the  traffic  to  be  revived,  in  the  hope  that  we  shall 
again  be  able  to  work  its  extirpation?  Trust,  say  the  friends  of  this 
abominable  measure,  trust  to  the  force  which  gained  the  former  triumph. 
Expect  some  Clarkson  to  arise,  mighty  in  the  powers  of  persevering 
philanthopy,  with  the  piety  of  a  saint  and  the  courage  of  a  martyr — 
hope  for  some  second  Wilberforce,  who  shall  cast  away  all  ambition 
but  that  of  doing  good,  scorn  all  power  but  that  of  relieving  his  fellow- 
creatures,  and  reserving  for  mankind  what  others  give  up  to  party, 
know  no  vocation  but  that  blessed  work  of  furthering  justice  and  free- 
ing the  slave — reckon  upon  once  more  seeing  a  government  like  that 
of  1806 — alas,  how  different  from  any  we  now  witness  ! — formed  of 
men  who  deemed  no  work  of  humanity  below  their  care  or  alien  to 
their  nature,  and  resolved  to  fulfil  their  high  destiny,  beard  the  court, 
confront  the  peers,  contemn  the  planters — and  in  despite  of  planter, 
and  peer,  and  prince,  crush  the  foreign  traffic  with  one  hand,  while 
they  gave  up  the  staff  of  power  with  the  other,  rather  than  be  patrons 
of  intolerance  at  home  !  These  are  the  views  with  which  it  is  sought 
to  console  us  and  gain  us  over  to  the  ill-starred  measure  before  you. 

I  make  for  answer — if  it  please  you — No  —  by  no  means — nothing 
of  all  this.  The  monster  is  down,  and  I  prefer  keeping  him  down  to 
relying  upon  all  our  resources  for  gaining  a  second  triumph.  I  will 
not  suffer  the  Upas  tree  to  be  transplanted,  on  the  chance;  of  its  not 
thriving  in  an  ungenial  soil,  and  in  the  hope  that,  after  it  shall  be  found 
to  blight  with  death  all  beneath  its  shade,  my  arm  may  be  found  strong 
enough  to  wield  the  axe  which  shall  lay  it  low.  I  thank  you  for  the 
patience  with  which  you  have  listened  to  me,  and  on  which  I  have 
unwillingly  trespassed  so  long.  My  bounden  duty  could  not  otherwise 
have  been  performed;  and  I  had  no  choice  but  to  act  now  as  I  have 
acted  ever  through  the  whole  of  my  life — maintaining  to  the  end  the 
implacable  enmity  with  which  I  have  at  all  times  pursued  this  infernal 
trade. 


LAW     REFORM. 


INTRODUCTION. 

LAW    REFORM — MR.    BENTHAM — MR.  DUMONT MR.    MILL — SIR   JAMES 

MACKINTOSH. 

THE  age  of  Law  Reform  and  the  age  of  Jeremy  Bentham  are  one  and  the  same. 
He  is  the  father  of  the  most  important  of  all  the  branches  of  Reform,  the  leading 
and  ruling  department  of  human  improvement.  No  one  before  him  had  ever  seri- 
ously thought  of  exposing  the  defects  in  our  English  system  of  Jurisprudence.  All 
former  students  had  confined  themselves  to  learn  its  principles, — to  make  them- 
selves masters  of  its  eminently  technical  and  artificial  rules;  and  all  former  writers 
had  but  expounded  the  doctrines  handed  down  from  age  to  age.  Men,  by  common 
consent,  had  agreed  in  bending  before  the  authority  of  former  times  as  decisive  upon 
every  point;  and  confounding  the  question  of,  what  is  the  law,  which  that  authority 
alone  could  determine,  with  the  question,  what  ought  to  be  the  law,  which  the  wis- 
dom of  an  early  and  an  unenlightened  age  was  manifestly  unfit  to  solve;  they  had 
taken  it  for  granted  that  the  system  was  perfect,  because  it  was  established,  and 
had  bestowed  upon  the  produce  of  ignorance  and  inexperience  their  admiration  in 
proportion  as  it  was  defective.  He  it  was  who  first  made  the  mighty  step  of  trying 
the  whole  provisions  of  our  jurisprudence  by  the  test  of  expediency,  fearlessly  ex- 
amining how  far  each  part  was  connected  with  the  rest;  and  with  yet  more  undaunted 
courage,  inquiring  how  far  even  its  most  consistent  and  symmetrical  arrangements 
were  framed  according  to  the  principle  which  should  pervade  a  Code  of  Laws — 
their  adaptation  to  the  circumstances  of  society,  to  the  wants  of  men,  and  to  the 
promotion  of  human  happiness. 

Not  only  was  he  thus  eminently  original  among  the  lawyers  and  the  legal  philoso- 
phers of  his  own  country;  he  might  he  said  to  be  the  first  legal  philosopher  that  had 
appeared  in  the  world.  For  Justinian,  when  he  undertook  his  great  work  of  abridg- 
ing and  digesting  the  Roman  law,  in  truth  only  methodized  existing  laws,  and 
brought  into  a  compendious  and  manageable  form  those  rules  which  lay  scattered 
over  so  many  volumes,  that  they  were  said  to  be  "  the  load  of  many  camels"  What- 
ever he  found,  or  rather  whatever  Tribonian  and  his  coadjutors  employed  by  the 
Kinperor  found,  in  the  edicts  of  Praetors,*  the  laws  of  the  popular  assemblies, f  the 
rescripts  of  former  Kmperors,£  or  the  opinions  and  other  writings  of  lawyers, §  was 
deemed  to  be  fixed  law;  and  accordingly  the  Pandects,  (or  Digest,)  any  more  than 
the  Code  and  the  Novels,  contain  nothing  which  is  not  specially  avouched  by  tho 
authority  upon  which  it  is  given  as  law,  and  the  Institutes,  a  work  of  matchless 
beauty  as  an  abstract  or  summary  of  principles,  is  wholly  drawn  from  the  same 
sources.  The  like  may  be  said  of  the  modern  Codes,  of  which  the  Frederician  or 
Prussian  is  the  most  important  that  had  been  compiled  before  Mr.  Bentham's  time; 
and  although  that  of  Napoleon,  the  most  perfect  of  them  all,  from  being  the  growth 
of  an  age  that  had  already  profited  largely  by  Mr.  Uentham's  labours,  contains  very 
considerable  changes  and  improvements  upon  the  former  laws;  yet  these  bear  but 
a  very  insignificant  proportion  to  tho  whole  mass,  which  is  in  the  main  a  digest  of 
existing  jurisprudence,  ami  derives  its  principal  claim  to  tho  public  gratitude  from 

•   F.dicta  Pnutomm.  t  Lcgcg  ct  Plchiscitn. 

t   Rcscri|>la  I'riiicipuin.  §  Kcspoiisa  I'rudfiitiiin. 

VOL.   I. 13 


506  INTRODUCTION. 

its  abolishing  the  local  differences  of  the  provincial  systems,  and  giving  one  law  to 
the  whole  empire.  Mr.  Bentham,  professing  to  regard  no  existinor  law  as  of  any 
value  unless  it  was  one  which  ought  to  have  been  made,  wholly  unfetters  himself 
from  any  deference  to  authority — bringing  the  fundamental  principles,  as  well  as 
the  details  of  each  legislative  rule,  to  the  test  of  reason  alone — trying  all  by  the  crite- 
rion of  their  tendency  to  promote  the  happiness  and  improve  the  condition  of  man- 
kind— not  only  showed  in  detail  the  glaring  inconsistencies  and  the  radical  imper- 
fections of  the  English  system,  but  carrying  his  bold  and  sagacious  views  to  their 
amplest  extent,  investigated  the  principles  upon  which  all  human  laws  should  be 
constructed,  and  showed  how  their  provisions  should  be  framed  for  the  better 
accomplishment  of  their  great  purpose — the  well-being  of  civil  society,  both  as 
regards  the  enjoyment  of  civil  rights,  the  prevention  of  crimes,  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  virtue.  The  adaptation  of  these  principles  to  the  particular  circumstances 
of  any  given  state,  can  only  be  ascertained  by  a  careful  examination  of  those  cir- 
cumstances, and,  above  all,  by  an  accurate  attention  to  the  laws  already  existing  in 
the  country,  and  which,  how  ill  soever  contrived  in  many  respects,  have  always, 
more  or  less,  arisen  out  of  those  very  circumstances.  This  is  the  business  of  Codi- 
fication, which  consists  in  not  only  reducing  to  a  system  and  method  the  existing 
laws,  but  in  so  amending  them  as  to  make  them  capable  of  accomplishing  their  car- 
dinal object — the  happiness  of  the  community. 

In  thus  assigning  to  Mr.  Bentham,  not  merely  the  first  place  among  legal  phi- 
losophers, but  the  glory  of  having  founded  tbe  sect,  and  been  the  first  who  deserved 
the  name,  it  cannot  be  intended  to  deny  that  other  writers  preceded  him,  who  wisely 
and  fearlessly  exposed  the  defects  of  existing  systems.  Voltaire,  for  example, 
great  and  original  in  whatever  pursuit,  whether  of  letters  or  of  science,  whether  of 
gay  or  of  grave  composition,  was  enlightened  by  his  extraordinary  genius,  had, 
with  his  characteristic  vigour  and  sagacity,  attacked  many  false  principles  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  judicial  systems  of  all  nations.  Filangieri,  who  of  all  writers  before 
Bentham  comes  nearest  to  the  character  of  a  legal  philosopher,  had  exposed,  with 
the  happiest  effect,  the  folly  as  well  as  cruelty  of  severe  penal  inflictions;  Mon- 
tesquieu, whose  capacity  as  well  as  his  learning,  is  unquestionable,  notwithstanding 
his  puerile  love  of  epigram,  and  his  determination  to  strain  and  force  all  facts  within 
the  scope  of  a  fantastical  theory,  had  discussed  with  success  many  important  prin- 
ciples of  general  jurisprudence;  and  Mr.  Locke,  a  far  more  illustrious  name,  had 
treated  with  his  wonted  profoundness  and  accurate  reflection,  many  of  the  principles 
which  bear  upon  the  political  branches  of  legislation.  But  none  of  those  great  men, 
nor  any  of  the  others  through  whose  writings  important  and  useful  discussions  of 
legislative  principles  are  scattered,  ever  embraced  the  subject  in  its  wider  range,  nor 
attempted  to  reduce  the  whole  jurisprudence  under  the  dominion  of  fixed  and  general 
rules.  None  ever  before  Mr.  Bentham  took  in  the  whole  departments  of  legisla- 
tion. None  before  him  can  be  said  to  have  treated  it  as  a  science,  and  by  so  treating, 
made  it  one.  This  is  his  pre-eminent  distinction;  to  this  praise  he  is  most  justly 
entitled;  and  it  is  as  proud  a  title  to  fame  as  any  philosopher  ever  possessed. 

To  the  performance  of  the  magnificent  task  which  he  had  set  before  him,  this  great 
man  brought  a  capacity,  of  which  it  is  saying  everything  to  affirm,  that  it  was  not 
inadequate  to  so  mighty  a  labour.  Acute,  sagacious,  reflecting,  suspicious  to  a  fault 
of  all  outward  appearances,  nor  ever  to  be  satisfied  without  the  most  close,  sifting, 
unsparing  scrutiny,  he  had  an  industry  which  no  excess  of  toil  could  weary,  and 
applied  himself  with  as  unremitting  perseverance  to  master  every  minute  portion 
of  each  subject,  as  if  he  had  not  possessed  a  quickness  of  apprehension  which  could 
at  a  glance  become  acquainted  with  all  its  general  features.  In  him  were  blended, 
to  a  degree  perhaps  unequalled  in  any  other  philosopher,  the  love  and  appreciation 
of  general  principles,  with  the  avidity  for  minute  details;  the  power  of  embracing 
and  following  out  general  views,  with  the  capacity  for  pursuing  each  one  of  num- 
berless particular  facts.  His  learning  was  various,  extensive,  and  accurate.  His- 
tory, and  of  all  nations  and  all  ages,  was  familiar  to  him,  generally  in  the  languages 
in  which  it  was  recorded.  With  the  poets  and  the  orators  of  all  times  he  was 
equally  well  acquainted,  though  he  undervalued  the  productions  of  both.  The 
writings  of  the  philosophers  of  every  country,  and  of  every  age,  were  thoroughly 
known  to  him,  and  had  deeply  occupied  his  attention.  It  was  only  the  walks  of 


LAW  REFORM.  507 

the  exacter  sciences  that  he  had  not  frequented;  and  he  regarded  them,  very  erro- 
neously, as  unworthy  of  being  explored,  or  valued  them  only  for  the  inventions 
useful  to  common  life  which  flowed  from  them,  altogether  neglecting  the  pleasures 
of  scientific  contemplation  which  form  their  main  object  and  chief  attraction.  In 
the  laws  of  his  own  country  he  was  perfectly  well  versed,  having  been  educated  as 
a  lawyer,  and  called  to  the  English  bar,  at  which  his  success  would  have  been  cer- 
tain, had  he  not  preferred  the  life  of  a  sage.  Nor  did  he  rest  satisfied  with  the  ori- 
ginal foundations  of  legal  knowledge  which  he  had  laid  while  studying  the  system; 
he  continually  read  whatever  appeared  on  the  subject,  whether  the  decisions  of  our 
courts  or  the  speculations  of  juridical  writers;  so  as  to  continue  conversant  with  the 
latest  state  of  the  law  in  its  actual  and  practical  administration.  Though  living 
retired  from  society,  tie  was  a  watchful  and  accurate  observer  of  every  occurrence, 
whether  political,  or  forensic,  or  social,  of  the  day;  and  no  man  who  lived  so  much 
to  himself,  and  devoted  so  large  a  portion  of  his  time  to  solitary  study,  could  have 
been  supposed  to  know  so  perfectly,  even  in  its  more  minute  details,  the  state  of 
the  world  around  him,  in  which  he  hardly  seemed  to  live,  and  did  not  at  all  move. 

But  of  all  his  qualities,  the  one  that  chiefly  distinguished  Mr.  Bentham,  and  was 
the  most  fruitful  in  its  results,  was  the  boldness  with  which  he  pursued  his  inquiries. 
Whatever  obstacle  opposed  his  course,  be  it  little  or  be  it  mighty — from  what  quar- 
ter soever  the  resistance  proceeded — with  what  feelings  soever  it  was  allied,  be 
they  of  a  kind  that  leave  men's  judgment  calm  and  undisturbed,  or  of  a  nature  to 
suspend  the  reasoning  faculty  altogether,  and  overwhelm  opposition  with  a  storm 
of  unthinking  passion — all  signified  nothing  to  one  who,  weighing  principles  and 
arguments  in  golden  scales,  held  the  utmost  weight  of  prejudice,  the  whole  influence 
of  a  host  of  popular  feelings,  as  mere  dust  in  the  balance,  when  any  the  least  reason 
loaded  the  other  end  of  the  beam.  And  if  this  was  at  once  the  distinguishing 
quality  of  his  mind,  and  the  great  cause  of  his  success,  so  was  it  also  the  source  of 
nearly  all  his  errors,  and  the  principal  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  his  philosophy. 
For  it  often,  especially  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  prevented  him  from  seeing  real 
difficulties  and  solid  objections  to  his  proposals;  it  made  him  too  regardless  of  the 
quarter  from  which  opposition  might  proceed;  it  gave  an  appearance  of  impracti- 
cability to  many  of  his  plans;  and,  what  was  far  more  fatal,  it  rendered  many  of  his 
theories  wholly  inapplicable  to  any  existing,  and  almost  to  any  possible  state  of 
human  affairs,  by  making  him  too  generally  forget  that  all  laws  must  both  be  exe- 
cuted by,  and  operate  upon,  rnen — men  whose  passions  and  feelings  are  made  to  the 
lawgiver's  hand,  and  cannot  all  at  once  be  moulded  to  his  will.  The  same  un- 
daunted boldness  of  speculation  led  to  another  and  a  kindred  error.  He  pushed 
every  argument  to  the  uttermost;  he  strained  each  principle  till  it  cracked;  he  loaded 
all  the  foundations  on  which  his  system  was  built,  as  if,  like  arches,  they  wero 
strengthened  by  the  pressure,  until  he  made  them  bend  and  give  way  beneath  the 
superincumbent  weight.  A  provision,  whether  of  political  or  of  ordinary  law,  had 
no  merit  in  his  eyes,  if  it  admitted  of  any  exception,  or  betokened  any  bending  of 
principles  to  practical  facilities.  He  seemed  oftentimes  to  resemble  the  mechani- 
cian who  should  form  his  calculations  and  fashion  his  machinery  upon  the  abstract 
consideration  of  the  mechanical  powers,  and  make  no  allowance  for  friction,  or  tho 
resistance  of  the  air,  or  the  strength  of  the  materials.  Among  the  many  instances 
that  might  be  given  of  this  defect,  it  may  be  sufficient  to  single  out  one  from  his 
juridical,  and  one  from  his  political  speculations.  Perceiving  the  great  benefits  of 
individual  responsibility  in  a  judge,  he  peremptorily  rejected  all  but  what  he  termed 
single-seated  justice,  and  would  allow  no  merit  whatever  to  any  tribunal  composed 
of  more,  either  for  weighing  conflicting  evidence,  assessing  the  amount  of  compen- 
sation, or  reversing  the  judgments  of  a  single  inferior  judge.  Holding  also  the 
doctrine  of  universal  suffrage,  he  would  have  no  (exception  whatever,  and  argued  not 
only  that  women,  but  that  persons  of  unsound  mind,  should  be  admitted  to  vote  in 
the  choice  of  representatives. 

The  greater  qualities  of  Mr.  Bentham's  understanding  hare  been  described;  but  ho 
also  excelled  in  the  light  works  of  fancy.  An  habitual  despiser  of  eloquence,  ho 
wan  one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  men  when  it  pleased  him  to  write  naturally,  and 
before  he  had  adopted  that  harsh  style,  full  of  involved  periods  and  new  made  words, 
which,  how  accurately  soever  it  conveyed  Ins  ideas,  was  almost  as  hard  to  learn  as 


508  INTRODUCTION. 

a  foreign  language.  Thus  his  earlier  writings  are  models  of  force  as  well  as  of 
precision;  but  some  of  them  are  also  highly  rhetorical;  nor  are  the  justly  celebrated 
u  Defence  of  Usury,"  and  "Protest  against  Law  Taxes"  more  finished  models  of 
moral  demonstration,  than  the  Address  to  the  French  National  Assembly  on  Colonial 
Emancipation  is  of  an  eloquence  at  once  declamatory  and  argumentative.  The  pecu- 
liar manner  of  scrutinizing  every  subject,  into  which  he  latterly  fell,  which,  indeed, 
he  adopted  during  the  greater  portion  of  his  life,  and  which  has  been  happily  enough 
termed  the  "  exhaustive  mode"  was  little  adapted  to  combine  with  eloquence,  or  with 
any  kind  of  discussion  calculated  to  produce  a  great  popular  effect;  for  it  consisted 
in  a  careful  examination  of  every  circumstance  which  could  by  any  possibility  affect 
either  side  of  a  given  question,  and  it  gave  the  same  expansion  to  all  considerations, 
however  varying  in  point  of  importance;  whereas,  to  convince  or  to  strike  an  audi- 
ence, or  a  cursory  reader,  nothing  can  be  more  essentially  necessary  than  the  selec- 
tion of  the  more  important  objects,  and  making  them  stand  boldly  out  in  relief  above 
the  rest.  Another  consequence  of  his  addiction  to  this  method  was,  that  it  impaired 
his  strength  both  of  memory  and  of  reasoning.  He  investigated  with  a  pen  in  his 
hand,  trusted  to  his  eye  as  much  as  to  his  recollection,  and  enfeebled  his  powers  of 
abstract  attention  pretty  much  as  analysts  are  apt  to  become  less  powerful  reasoners 
and  investigators  than  geometricians.  It  thus  happened  that  although  he  disliked 
conversation  in  which  more  than  one  joined,  confining  himself  to  a  teta-a-tdte,  or  what 
he  termed  " single-handed  conversation,"  he  exceedingly  disrelished,  at  least  for  the 
last  thirty  years  of  his  life,  anything  like  argument,  preferring  anecdote,  or  remark, 
or  pleasantry,  in  which  last  he  was,  though  sometimes  happy,  yet  often  unsuccess- 
ful. But,  as  not  unfrequently  happens,  he  felt  far  more  jealous  of  any  disrespect 
shown  to  the  jokes  with  which  his  later  writings  were  filled,  than  of  any  dissent 
from  his  reasonings,  although  the  former  were  for  the  most  part  overlaboured,  far- 
fetched, and  lumbering. 

It  was  a  result  of  similar  prejudices  that  made  him  undervalue  not  only  eloquence, 
but  poetry;  and  he  was  wont  to  express  his  thankfulness  that  we  should  never  see 
any  more  Epic  poems.  That  he  might  greatly  prefer  other  exertions  of  original 
genius  to  those  which  have  produced  the  wonders  of  song,  is  easily  understood. 
But  that  he  should  deny  the  existence  of  the  pleasure  derived  from  works  of  ima- 
gination, or  question  the  reality  of  the  desire,  or  refuse  it  gratification,  seems  wholly 
incomprehensible,  and  only  the  more  so,  because  his  whole  theory  of  motives  pro- 
ceeds upon  the  assumption,  that  man's  constitution  leads  him  to  take  delight  in 
certain  enjoyments;  and  no  one  surely  can  doubt  the  fact  of  the  fine  arts  giving 
pleasure — pleasure,  too,  of  a  refined,  not  of  a  gross  description.  Nor  could  the 
devotion  of  some  men's  talents  to  poetry  be  rationally  grudged,  when  it  was  con- 
sidered how  few  those  are  whom  such  pursuits  can  ever  withdraw  from  severer 
studies,  and  how  often  they  are  persons  in  whom  such  studies  would  find  ungenial 
dispositions. 

The  moral  character  of  this  eminent  person  was,  in  the  most  important  particulars, 
perfect  and  unblemished.  His  honesty  was  unimpeachable,  and  his  word  might, 
upon  any  subject,  be  taken  as  absolutely  conclusive,  whatever  motives  he  might 
have  for  distorting  or  exaggerating  the  truth.  But  he  was,  especially  of  late  years, 
of  a  somewhat  jealous  disposition — betrayed  impatience  if  to  another  was  ascribed 
any  part  whatever  of  the  improvements  in  jurisprudence,  which  all  originated  in 
his  own  labours,  but  to  effect  which  different  kinds  of  men  were  required — and 
even  showed  some  disinclination  to  see  any  one  interfere,  although  as  a  coadjutor, 
and  for  the  furtherance  of  his  own  designs.  It  is  said  that  he  suffered  a  severe 
mortification  in  not  being  brought  early  in  life  into  Parliament;  although  he  must 
have  felt  that  a  worse  service  never  could  have  been  rendered  to  the  cause  he  had 
most  at  heart,  than  to  remove  him  from  his  own  peculiar  sphere  to  one  in  which, 
even  if  he  had  excelled,  he  yet  never  could  have  been  nearly  so  useful  to  mankind. 
It  is  certain  that  lie  showed,  upon  many  occasions,  a  harshness  as  well  as  coldness 
of  disposition  towards  individuals  to  whose  unremitting  friendship  he  owed  great 
obligations;  and  his  impatience  to  see  the  splendid  reforms  which  his  genius  had 
projected,  accomplished  before  his  death,  increasing  as  the  time  of  his  departure 
drew  nigh,  made  him  latterly  regard  even  his  most  familiar  friends  only  as  instru- 
ments of  reformation,  and  gave  a  very  unamiable  and  indeed  a  revolting  aspect  of 


LAW  REFORM.  509 

callousness  to  his  feelings  towards  them.  For  the  sudden  and  mournful  death  of 
one  old  and  truly  illustrious  friend,  he  felt,  as  he  expressed,  no  pain  at  all;  towards 
the  person  of  a  more  recent  friend  he  never  concealed  his  disrespect,  because  lie 
disappointed  some  extravagant  hopes  which  he  had  formed  that  the  bulk  of  a  largo 
fortune,  acquired  by  honest  industry,  would  be  expended  in  promoting  Parliament- 
ary influence  to  be  used  in  furthering  great  political  changes.  Into  all  these  unami- 
able  features  of  his  character,  every  furrow  of  which  was  deepened,  and  every  shade 
darkened  by  increasing  years,  there  entered  nothing  base  or  hypocritical.  If  lie  felt 
little  for  a  friend,  he  pretended  to  no  more  than  he  felt.  If  his  sentiments  were 
tinged  with  asperity  and  edged  with  spite,  he  was  the  first  himself  to  declare  it; 
and  no  one  formed  a  less  favourable  or  a  more  just  judgment  of  his  weaknesses 
than  he  himself  did,  nor  did  any  one  pronounce  such  judgments  with  a  severity  that 
exceeded  the  confessions  of  his  own  candour.  Upon  the  whole  then,  while,  in  his 
public,  capacity,  he  presented  an  object  of  admiration  and  of  gratitude,  in  his  private 
character  he  was  formed  rather  to  bo  respected  and  studied,  than  beloved. 

Among  those  who  have  been  described  as  coadjutors  to  whom  he  and  his  system 
owed  much,  and  who  were  not  requited  by  him  according  to  their  deserts,  M.  Du- 
mont  clearly  occupied  the  foremost  place.  He  was  one  of  those  active-minded, 
acute,  and  amiable  men,  so  well  calculated  to  serve  the  cause  of  science,  and  whom 
Geneva  not  unfrequently  produces  to  her  great  illustration — men,  who,  endowed 
with  faculties  that  fit  them  for  original  speculation,  yet  devote  themselves,  from 
sincere  love  of  some  important  subject,  to  act  as  disseminators  of  the  truths  dis- 
covered by  others — aiding  them  in  their  researches — diffusing  knowledge  which 
would  otherwise  lie  hid,  even  after  it  was  once  brought  to  light — making  it  bear 
new  and  often  unexpected  fruit,  by  their  own  culture — and  thus  acting  rather  the 
part  of  coadjutors  and  allies,  than  of  mere  pioneers  to  the  march  of  discovery. 
Among  this  class,  M.  Dumont  may  well  be  reckoned  the  first;  and  he  possessed  all 
that  didactic  power  by  which  it  is  so  eminently  distinguished.  Of  extraordinary 
industry,  of  great  acuteness,  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  object  of  his  elucida- 
tions, gifted  with  a  rare  power  of  illustration,  no  less  able  to  methodize  than  to 
abridge — he  not  only  thoroughly  mastered  all  the  views  and  all  the  details  connect- 
ed with  his  subject,  but  could  at  once  perceive  all  its  more  remote  connections,  and 
all  the  capabilities  which  it  possessed  of  leading  to  results  often  new  to  the  original 
investigator.  Whoever  should  suppose  that  the  process  by  which  Mr.  Bentham's 
greatest  works  were  given  to  the  world  in  their  present  state,  consisted  merely  in 
his  manuscripts  being  entrusted  to  M.  Dumont,  and  their  contents  by  him  abstracted 
or  drawn  out  into  the  form  of  printed  treatises,  would  commit  a  very  great  mistake. 
It  was  much  more  that  the  latter  learnt  the  subject  from  the  notes  of  the  former, 
and  composed  the  treatises  as  he  would  have  done  had  he  been  the  discoverer  of  tho 
matter,  or  as  Mr.  Hcntham  would  have  done  had  he  possessed  the  same  talent  for 
explaining  the  results  of  his  inquiries  as  for  pursuing  those  investigations.  It  is 
perhaps  more  accurate  to  say  that  Mr.  1'enthatn  had  abandoned,  than  that  he  never, 
possessed  this  power  of  explaining;  for  his  earliest  works  plainly  show  that  he  had 
the  gift  when  he  thought  fit  to  cultivate  it.  Of  late  years,  however,  he  never  could 
stoop  to  make  his  speculations  level  to  the  capacity  of  ordinary  readers,  independ- 
ently of  the  repulsive  stylo  which  he  had  acquired,  which  must  have  been  even  of 
laborious  acqui-ition,  and  which  grew  into  an  inveterate  habit  of  writing.  It  may, 
however,  well  be  doubted,  if,  at  any  time  of  his  life,  he  could  have  produced  80 
finished  a  specimen  of  the  didactic  art  as  M.  Dumont  gave  in  his  principal  work, 
the  "  Trait r  tie  Legitlalion."  Tho  most  celebrated  of  his  other  writings  are  tho 
"  Tltniriede  Peinetcldt  Recompenses,"  and  the  "  Tactiqucdes  -Isscinbltcs  J'tihlitiiics,'' 

M.  Dumont's  eloquence  as  an  author,  the  singular  clearness  of  his  statements, 
and  the  felicity  of  his  illustrations,  at  once  carried  the  system  of  Mr.  Hentham  into 
nil  the,  literary,  and,  after  a  short  interval,  into  all  the  political  circles  also,  of 
tho  Continent.  The  accidental  circumstance  of  the  language  in  which  ho  wroto 
being  that  of  France,  served  to  render  tho  subject  more  familiar  abroad,  than  it  was, 
for  many  years  in  tho  country  adorned  by  tint  illustrious  philosopher's  nativity  and 
residence.  Hut  for  the  la*t  thirty  years  of  bin  life,  his  speculations  bad  become 
quite,  familiar  to  his  own  fellow-ciliuna;  his  doctrines  found  numerous  followers; 
his  general  system  was  adopted  by  political  as  well  as  legal  reformers,  who  received 

•13* 


510  INTRODUCTION. 

the  fundamental  principles,  while  they  often  refused  to  admit  the  practical  conse- 
quences, or  to  adopt  some  of  the  details;  and,  long  before  his  death,  Mr.  Bentham 
was  the  acknowledged  head  of  a  large  and  powerful  sect.  The  light  which  its 
labours  have  thrown  upon  all  subjects  of  jurisprudence,  practical  as  well  as  specu- 
lative, is  of  incalculable  value.  The  tone  which  has  been  given  to  the  public  mind 
has  been  sound  and  wholesome.  The  influence  exerted  upon  the  minds  of  states- 
men has  been  most  perceptible.  The  prejudice  against  all  departure  from  established 
arrangements,  which  the  optimism  of  even  the  most  liberal  of  former  inquirers  had 
rooted  in  men's  habits  of  thinking,  has  been  destroyed.  The  reign  of  reason  has 
dethroned  the  usurped  power  of  mere  authority;  and  the  advocate  of  an  existing  law, 
found  inconvenient  or  detrimental,  has  cast  upon  him  the  task  of  defending  it  by 
argument,  as  much  as  he  who  wouW  propound  a  new  one.  All  the  great  improve- 
ments in  our  system  of  jurisprudence  which  have  been  made  during  the  last  twenty 
years  (for  it  is  within  this  period  that  even  the  Taxes  on  Law  Proceedings  have 
been  established,)  may  easily  be  traced  to  the  long,  and  unwearied,  and  enlightened 
labours  of  Mr.  Bentham  and  his  school. 

It  has  been  already  remarked  that  this  great  Reformer  by  no  means  confined  his 
attention  to  those  subjects,  paramount  as  their  importance  is.  He  was  a  strenuous 
advocate  of  all  political  reform,  and  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  the  discussion  of  it. 
But,  though  whatever  he  did  was  sure  to  be  marked  by  his  characteristic  boldness 
and  sagacity,  it  must  be  allowed  that  his  purely  political  speculations  are  of  a  very 
inferior  kind,  when  compared  with  those  which  formed  the  principal  subjects  of  his 
labours;  and  those  whicli  among  his  political  speculations  gave  the  least  satisfaction, 
were  his  inquiries  concerning  ecclesiastical  polity.  They  displayed  his  wonted 
acuteness,  extraordinary  ingenuity,  great  fertility  of  illustration;  but  they  were  not 
marked  by  the  same  depth  of  reflection  which  distinguished  his  other  writings. 
Their  prolixity  was  also  matter  of  just  complaint;  and  yet  such  is  the  power  of 
genius,  even  when  most  misapplied,  that  his  huge  volume  upon  the  Liturgy  and 
Catechism  of  the  Church  of  England,  though  abounding  in  bitterness  unsuited  to 
the  subject,  and  deformed  by  such  absurdities  as  could  scarcely  be  believed,  is, 
nevertheless,  found  by  all  who  have  had  the  courage  to  undertake  the  perusal  of  it, 
one  of  the  most  entertaining  works  in  the  world.*  These,  and  other  writings  upon 
subjects  still  less  connected  with  the  ordinary  course  of  his  studies,  were  the  fruits 
of  a  weakness  into  which  he  was  apt  to  fall  during  the  latter  period  of  his  life. 
After  labouring  at  a  subject  for  a  length  of  time,  he  became  tired  of  it,  and  to  this 
lassitude  succeeded  a  disgust  which  made  it  hardly  possible  for  him  to  resume  it. 
He  then  sought  relief  and  relaxation  in  the  variety  of  some  very  different  inquiry, 
and  would  often  be  led  away  to  pursue  it  beyond  all  reasonable  bounds.  Thus  his 
friends  were  at  one  time  apprehensive  that  the  Law  of  Evidence  (his  most  impor- 
tant work  next  to  the  General  Treatise)  would  have  been  wholly  abandoned  when 
half  finished,  and  the  rest  of  his  life  given  up  to  Parliamentary  and  Church  Reform. 
Nay,  a  trifling  incident,  as  the  publication  in  1813  of  the  questions  put  to  the  wit- 
nesses on  the  secret  inquiry  respecting  the  Princess  of  Wales  in  1806,  so  engrossed 
the  attention  of  one  who  never  could  do  things  by  halves,  that  for  a  considerable 
time  he  was  absorbed  in, the  discussion  of  that  examination,  and  the  principles  that 
should  have  governed  it.  The  refusal  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  receive  printed 
petitions,  some  years  afterwards,  turned  him  aside  from  all  other  pursuits,  and  pro- 
duced a  copious  treatise -upon  a  very  trivial  subject,  in  which,  too,  it  may  be  observed, 
that  he  entirely  misconceived  the  real  gist  of  the  question.  It  was  when  he  had 
become  weary,  and,  as  it  were,  sick  of  some  truly  important  inquiry,  and  could  not 
he  got  to  resume  it,  that  the  kindly  influence  of  such  firm  and  attached  friends  as 
Rornilly  and  Dumont  was  most  wanted  and  most  beneficially  exerted;  and  the  latter 
being  always  ready  to  lend  his  useful  assistance,  as  well  as  to  apply  the  stimulus  of 
his  entreaties  and  councils,  was  probably  the  means  of  preventing  many  an  impor- 
tant inquiry  from  coming  to  an  untimely  end. 

*  As  a  specimen  of  the  absurdities  nlluded  to  above,  may  be  given  the  proposal  to  substi- 
tute feet-washing  for  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper,  from  one  of  the  charities  in  our  Saviour's 
history,  and  to  have  divine  service  read  by  charity  school  boys  as  being  cheaper  than  min- 
isters. 


LAW  REFORM.  511 

M.  Dumont  was  as  amiable  in  private  life  as  he  was  ever  justly  admired  in  his 
writings,  and  had  originally  been  for  his  singular  eloquence  as  a  preacher.  His 
manners  were  as  gentle  as  they  were  polished  and  refined.  His  conversation  was 
a  model  of  excellence;  it  was  truly  delightful.  Abounding  in  the  most  agreeable 
and  harmless  wit — fully  instinct  with  various  knowledge — diversified  with  anec- 
dotes of  rare  interest — enriched  with  all  the  stores  of  modern  literature — seasoned 
with  an  arch  and  racy  humour,  and  occasionally  a  spice  of  mimicry,  or  rather  of 
acting,  but  subdued,  as  to  be  palatable  it  must  always  be,  and  giving  rather  the 
portraiture  of  classes  than  of  individuals — marked  by  the  purest  taste — enlivened  by 
a  gaiety  of  disposition  still  unclouded — sweetened  by  a  temper  that  nothing  could 
ruffle — presenting,  especially,  perhaps  the  single  instance  of  one  distinguished  for 
colloquial  powers  never  occupying  above  a  few  moments  at  a  time  of  his  company's 
attention,  and  never  ceasing  to  speak  that  all  his  hearers  did  not  wish  him  to  go  on 
— it  rn^y  fairly  be  said  that  his  conversation  was  the  highest  enjoyment  which  the 
more  refined  society  of  London  and  of  Paris  afforded.  No  man,  accordingly,  was 
more  courted  by  all  classes;  no  loss  was  ever  felt  more  severely  than  his  decease; 
and  no  place  in  the  most  choice  circles  of  literary  and  political  commerce  is  so 
likely  long  to  remain  vacant. 

The  school  of  Mr.  Bentham  has  numbered  among  its  disciples,  apostles  of  his 
doctrine,  others  of  eminent  merit,  of  whom  unhappily  death,  by  removing  one  of 
the  chief,  enables  us  to  speak,  however  difficult  it  may  be  to  speak  of  him  as  his 
great  merits  deserve.  When  the  system  of  legal  polity  was  to  be  taught,  and  the 
cause  of  Law  Reform  to  be  supported  in  this  country,  no  one  could  be  found  more 
fitted  for  this  service  than  Mr.  Mill,  and  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  person  has 
been  owing  the  diffusion  of  those  important  principles  and  their  rapid  progress  in 
England.  He  was  a  man  of  extensive  and  profound  learning;  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  doctrines  of  metaphysical  and  ethical  science;  conversant  above  most  men 
with  the  writings  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  whose  language  he  familiarly  knew; 
and  gifted  with  an  extraordinary  power  of  application,  which  had  made  entirely 
natural  to  him  a  life  of  severe  and  unremitting  study.  His  literary  pursuits  had 
originally  directed  him  chiefly  to  subjects  connected  with  moral  and  political  philoso- 
phy; but  his  attention  being  drawn,  somewhere  about  thirty  years*  ago,  to  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Bentham,  he  speedily  devoted  to  their  study  the  greater  part  of  his 
time;  and,  becoming  acquainted  with  their  celebrated  author,  was  soon  received 
into  his  entire  confidence,  and  co-operated  with  him  until  his  decease  in  the  propa- 
gation of  his  philosophy.}  It  is  in  the  valuable  dissertations  which  Mr.  Mill  con- 
tributed to  the  Encyclopaedia  Uritannica  that  the  fruits  of  his  labours  in  this  field 
are  stored  for  public  use;  and  no  one  can  rise  from  the  perusal  of  them  without  being 
convinced  that  a  more  clear  and  logical  understanding  was  never  brought  to  bear 
upon  an  important  subject,  than  he  lent  to  the  diffusion  of  his  master's  doctrines. 
His  admirable  works  on  the  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  and  of  Moral  Phi- 
losophy, entitle  him  perhaps  to  a  higher  place  among  the  writers  of  his  age;  but 
neither  these  nor  his  History  of  British  India,  the  greatest  monument  of  his  learn- 
ing and  industry,  can  rie  with  his  discourses  on  Jurisprudence  in  usefulness  to  the 
cause  of  general  improvement,  which  first  awakened  the  ardour  of  his  vigorous 
mind,  and  on  which  its  latest  efforts  reposed.  His  style  was  better  adapted  to 
didactic  works,  and  works  of  abstract  science,  than  to  history;  for  he  had  no  powers 
of  narrative,  and  was  not  successful  in  any  kind  of  ornamental  composition.  He 
was  slenderly  furnished  with  fancy,  and  far  more  capable  of  following  a  train  of 
reasoning,  expounding  the  theories  of  others,  and  pursuing  them  to  their  legitimate 
consequences,  than  of  striking  out  new  paths,  and  creating  new  objects,  or  even 
adorning  the  creations  of  other  men's  genius.  With  the  single  exception  that  ho 
had  something  of  the  dogmatism  of  tlie  school,  ho  was  a  person  of  most  praise- 
worthy candour  in  controversy,  always  of  such  self-denial  that  he  sunk  every  selfish 
consideration  in  his  anxiety  for  the  success  of  any  cause  which  he  espoused,  and 
ever  ready  to  the  utmost  extent  of  his  faculties,  and  often  beyond  the  force  of  hid 

•  1*03  or  1603. 

t  To  bin  HOP,  Mr.  Jo'm  Mill,  we  owe  tlic  preparation  of  Mr.  Bcntlum's  second  work, 
the  Rationale  of  Evidence,  which  IH  admirably  executed. 


512  INTRODUCTION. 

constitution,  to  lend  his  help  for  its  furtherance.  In  all  the  relations  of  private  life 
he  was  irreproachable;  and  he  afforded  a  rare  example  of  one  born  in  humble  cir- 
cumstances, and  struggling,  during  the  greater  part  of  his  laborious  life,  with  the 
inconveniences  of  restricted  means,  nobly  maintaining  an  independence  as  absolute 
in  all  respects  as  that  of  the  first  subject  in  the  land — an  independence,  indeed, 
which  but  few  of  the  pampered  children  of  rank  and  wealth  are  ever  seen  to  enjoy. 
For  he  could  at  all  times  restrain  his  wishes  within  the  limits  of  his  resources;  was 
firmly  resolved  that  his  own  hands  alone  should  ever  minister  to  his  wants;  and 
would,  at  every  period  of  his  useful  and  virtuous  life,  have  treated  with  indignation 
any  project  that  should  trammel  his  opinions  or  his  conduct  with  the  restraints 
which  external  influence,  of  whatever  kind,  could  impose. 

In  Parliament  the  principles  of  law  reform  made  at  first  a  slower,  but  afterwards 
a  rapid  progress,  Although  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  had  at  all  times  habitually  applied 
his  mind  to  the  abuses  in  our  systsm,  had  been  all  his  life  a  student  of  general  juris- 
prudence, and  had  accordingly  been  always  a  law  reformer,  yet  he  never  hesitated 
in  admitting  his  deep  obligations  to  Mr.  Bentham,  whose  friendship  he  had  so  long 
and  so  intimately  enjoyed,  and  he  would  have  at  once  acknowledged  himself  to  be 
of  his  school,  although  his  speculations,  independently  of  Mr.  Bentham,  had  taken 
their  natural  course.  With  Mr.  Dumont  his  habits  of  intercourse  through  life  were 
still  more  constant  and  close;  they  might,  in  fact,  be  said  to  have  passed  the  greater 
part  of  their  lives  together.  When  the  world  sustained  the  irreparable  loss  of  Sir 
Samuel's  untimely  death,  his  labours  in  improving  the  criminal  code  were  most 
happily  continued  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh;  and  it  becomes  a  matter  of  duty  to 
pass  no  occasion  which  presents  itself  for  rendering  justice  to  the  exertions  strenu- 
ously and  successfully  made  by  this  distinguished  and  excellent  person.  There 
are,  however,  prudential  reasons  which  might  seem  to  dissuade  any  one  from  at- 
tempting to  sketch  a  character  that  has  already  been  touched  by  the  master-hands 
of  those  to  whom  the  features  of  the  original  were  so  familiarly  known.*  Nor 
could  anything  excuse  such  temerity,  but  the  consideration  that  the  historical  na- 
ture of  the  present  work  at  once  requires  such  an  addition,  and  forbids  its  being 
made  by  resorting  to  writings  more  or  less  professedly  panegyrical. 

To  the  great  subject  of  the  Criminal  Law,  Sir  James  Mackintosh  brought  a  mind 
well  versed  in  the  general  principles  of  legal  science;  an  acquaintance  with  ethi- 
cal philosophy,  indeed  with  every  department  of  philosophy,  perhaps  unequalled 
among  his  contemporaries;  and  the  singular  advantage  of  having  devoted  the 
best  years  of  his  life  to  the  administration  of  justice.  His  mind  was,  besides, 
stored  with  various  knowledge,  as  well  practical  as  scientific,  and,  although 
he  had  never  cultivated  the  exacter  sciences  since  his  early  years,  yet  his  origi- 
nal profession  of  a  physician  made  the  doctrines  of  Natural  Philosophy  familiar 
to  him;  and  if  it  has  been  said,  and  justly  said,  that  no  man  can  be  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  any  one  branch  of  knowledge  without  having  some  skill  in  the 
others  also,  to  no  department  of  study  is  this  remark  so  applicable  as  to  that  of 
jurisprudence,  which  pushes  its  roots  into  all  the  grounds  of  human  science,  and 
spreads  its  branches  over  every  object  that  concerns  mankind.  He  was  the  better 
prepared  for  successfully  accomplishing  the  task  which  he  undertook,  by  the 
singular  absence  of  all  personal  virulence,  and  even  factious  vehemence,  which  had 
uniformly  marked  his  course  both  in  public  and  private  life:  it  reconciled  to  him 
those  from  whom  he  most  widely  differed  in  his  opinions,  and  tended  greatly  to 
disarm  the  opposition  with  which  his  efforts  as  a  Reformer  were  sure  to  meet,  espe- 
cially among  the  members  of  his  own  profession.  This  quality,  together  with  his 
long  experience  as  a  Criminal  judge,  more  than  compensated  for  his  inferiority  in 
weight  as  a  legal  authority,  to  his  illustrious  predecessor,  who,  although  he  stood 
so  far  at  the  head  of  the  Bar  as  to  have  nothing  like  a  competitor,  had  yet  confined 
his  practice  chiefly  (o  the  Courts  of  Equity,  and  whose  superior  influence  as  a  states- 
man and  a  debater,  might  suffer  some  diminution  from  the  opposition  his  more 
severe  demeanour  was  apt  to  raise. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  account  were  to  be  set  the  weaknesses,  most  of  them 
amiable  or  accidental  in  their  origin,  some  of  which  enfeebled  his  character,  while 

*  Lord  Abinger,  Lord  Jeffrey,  Mr.  Sydney  Smith. 


LAW  REFORM.  513 

others  crippled  his  exertions.  His  constitution,  never  robust,  had  suffered  materially 
from  his  residence  in  India.  He  entered  Parliament  late  in  life,  and,  although 
always  a  most  able  and  well  informed  speaker,  occasionally  capable  of  astonishing 
his  audience  by  displays  of  the  most  brilliant  kind,  he  never  showed  any  powers  as 
a  debater,  and,  being  more  of  a  rhetorician  than  an  orator,  was  not  even  calculated 
to  produce  the  impression  which  eloquence  alone  makes;  while,  as  a  practical  man 
of  business,  in  all  that  related  to  the  details  of  measures,  or  the  conducting  them 
through  Parliament,  he  was  singularly  helpless  and  inefficient.  It  must  be  admit- 
ted that  his  mild  deportment,  his  candid  turn  of  mind,  and  the  gentleness  of  his 
nature,  while  they  might  disarm  the  anger  of  some  adversaries,  were  calculated  to 
relax  the 'Zeal  of  many  friends;  and  he  was  extremely  deficient  both  in  that  political 
courage  which  inspires  confidence  in  allies,  while  it  bears  down  the  resistance  of 
enemies,  and  in  that  promptitude,  the  gift  of  natural  quickness,  combined  witli  long 
practice,  which  never  suffers  an  advantage  to  be  lost,  and  turns  even  a  disaster  to 
account.  His  style  of  speaking,  too,  was  rather  of  the  epideictic,  orexhibitory,  than 
of  the  argumentative  kind;  and,  as  his  habitual  good  nature  led  him  not  only  to 
avoid  vehement  attacks,  but  to  indulge  in  a  somewhat  lavish  measure  of  commenda- 
tion, offence  was  given  to  friends  more  than  ever  enemies  were  won  over.  Even 
his  most  celebrated  performances  were  less  remarkable  for  reasoning  than  for  dis- 
sertation; and  the  greatest  speech  he  ever  made — nor  was  there  ever  one  more 
eminently  striking  and  successful  delivered  in  Parliament — the  speech  on  the 
Foreign  Enlistment  Bill  in  1819 — although  abounding  in  the  most  profound  remarks, 
and  the  most  enlarged  views  of  policy  and  of  general  law,  clothed  in  the  happiest 
language,  and  enlightened  by  the  most  felicitous  illustration,  was  exposed  to  the 
criticism  of  some  judges  of  eloquence,  as  defective  in  the  grand  essential  of  argu- 
ment, and  of  that  rapid  and  vehement  declamation  which  fixes  the  hearer's  attention 
upon  the  subject,  making  the  speaker  be  forgotten,  and  leaving  his  art  concealed. 

Against  the  purity  of  this  eminent  person's  public  conduct,  no  charge  whatever 
was  ever  fairly  brought.  Few  men,  indeed,  ever  made  greater  sacrifices  to  his 
principles  while  his  party  was  excluded  from  power,  or  were  less  rewarded  for 
them  when  that  party  was  admitted  to  office.  He  had  early  joined  with  those  whose 
sanguine  hopes  led  them  to  favour  the  French  Revolution,  and  kept  them  blind  for 
a  season  to  the  enormities  of  its  authors.  His  "  I'indiciic  Ga//i'c«,"  a  work  of  con- 
summate ability,  was  the  offering  which  he  then  made  on  the  altar  of  the  divinity 
whom  he  worshipped.  With  most  good  mon,  he  afterwards  agreed  in  repudiating 
indignantly,  and  as  if  ashamed  of  his  former  friendship,  all  alliance  with  the  Jacobin 
party;  nor,  although  he  perhaps  went  somewhat  farther  in  his  recantation  than 
others  who  never  had  bowed  at  the  same  shrine,  could  he  be  said  ever  to  have 
swerved  from  those  liberal  principles  which  were  the  passion  of  his  early  and  the 
guide  of  his  riper  years.  Upon  his  return  from  India,  he  at  once  refused  the  most 
flattering  offers  of  place  from  Lord  Liverpool's  government;  and  he  persevered,  with 
the  Whig  party,  in  a  long  and  apparently  hopeless  opposition  to  the  end  of  the  war, 
and  through  fifteen  years  of  the  ensuing  peace.  At  length  the  party  for  which  he 
had  sacrificed  so  much  succeeded  to  power,  and  he,  though  among  the  very  first  of 
its  most  distinguished  members,  was  almost  entirely  passed  over,  while  men  of 
little  fame,  others  of  hardly  any  merit  at  all,  and  not  a  few  of  Tory  principles  till 
the  moment  of  the  government  being  formed,  were  lifted  over  his  head;  and  planted 
in  the  cabinet  of  the  Whigs.  In  that  cabinet,  indeed,  there  must  have  been  some 
who  could  not  with  a  steady  countenance  look  down  upon  him  thus  excluded,  while 
they  wore  admitted  to  unexpected  power.  His  treatment,  accordingly,  has  formed 
one  of  tin;  greatest  charges  against  the  whole  arrangements  then  made,  hut  justice 
requires  that  Lord  (Ircy  should  be  acquitted  of  all  blame  in  this  respect;  for  he  had 
never  been  in  any  habits  either  of  personal  or  of  party  intercourse  with  Sir  J.unes, 
and  might  be  supposed  to  share  in  the  coldness  towards  him  which  some  of  the 
older  Foxites  unjustly  and  unaccountably  felt.  Hut  even  those  memlx  rs  of  tli<> 
government,  who  lived  with  him  in  constant  habits  of  friendship,  have  innch  more 
to  urjji!  in  explanation  of  this  dark  passage  in  the  history  of  the  parly  tli.m  is  com- 
monly imagined;  for  the  objectors  do  not  sufficiently  consider,  that,  while  Sir  James 
Mackintosh's  health,  and  aversion  to  the  habits  of  business  required  by  certain 
offices,  excluded  him  from  these,  others  arc,  by  invariable  practice,  given  to  high 


514  INTRODUCTION. 

rank.  The  occasion  of  his  being  here  mentioned,  is  the  invaluable  service  which 
he  rendered  to  the  cause  of  Law  Reform;  a  service  that  must  endear  his  memory  to 
all  enlightened  statesmen,  and  all  good  men,  independent  of  the  other  assistance  for 
which  the  rapid  progress  of  liberal  principles  has  to  thank  him;  a  progress  so  bene- 
ficial to  mankind,  so  profitable  to  the  Whig  party  at  large,  so  advantageous  to  a  select 
few  of  the  Tories,  now  mingled  with  that  Whig  party,  but  so  utterly  barren  of  all 
benefit  whatever  to  Sir  James  Mackintosh  himself. 


After  the  defects  in  our  legal  system  had  been  for  many  years  fully  exposed,  and 
the  principles  upon  which  their  correction  should  be  undertaken  had  become  familiar 
•with  the  reflecting  portion  of  the  community,  although  some  highly  valuable  improve- 
ments had  been  effected  by  Sir  R.  Peel,  (perhaps  as  many  as  his  position  allowed, 
surrounded  by  those  who  held  reform  cheap,  and  those  who  held  it  in  abhorrence,) 
these  alterations  had  been  chiefly  confined  to  digesting  the  criminal  code,  and  there 
seemed  no  prospect  of  the  great  work  of  general  reformation  being  commenced, 
unless  the  attention  of  Parliament  should  be  seriously  directed  towards  it.  The 
motion  of  Mr.  Brougham  for  a  commission  to  investigate  the  whole  subject  origi- 
nated in  this  conviction,  and  the  following  is  the  speech  with  which  it  was  intro- 
duced. The  view  chiefly  taken  of  the  subject  was  intended  for  practical  purposes, 
and  the  immediate  correction  of  manifest  defects.  The  evils,  inconsistencies,  and 
absurdities  of  the  system  of  civil  procedure  were  therefore  singled  out  as  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  attack,  the  rather  because,  in  Mr.  Bentham's  writings,  the  other 
branches  of  the  mighty  subject  had  been  more  copiously  handled,  and  because  it 
seemed  manifest  that  the  radical  improvement  of  the  remedies  administered  by  the 
courts  of  law  must  lead  to  the  universal  reformation  of  our  jurisprudence,  while  it 
afforded,  in  the  meanwhile,  substantial  benefits  to  the  community,  and  won  over 
new  converts  to  the  great  cause  of  law  reform.  The  abuses  in  courts  of  equity  had 
already  attracted  the  attention  of  Parliament,  under  the  truly  able  advocacy  of  Mr. 
Williams;*  and  a  commission  issued  in  consequence  of  his  exertions  had  led  to  a 
useful  though  hitherto  a  sterile  report.  The  defects  in  our  criminal  law  had,  since 
the  labours  o'f  Sir  S.  Romilly  and  SirJ.  Mackintosh,  ceased  to  find  defenders  in  any 
quarter.  The  present  motion  produced  the  immediate  appointment  of  the  two  great 
commissions  of  common  law  inquiry,  and  inquiry  into  the  law  of  real  property, 
from  whose  labours  have  proceeded  all  the  important  changes  recently  made  in  our 
legal  system;  and  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years  the  reform  of  the  criminal  law, 
and  the  general  subject  of  codification  was  committed  to  the  jurisdiction  of  a  third 
commission,  whose  reports  have  led  to  all  the  mitigations  lately  effected  in  the  en- 
actments of  our  penal  code. 

The  Notes  appended  to  the  following  speech  will  show  how  far  the  defects  which 
it  points  out  have  already  been  remedied,  and  will  consequently  enable  us  to  ob- 
serve what  admitted  imperfections  still  remain  to  be  removed.  It  appears  that  of 
about  sixty  capital  defects  pointed  out,  about  fifty-five  either  have  already  been  re- 
moved in  whole,  or  in  by  much  the  greater  part,  by  act  of  Parliament,  or  are  in  the 
course  of  being  removed  by  bills  now  before  Parliament,  and  which  are  quite  certain 
to  pass  during  the  present  session. 

The  speech  upon  local  courts  which  follows,  was  delivered  on  bringing  in  the 
bill  for  1830.  That  bill  was  then  read  a  first  time;  and,  early  in  the  next  session, 
Mr.  Brougham  having  been  removed  to  the  upper  House,  he  introduced  it  there. 
The  subject  of  Parliamentary  Reform  engrossing  the  whole  attention  of  Parliament 
and  the  country  during  the  two  next  sessions,  the  Common  Law  Commissioners 
were  directed  to  consider  the  subject,  which  they  fully  investigated,  and  illustrated 
by  a  valuable  body  of  evidence,  from  both  professional  and  mercantile  men,  adding 
the  sanction  of  their  own  high  authority  to  the  measure.  It  was,  accordingly, 
pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Lords,  in  the  session  of  1833,  and, 

*  Now  Mr.  Justice  Williams. 


LAW  REFORM.  515 

having  undergone  full  discussion  on  the  second  reading,  and  in  the  committee, 
where  its  details  were  all  settled,  it  was  unfortunately  thrown  out  by  a  majority  of 
two,  on  the  third  reading. 

The  Common  Law  Commissioners  were  originally,  Messrs.  Bosanquet,  Parke, 
Alderson,  and  Sergeant  Stephen.  Upon  the  three  first  being  raised  to  the  bench, 
Messrs.  F.  Pollock,  Starkie,  Evans,  and  Wightman  were  added  to  the  commission. 

The  Real  Property  Commissioners  are,  Sir  J.  Campbell,  Messrs.  Tinney,  San- 
ders, Duval,  Hodgson,  Duckworth,  Brodie,  and  Tyrrell. 

The  Criminal  Law  Commissioners  are,  Messrs.  Starkie,  Austin,  Ker,  Amos, 
Jardine,  and  Wightman. 


SPEECH 


ON  THE 


PRESENT    STATE    OF    THE    LAW. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
FEBRUARY  7,  1828. 


IN  rising  to  address  the  House  upon  one  of  the  most  important 
subjects  that  can  possibly  be  submitted  to  the  legislature,  I  feel  at  the 
same  time  deeply  impressed  with  the  conviction,  that  it  is  also  one  of 
the  most  difficult,  and  certainly  the  largest,  that  could  engage  its  atten- 
tion. I  am  aware  that  I  stand  engaged  to  bring  before  you  the  whole 
state  of  the  Common  Law  of  this  country  (the  Common  Law,  I  call 
it,  in  contradistinction  to  Equity),  with  the  view  of  pointing  out  those 
defects  which  may  have  existed  in  its  original  construction,  or  which 
time  may  have  engendered,  as  well  as  of  considering  the  remedies 
appropriate  to  correct  them.  Nothing,  I  do  assure  you,  at  all 
strengthens  and  bears  me  up  under  the  pressure  of  this  vast  and  over- 
whelming burthen,  but  a  conviction  of  the  paramount  importance, 
nay,  the  absolute  necessity,  of  no  longer  delaying  the  inquiry,  or 
postponing  the  needful  amendments;  and  the  intimate  persuasion  I 
feel,  that  I  shall  be  able  so  to  deal  with  the  subject  (such  is  my  deep 
veneration  for  all  that  is  good  in  our  judicial  system,  and  my  habitual 
respect  for  those  in  whose  hands  the  administration  of  it  is  placed),  as 
neither  to  offend  the  prejudices  of  one  class,  nor  vex  the  personal  feel- 
ings of  another.  But  I  feel  a  confidence,  also,  which  is  unspeakable, 
resting  on  another  ground.  I  come  not  here  to  raise  cavils  before 
men  ignorant  of  the  details  and  niceties  of  the  profession  I  belong  to, 
and  who,  in  that  unavoidable  ignorance,  would  be  unfit  judges  of 
their  merits;  I  am  determined  to  avail  myself  in  no  respect  of  their 
situation,  or  of  the  absence  of  the  learned  Body  of  the  Profession, 
for  the  sake  of  a  futile  and  pitiful  triumph  over  what  is  most  valuable 
in  our  jurisprudence.  lam  comforted  and  confirmed  in  my  resolu- 
tion, by  the  accidental  circumstances  that  have  joined  me,  in  some 
sort,  to  the  administration  of  the  law  in  which  I  have  had  so  consider- 


LAW  REFORM.  517 

able  an  experience.  I  have  seen  so  much  of  its  practical  details,  that 
it  is,  in  rny  view,  no  speculative  matter  whether  for  blame  or  praise. 
I  pledge  myself,  through  the  whole  course  of  my  statements,  as  long 
as  the  House  may  honour  me  with  its  attention,  in  no  one  instance  to 
make  any  observation,  to  bring  forward  any  grievance,  or  mark  any 
defect,  of  which  I  am  not  myself  competent  to  speak  from  personal 
knowledge.  I  do  not  merely  say,  from  observation  as  a  bystander;  I 
limit  myself  still  further,  and  confine  myself  to  causes  in  which  I 
have  been  counsel  for  one  party  or  the  other.  By  these  considera- 
tions emboldened  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  impressed  with 
a  becoming  sense  of  the  arduous  duty  I  have  undertaken  in  this 
weighty  matter,  I  will,  without  further  preface,  go  on,  in  the  first 
place,  to  state  the  points  which  I  intend  to  avoid. 

I  shall  ornit  Equity  in  every  branch,  unless  where  I  may  be  com- 
pelled to  mention  it  incidentally,  from  its  interference  with  the  course 
of  the  Common  Law,  not  that  I  think  nothing  should  be  done  as  to 
Equity,  but  because  in  some  sort  it  has  been  already  taken  up  by 
Parliament.  A  commission  sat  and  inquired  into  the  subject,  and 
produced  a  report,  received  though  not  yet  acted  upon.  The  noble 
and  learned  lord  who  presides  in  the  other  House,  has  announced  his 
intention  of  proposing  a  bill,  founded  on  that  report.  I  may  also 
add,  that  the  subject  has,  to  his  own  great  honour,  and  to  the  lasting 
benefit  of  the  country,  been  for  many  years  in  the  hands  of  my 
honourable  and  learned  friend,  the  member  for  Durham;*  it  is  still 
with  him,  and  1  trust  his  care  of  it  will  not  cease. 

For  reasons  of  a  like  kind,  I  pass  over  the  great  head  of  Criminal 
Law.  That  inquiry,  happily  for  the  country,  since  the  time  when 
first  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  (a  name  never  to  be  pronounced  by  any 
without  veneration,  nor  ever  by  me  without  sorrow)  devoted  his 
talents  and  experience  to  it,  has  been  carried  forward  by  my  honour- 
able and  learned  friend  the  member  for  Knaresborongh,t  with  various 
success,  until  at  length  he  reaped  the  fruit  of  his  labours,  and  pre- 
vailed upon  this  House,  by  a  narrow  majority,  to  bend  its  attention 
towards  so  great  a  subject.  On  a  smaller  scale,  on  one  indeed  of  a 
very  limited  nature,  these  inquiries  have  been  since  followed  up  by 
the  right  honourable  gentleman  who  is  now  again  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  home  department.^  It  is  not  so  much  far  anything  he  has 
actually  done,  that  I  feel  disposed  to  thank  him,  as  for  the  countenance 
he  has  given  to  the  subject.  He  has  power,  from  his  situation,  to 
effect  reforms  which  others  hardly  dare  propose.  His  connections  in 
the  church  and  state  render  his  services  in  this  department  almost 
invaluable.  They  have  tended  to  silence  the  clamours  that  would 
otherwise  have  been  raised  against  the  reform  of  the  law,  and  might 
possibly  have  proved  fatal  to  it.  If  (which  I  do  not  believe)  he  in- 
tended to  limit  his  efforts  to  what  he  has  already  accomplished;  if  he 
were  disposed  to  say,  "Thus  far  have  I  gone,  and  no  further  can  I  go 
with  you,"  the  gratitude  of  his  country  would  still  be  due  to  him  in 

*  Mr.  M.  A.  Taylor.         f  Sir  James  Mackintosh.         $  Sir  Robert  Peel. 
VOL.  I. — 4  t 


513  LAW  REFORM. 

an  eminent  degree,  for  having  abashed  the  worst  enemies  of  improve- 
ment by  his  countenance  and  support.  But  I  trust  he  will  again 
direct  the  energies  of  his  mind  to  the  great  work  of  reformation,  and 
bestow  his  exertions  over  a  wider  space. 

Another  reason  for  avoiding  this  part  of  the  subject  altogether,  is 
to  be  found  in  the  nature  and  objects  of  the  Criminal  Law.  I  do  not 
think  it  right  to  unsettle  the  minds  of  those  numerous  and  ignorant 
classes,  on  whom  its  sanctions  are  principally  intended  to  operate. 
It  might  produce  no  good  effects  if  they  were  all  at  once  to  learn,  that 
the  Criminal  Law  in  the  mass,  as  it  were,  had  been  sentenced  to 
undergo  a  revision — that  the  whole  Penal  Code  was  unsettled  and 
about  to  be  remodelled. 

I  intend  also  to  leave  out  of  my  view  the  Commercial  Law.  It 
lies  within  a  narrow  compass,  and  it  is  far  purer  and  freer  from 
defects  than  any  other  part  of  the  system.  This  arises  from  its  later 
origin.  It  has  grown  up  within  two  centuries,  or  little  more,  and 
been  formed  by  degrees,  as  the  exigency  of  mercantile  affairs  required. 
It  is  accepted,  too,  in  many  of  its  main  branches,  by  other  states, 
forming  a  code  common  to  all  trading  nations,  and  which  cannot 
easily  be  changed  without  their  general  consent.  Accordingly,  the 
provisions  of  the  French  Civil  Code,  unsparing  as  they  were  of  the 
old  municipal  law,  excepted  the  law  merchant,  generally  speaking, 
from  the  changes  which  they  introduced. 

Lastly,  sir,  the  law  of  real  property  forms  no  immediate  subject  of 
my  present  consideration;  not  that  I  shall  not  have  much  to  propose 
intimately  connected  with  it,  and  many  illustrations  to  derive  from  it; 
but  I  am  flattered  with  the  hope  that  the  Secretary  for  the  Home 
Department  intends  himself,  on  this  subject,  to  bring  forward  certain 
measures,  by  which  the  present  system  will  eventually  undergo  salu- 
tary alterations:  And  I  cannot  help  here  saying,  that  whatever  the 
criminal  law  owes  to  the  persevering  and  enlightened  exertions  of  the 
late  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  and  of  his  successor,  the  member  for  Knares- 
borough,*  I  am  sure  an  almost  equal  debt  of  gratitude  has  been 
incurred  on  the  part  of  the  law  of  real  property,  to  the  honest, 
patient,  and  luminous  discussion  which  it  has  received  from  one  of 
the  first  conveyancers  and  lawyers  this  country  could  ever  boast  of. 
My  honourable  and  learned  friend  (the  Solicitor-General)!  opposite, 
and  those  members  of  the  House  who  are  conversant  with  our  pro- 
fession,will  easily  understand  that  I  can  only  allude  to  Mr.  Humphreys. 

With  these  exceptions,  which  I  have  now  stated  as  shortly  as  I  was 
able,  and  for  which  I  shall  offer  no  apology,  because  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  I  should  begin  by  making  the  scope  of  my  present  pur- 
pose understood,  I  intend  to  bring  all  the  Law  as  administered  in  our 
Courts  of  Justice  under  the  review  of  the  House;  and  to  this  ample 
task  I  at  once  proceed.  But  I  shall  not  enlarge,  after  the  manner  of 
some,  on  the  infinite  importance  and  high  interest  which  belong  to  the 

*  Sir  James  Mackintosh. 

|  Sir  N.  Tindal  (now  Lord  Chief-Justice  of  Common  Pleas.) 


LAW  REFORM.  519 

question,  and  the  attention  which  it,  of  right,  claims  from  us,  whether 
we  be  considered  as  a  branch  of  the  government,  or  as  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  people,  or  as  a  part  of  the  people  ourselves.  It  would 
be  wholly  superfluous;  for  every  one  must  at  once  admit,  that  if  we 
view  the  whole  establishments  of  the  country — the  government  by  the 
king  and  the  other  estates  of  the  realm, — the  entire  system  of  admin- 
istration, whether  civil  or  military, — the  vast  establishments  of  land 
and  of  naval  force  by  which  the  State  is  defended, — our  foreign  nego- 
tiations, intended  to  preserve  peace  with  the  world, — our  domestic 
arrangements,  necessary  to  make  the  government  respected  by  the 
people, — or  our  fiscal  regulations,  by  which  the  expense  of  the  whole 
is  to  be  supported, — all  shrink  into  nothing,  when  compared  with  the 
pure,  and  prompt,  and  cheap  administration  of  justice  throughout  the 
community.  I  will  indeed  make  no  such  comparison;  I  will  not  put 
in  contrast  things  so  inseparably  connected;  for  all  the  establishments 
formed  by  our  ancestors,  and  supported  by  their  descendants,  were 
invented  and  are  chiefly  maintained,  in  order  that  justice  may  be  duly 
administered  between  man  and  man.  And,  in  my  mind,  lie  was 
guilty  of  no  error, — he  was  chargeable  with  no  exaggeration, — he  was 
betrayed  by  his  fancy  into  no  metaphor,  who  once  said,  that  all  we 
see  about  us,  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
State,  all  the  apparatus  of  the  system,  and  its  varied  workings,  end  in 
simply  bringing  twelve  good  men  into  a  box.  Such — the  administra- 
tion of  justice — is  the  cause  of  the  establishment  of  government — such 
is  the  use  of  government:  it  is  this  purpose  which  can  alone  justify 
restraints  on  natural  liberty — it  is  this  only  which  can  excuse  constant 
interference  with  the  rights  and  the  property  of  men.  I  invite  you 
then,  sir,  to  enter  upon  an  unsparing  examination  of  this  mighty  sub- 
ject; I  invite  the  House  to  proceed  with  me,  first  of  all,  into  the  dif- 
ferent courts — to  mark  what  failures  in  practice  are  to  be  found  in  the 
system,  as  it  was  originally  framed,  as  well  as  what  errors  time  has 
engendered  by  occasioning  a  departure  from  that  system;  and  after- 
ward to  consider  whether  we  may  not  safely  and  usefully  apply  to 
those  defects  remedies  of  a  seasonable  and  temperate  nature,  restoring 
what  is  decayed,  if  it  be  good — lopping  oil' what  experience  has  proved 
to  lie  pernicious. 

I.  i.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  proceed  to  the  Courts  in  Westminster 
hall,  and  observe  the  course  pursued  in  them.  The  House  is  aware 
that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  original  of  our  three  great  Common 
Law  Courts,  they  now  deal  with  nearly  the  same  description  of  suits; 
and  that,  though  the  jurisdiction  of  each  was  at  first  separate  and  con- 
fined within  very  narrow  limits,  their  functions  are  now  nearly  the 
same.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  for  example, 
was  originally  confined  to  Pleas  of  the  Crown,  and  then  extended 
to  actions  where  violence  was  used, — actions  of  trespass  by  force;  but 
now  all  actions  are  admissible  within  its  walls,  through  the  medium 
of  a  legal  fiction,  adopted  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  its  authority, 
that  every  person  sued  is  in  the  custody  of  the  Marshal  of  the  Court, 
and  may,  therefore,  bo  proceeded  against  for  any  personal  cause  of 


520  LAW  REFORM. 

action.  Thus,  by  degrees,  this  Court  has  drawn  over  to  itself  actions 
which  really  belong  to  the  great  forum  of  ordinary  actions  between 
subject  and  subject,  as  its  name  implies,  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas. 
The  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  however,  in  its  exertions  for  extending 
its  business,  was  not  so  fortunate  as  its  rival;  for,  though  it  made  a 
vigorous  attempt,  under  Lord  Chief  Justice  North,  to  enlarge  its  sphere, 
it  never  was  able  to  obtain  cognizance  of  the  peculiar  subject  of  King's 
Bench  jurisdiction — Crown  Pleas. 

I  hope,  sir,  the  House  will  allow  me,  for  the  sake  of  a  little  diver- 
tisement  in  the  midst  of  so  dry  a  matter,  to  state  the  nature  of  the  con- 
test between  the  two  courts,  as  described  by  Roger  North  in  his 
biography  of  the  Lord  Keeper, — a  work  of  amusement  with  which  I 
am  sure  my  learned  friend  (the  Solicitor-General)  is  as  well  acquainted 
as  he  is  with  the  subtleties  of  his  profession. 

It  appears  from  his  account,  that  the  Courts  of  King's  Bench  and 
Common  Pleas  had  quarrelled  as  to  their  respective  provinces;  for  he 
says,  "  The  Court  of  Common  Pleas  had  been  outwitted  by  the  King's 
Bench,  till  his  lordship  came  upon  the  cushion,  and  that  by  our  artifice 
in  process  called  ac  etiams.  His  lordship  used  the  same  artifice  in 
the  process  of  his  court,  where  it  was  as  good  law  as  above.  But 
Hale  exclaimed  against  it,  and  called  it  altering  the  process  of  law; 
which  very  same  thing  his  own  court  had  done,  and  continued  to  do 
every  day."*  In  another  place  he  tells  how,  "The  two  courts  being 
upon  terms  of  competition,  the  King's  Bench  outwitted  ihe  Common 
Pleas;"  and  how  the  latter '-'invented  a  shift"  against  the  King's  Bench. 
"  There,"  says  he, "  the  Common  Pleas  thought  they  had  nicked  them. 
But  the  King's  Bench  was  not  so  sterile  of  invention  as  to  want  the 
means  of  being  even  with  that  device;"  and  he  shows  how — conclud- 
ing with  this  remark — "The  late  Chief  Justice,  Sir  Orlando  Bridgman, 
and  his  officers  of  the  Common  Pleas,  gave  this  way  of  proceeding  by 
the  King's  Bench  very  ill  language,  calling  it  an  arbitrary  alteration 
of  the  form  of  legal  process,  and  utterly  against  law.  But  the  losers 
might  speak;  they  got  nothing  else;  and  the  Triccum  in  lege  carried 
it  for  the  King's  Bench;  which  court,  as  I  said,  ran  away  with  all  the 
business."! 

The  Exchequer  has  adopted  a  similar  course:  for,  though  it  was 
originally  confined  to  the  trial  of  revenue  cases,  it  has,  by  means  of 
another  fiction — the  supposition  that  every  body  sued  is  a  debtor  to 
the  crown,  and  further  that  he  cannot  pay  his  debt  because  the  other 
party  will  not  pay  him— opened  its  doors  to  every  suitor,  and  so 
drawn  to  itself  the  right  of  trying  cases  that  were  never  intended  to 
be  placed  within  its  jurisdiction. 

The  first  state  of  the  courts  being  that  of  distinct  jurisdiction,  then 
of  course  this  separation  of  provinces  was  praised;  afterwards,  all 
distinction  became  obsolete,  and  then  the  conflict  and  competition 
were  as  much  commended:  and  with  far  greater  reason,  if  the  com- 
petition were  real;  but  it  is  almost  purely  speculative.  In  the  first 

*  North's  Lives  of  Lord  Keeper  Guilford,  &c.,  vol.  i,  p.  130.      |  Ibid.,  p.  203. 


LAW  REFORM.  521 

place,  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  shuts  its  door  to  many  practitioners 
of  the  law,  by  requiring  that  a  certain  proportion  of  fees  should  be 
advanced  at  a  much  earlier  stage  in  the  cause  than  is  customary  in 
the  oilier  courts.*  For  who  is  it  that  must  advance  this  money? 
Either  the  attorney  himself,  if  it  be  his  own  cause,  must  pay  the 
money  out  of  his  own  pocket,  or,  if  he  is  acting  as  agent  for  a  country 
practitioner,  he  must  begin  by  laying  out  the  money  long  before  he 
can  draw  upon  his  employer  for  reimbursement,  and  he  is  not,  in  all 
cases,  sure  of  being  repaid  for  those  advances.  In  the  second  place, 
clients  and  their  attorneys  are  induced  not  to  carry  causes  into  the 
Common  Pleas,  by  the  strict  monopoly  that  exists  in  the  advocates  of 
that  court. t  I  have  every  wish  to  speak  with  all  respect  of  the 
learned  persons  who  there  engross  the  practice;  but  as,  no  doubt, 
solicitors  will  have  their  favourites,  and  as,  possibly,  their  clients  may 
also  have  their  favourites,  the  practice  not  being  open  to  all  barristers, 
prevents  many  suitors  from  resorting  to  a  court  where  no  one  can  be 
employed  for  them,  at  least  in  term  time,  except  he  be  a  sergeant; 
and  great  as  the  learning  of  that  body  is  known  to  be,  well  founded 
as  their  reputation  is  for  skill  and  for  zeal,  as  well  as  for  legal  know- 
ledge, yet  the  exclusive  right  which  they  exercise  operates  to  keep 
away  business  from  the  court;  and  thus  it  has  happened  both  that 
other  advocates  seldom  practise  there  at  Nisi  Prius  where  the  court 
is  open,  and  that  much  fewer  suits  are  carried  to  the  Common  Pleas 
than  to  the  King's  Bench.  The  causes  which  thus  operate  to  shut 
the  doors  of  that  court  must  be  removed,  before  it  can  hope  to  have 
its  fair  share  of  practice. 

The  Exchequer,  in  like  manner,  has  its  drawbacks,  though  they 
operate  in  another  way.  There  is  one  reason  why,  as  at  present 
constituted,  it  cannot  do  much  business,  or  have  the  high  reputation 
which  it  ought  to  enjoy;  I  mean  the  mixture  of  various  suits  which 
are  cognizable  in  it.  It  is  in  fact,  a  court  of  all  sorts — of  equity  and 
of  law — of  revenue  law  and  of  ordinary  law — of  law  between  sub- 
ject and  subject,  as  well  as  of  law  between  the  subject  and  the  crown. 
This  makes  suitors,  seeing  the  business  done  in  so  many  different 
ways,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  not  well  done  in  any.  I  do 
not  by  any  means  assert  that  this  is  a  correct  opinion,  at  the  present 
time;  because  the  judges  and  the  barristers  employed  in  that  court 
do  not,  I  am  convinced,  yield  to  any  body  of  professional  men  in 
their  knowledge  of  equity  and  law.  There  are  to  be  found  on  its 
bench  highly  distinguished  equity  and  common  lawyers;  men  of 
known  legal  talents,  and  the  greatest  experience  both  in  Chancery 
praciice,  in  Nisi  Prius,  and  in  criminal  law.  In  what,  therefore,  I 
have  said,  I  refer  merely  to  that  species  of  public  opinion,  which, 
whether  right  or  wrong,  has  been  engendered  by  the  constitution  of 
the  court;  I  refer,  also,  to  the  natural  tendency  of  a  jurisdiction,  thus 

»  This  evil  has  since  been  remedied  by  the  new  orders  of  the  Judges  under  an 
Act  of  Parliament. 

j  This  monopoly  was  abolished  in  1832,  when  the  Common  Pleas  was  thrown 
open. 

44* 


522  LAW  REFORM. 

open  to  such  a  variety  of  jurisprudence,  to  degenerate  into  inaccu- 
racy, or  want  of  effective  skill  in  each  department.  But  there  is 
another  and  more  obvious  reason  why  this  court  does  not  obtain  so 
much  business  as  the  others;  I  mean  the  limited  number  of  attorneys 
belonging  to  and  allowed  to  practise  in  it.*  If  there  is  cause  to 
complain,  as  I  have  been  doing,  of  the  monopoly  among  the  advo- 
cates attached  to  the  Common  Pleas,  there  is  much  more  cause  for  a 
similar  complaint  touching  the  attorneys  in  the  Exchequer.  The  prac- 
titioners in  that  court  are  four  attorneys  and  sixteen  clerks,  and  none 
others  are  allowed  to  practise  there;  if  a  country  attorney  wishes  to 
take  his  cause  thither,  the  only  mode  by  which  he  can  do  so,  is  to 
employ  one  of  the  privileged  attorneys  of  the  court,  and  divide  with 
him  the  profits  of  the  suit.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a  system 
has,  of  necessity,  a  tendency  at  once  to  shut  the  doors  of  the  Court 
of  Exchequer  against  the  suitors. 

What,  then,  is  the  natural  consequence  of  these  restrictions  which 
prevent  suitors  from  approaching  the  Courts  of  Common  Pleas  and 
Exchequer?  Why,  it  is  this — wherever  there  is  but  little  business 
done  in  any  court,  those  in  power  are  induced  not  to  place  the  strong- 
est judge  in  that  situation;  then,  the  small  portion  of  business  to  be 
done  renders  the  judge  less  fit  for  his  office;  and  so,  by  action  and 
reaction,  while  the  little  business  makes  the  bench  and  the  bar  less 
able,  the  inferior  ability  of  the  court  still  further  reduces  that  little 
business.  1  arn  here  speaking  of  past  times,  but  with  a  view,  how- 
ever, to  what  may  occur  at  a  future  period.  We  may  not  always 
have  the  Bench  so  well  filled  as  it  is  at  present.  The  time  may 
come  when,  if  a  judge  were  to  be  made,  in  consequence  of  political 
influence,  who  was  known  not  to  be  capable  of  properly  filling  the 
office,  it  might  be  said  by  those  who  supported  him,  '•  Oh  it  does  not 
matter — send  him  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer — he  will  have  nothing 
to  do  there."  Thus  the  small  portion  of  business  transacted — the 
suspicion  originating  from  the  general  mixture  of  suits  carried  on  in 
different  ways,  that  the  business  is  not  well  done — the  monopoly  of 
attorneys,  together  with  several  other  causes,  occasions  this  court  to 
be  the  least  frequented  of  any;  indeed,  it  has  now  scarcely  anything 
to  engage  its  attention.  The  judges  do  not  sit  for  more  than  half  an 
hour  some  mornings,  and  there  are  hardly  ever  on  the  paper  more 
than  six  or  seven  causes  for  trial  after  term;  a  dozen  would  be  con- 
sidered a  large  entry  ;t  when  I  well  remember  Lord  Ellenborough 
having  588  set  down  for  trial  in  London  only;  and  the  present  Lord 
Chief  Justice  lately  had  on  his  paper  no  less  than  850  untried  causes. 
I  mention  this  to  support  my  proposition,  that  there  is  not  really  a 
free  competition  between  the  different  courts.  To  say,  in  the  cir- 
cumstances which  I  have  stated,  that  suitors  have  a  free  access  to  all 
the  courts  equally,  is  a  fiction — an  assertion  adapted  to  what  ought 

*  This  monopoly  has  also  been  put  an  end  to. 

•f  The  entry  of  Exchequer  causes  is  now  fully  equal  to  that  of  the  King's  Bench. 
Lord  Lyndhurst's  talents  greatly  aided  the  Law  Reform  in  producing  this  result. 


LAW  REFORM.  523 

to  be,  perhaps  to  what  is  intended,  but  certainly  not  founded  on  the 
fact. 

Experiments  have  been  trird  to  lighten  the  business  of  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench;  but  I  do  not  find  that  any  of  them  have  answered  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  instituted.  The  first  of  these  attempts 
was  made  in  the  year  1S21,  when  it  was  arranged  tlmt  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice should  sit  in  one  court,  and  a  Puisne  Judge  in  another,  at  the 
same  time;  but  never  did  any  arrangement  fail  more  completely. — 
The  court  in  which  the  Puisne  Judge  sat  remained  almost  idle,  while 
the  other  court  was  as  constantly  preferred,  and  nearly  as  much  over- 
loaded as  before.  Little  else  was  effected  but  a  great  inconvenience 
both  to  practitioners  and  suitors,  by  the  passing  and  repassing  from 
court  to  court.  In  fact,  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  courts,  even 
were  all  monopolies  and  other  restrictions  done  away,  to  distribute 
business  equally,  as  long  as  the  suitors  are  left  free  to  choose  their 
tribunal.  There  will  always  be  a  favourite  court;  and  the  circum- 
stance of  its  being  preferred  tends  to  make  it  more  deserving  of  pre- 
ference; for  if  the  favour  towards  it  began  in  mere  caprice,  the  great 
amount  of  business  draws  thither  the  best  practitioners,  to  say  nothing 
of  judges;  and  the  better  the  court,  the  greater  will  be  its  business. 
The  same  action  and  reaction  will  operate  favourably,  which  I  before 
showed  in  its  unfavourable  effects  where  a  court  was  declining — Pos- 
sunt  quia  posse  videntur.  The  experiment  of  1S21  having  failed 
entirely,  was  not  repeated. 

Another  attempt  has  subsequently  been  made  to  relieve  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench  from  the  pressure  of  Term  business,  which  must 
always  bear  a  proportion  to  the  Nisi  Prius  causes.  This  system  is 
still  going  on  under  the  bill  brought  into  the  House  by  the  present 
Chancellor,  and  of  which,  though  he  was  induced  to  patronise  it  offi- 
cially when  Solicitor-General,  I  have  reason  to  believe  he  never  much 
approved.  As  this  arrangement  is  compulsory,  the  client  having  no 
choice,  it  cannot  well  fail;  but  I  heartily  wish  that  it  had  failed,  for  it 
has  done  much  mischief,  and  is  certainly  one  of  the  worst  changes 
that  has  ever  taken  place.  It  is  true,  the  great  pressure  of  business 
requires  that  something  should  be  done;  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  right  thing  has  not  been  adopted;  for,  where  the  King's  Bench 
sits,  with  the  Chief  Justice  presiding — where  the  suitor's  resort — 
where  the  bar  is  mustered  —  where  the  public  attend — where  all  the 
counsel  and  attorneys  appear — where  the  business  is  disposed  of  as  it 
ought  to  be,  gravely  and  deliberately,  with  the  eyes  of  mankind,  with 
the  eyes  of  the  bar,  as  well  as  of  the  world  at  large,  turned  on  the 
proceedings,  would  not  every  otic  point  to  that  as  the  place  in  which 
all  important  legal  questions  ought  to  be  decided?  Would  not  any 
one,  on  the  other  hand,  say,  if  another  court  were  constituted  in  a  sort 
of  hack  room,  where  three  judges  were  sitting — where  the  only  per- 
sons present,  besides  the  judges,  were  the  counsel  and  attorney  em- 
ployed on  cither  side  of  the  cause  that  was  pending — where  there 
was  no  audience,  and  the  public  eye  was  entirely  directed,  not  upon 
\A\{from  that  to  the  other  court — would  not  any  one,  1  ask,  declare 


524  LAW  REFORM. 

that  a  court,  so  circumstanced,  was  the  place  in  which  the  trifling 
business  alone  should  be  transacted?  These,  I  think,  would  be  but 
natural  conclusions;  and  yet  if  the  matter  be  stated  exactly  the  other 
way,  it  will  be  far  nearer  the  truth.  Of  the  really  important  business, 
as  regards  both  its  difficulty  and  importance  to  the  law,  and  indeed 
to  the  suitor,  a  very  large  proportion  is  done  in  that  back  room,  and 
before  those  three  judges.  It  is  done  in  a  corner,  and,  I  may  say, 
disposed  of  behind  people's  backs,  with  only  the  attendance  of  the  at- 
torney and  barrister  on  each  side,  or  at  most,  with  the  presence  of 
these  and  of  the  practitioners  waiting  for  the  next  cause;  and  as  the 
court  is  not  frequented  by  the  public  any  more  than  the  profession, 
the  business  may  certainly  be  said  to  be  transacted  without  due  pub- 
licity and  solemnity.  Thus  we  see  that  by  this  arrangement,  while 
the  most  interesting  matter  is  overlooked,  trifling  business  and  points 
of  no  importance  are  brought  forward  with  all  possible  observation; 
— a  motion  for  judgment  as  against  the  casual  ejector,  which  is  a  mo- 
tion of  course — a  motion  to  refer  a  bill  to  the  Master  to  compute  prin- 
cipal and  interest — for  judgment,  as  in  case  of  a  nonsuit — and  a  thou- 
sand others,  either  of  course  or  of  the  most  trifling  moment,  are  heard 
with  the  utmost  publicity  before  the  whole  court — before  the  whole 
bar — before  the  whole  body  of  attorneys  —  before  the  whole  public — 
all  of  which  might  be  settled  by  the  three  judges  in  a  corner,  or  by 
any  one  of  their  clerks.  The  consequence  is,  that  much  time  is  lost 
to  the  full  court,  while  the  most  important  business— special  argu- 
ments raising  the  greatest  legal  questions — new  trials,  involving  both 
matters  of  law  and  fact,  affecting  large  interests;  and  the  Crown-paper, 
comprehending  all  the  questions  from  Sessions,  are  obliged  to  be  heard 
in  the  private  and  unsatisfactory  manner  I  have  described.  I  wish 
this  system  to  be  remedied,  because  it  is  a  great  and  growing  evil.* 

It  may  be  said  that  the  judges  have  not  time  to  do  the  business.  I 
deny  that:  there  is  time.  Six  hours  a-day,  well  employed,  would  be 
amply  sufficient  for  all  purposes.  Let  them  come  down  to  the  court 
at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  remain  till  four — a  period  of  six 
hours — and  the  business  may  be  done.  But  the  system  is  at  present 
extremely  ill-arranged,  and  I  will  show  how,  without  having  any  one 
to  blame  for  it.  The  judges  do  their  utmost,  but  they  cannot  remedy 
the  evil  without  your  aid.  Let  us  see  how  their  time  is  employed. 
They  are  supposed  to  come  to  the  court  at  ten  o'clock,  and  to  remain 
there  till  four.  Surely  this  time  may  safely  be  pronounced  to  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  transaction  of  their  business.  Then  why  have  they  not 
these  six  hours?  There  are  two  reasons  for  it, — the  one  is,  that  bail 
must  be  taken  by  a  judge.  Mr.  Justice  Buyley,  no  longer  ago  than 
last  Monday,  was  occupied  the  whole  day  in  the  Bail  Court;  and  this 
morning  Mr.  Justice  Holroyd  was  not  able  to  get  away  till  twelve 
o'clock.  I  cite  these  instances  of  late  occurrence,  sir,  that  you  may 
see  how  closely  I  desire  to  keep  by  the  actually  existing  state  of  the 

*  This  evil  has  since  been  remedied;  the  sittings  of  the  three  Puisne  Judges 
being  abolished. 


LAW  REFORM.  525 

facts;  bnt  every  week  furnishes  examples  as  well  as  the  present. 
Thus,  then,  we  see  that  in  one  case  a  whole  day  was  lost,  as  far  as 
regards  a  full  court,  and  in  another,  two  hours,  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  attending  to  trifling  business,  which  might  just  as  well  be  trans- 
acted by  a  commissioner,  say  a  barrister  often  years'  standing.  The 
other  reason  why  the  judges'  time  is  misspent,  arises  from  chamber 
business,  which  consists  in  the  learned  judges,  the  profound  lawyers, 
the  great  magistrates,  whose  names  I  have  made  free  to  mention,  sit- 
ting at  Sergeants'  Inn  to  hear  the  squabbles  of  attorneys,  and  the  clerks 
of  attorneys  among  themselves — for  barristers  rarely  attend.  This 
takes  them  in  rotation  away  from  the  court  at  three  o'clock;  so  that, 
in  fact,  while  their  nominal  time  is  from  ten  to  four,  they  are  only,  on 
the  average,  really  present  from  eleven  or  twelve  to  three,  by  which 
means,  instead  of  transacting  business  during  six  hours,  the  time  is 
reduced  to  three,  or  at  most  four  hours  per  day.*  And  what,  sir,  is 
the  inference  from  all  this?  Obvious  enough,  certainly;  for  though  it 
may  be  fairly  contended  that  the  business  of  the  Bail  Court  could  be 
transacted  by  a  commissioner,  it  may  perhaps  be  doubted  whether  the 
chamber  practice  does  not  require  a  judge  to  perform  it,  considering 
the  points  to  be  disposed  of,  and  the  persons  to  be  controlled.  There 
may,  therefore,  be  a  sufficient  excuse  for  the  arrangement,  as  matters 
stand  at  present,  and  yet  a  remedy  may  be  necessary,  as  it  may  cer- 
tainly be  found  in  changing  the  circumstances.  For  my  own  part,  I 
frankly  confess  that  I  am  one  of  those  who  do  not  see  the  paramount 
excellence  that  some  suppose  to  be  vested  in  the  number  twelve;  al- 
though Lord  Coke  has  spoken  of  it  with  a  degree  of  rapture  like  that 
of  the  algebraist,  when  he  dwells  upon  the  marvellous  powers  of  three 
or  of  nine.  Twelve  appears  to  be  the  number,  in  his  view,  connected 
with  all  that  is  important  and  venerable,  either  sacred  or  profane,  an- 
cient or  modern;  but  as  I,  unfortunately,  do  not  possess  the  lights  by 
which  he  was  guided,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  fourteen  is  a  much 
better  number  than  twelve,  although  it  may  not  be  so  good  for  divi- 
sion; and  although  I  cannot  quote  the  fourteen  Apostles,  or  the  four- 
teen Tables,  or  the  fourteen  wise  men.  It  will,  indeed,  divide  by 
seven,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  twelve;  but  I  rely  not  upon 
that  superiority:  it  has  another  arithmetical  quality  of  more  import- 
ance. Though  neither  so  divisible  nor  so  beautiful,  nor  so  classical 
as  twelve,  it  contains  two  more  units  than  twelve — beats  it  by  two 
beyond  all  doubt  or  cavil;  and  that  superiority  recommends  it  for  my 
present  purpose.  If  twelve  was  beautiful  in  the  days  of  Lord  Coke, 
fourteen  must  now,  I  fear,  on  this  account,  take  its  place;  for  how  any 
one  can  suppose  that  twelve  men  are  able  to  do  now  what  they  wcro 
only  enough  to  do  centuries  ago, is  to  me  matter  of  astonishment;  now, 
that  they  have  seven  or  eight  hundred  causes  to  try,  where  they  for- 
merly had  but  thirty  or  forty,  and  when  we  know  that  in  the  time  of 
Lord  Mansfield,  in  the  late  reign,  sixty  was  reckoned  a  fair  entry. t 

*   This  also  has  been  remedied;  the  judges   sitting  in  rotation,   term  about,   at 
chamber**  the  whole  day,  and  no  judge  leaving  the.  court. 
\  The  number  of  judges  has  been  now  incrcasod  to  fifteen. 


526  LAW  REFORM. 

This,  sir,  is  one  of  the  illustrations  which  I  would  give  to  expose  the 
heedless  folly  of  those  who  charge  the  bench  and  the  bar  with  causing 
all  the  delays  in  legal  proceedings.  How  can  it  be  expected  that 
twelve  judges  can  go  through  the  increased  arid  increasing  business 
now,  when  the  affairs  of  men  are  so  extended  and  multiplied  in  every 
direction,  the  same  twelve,  and  at  one  time  fifteen,  having  been  not 
much  more  than  sufficient  for  the  comparatively  trifling  number  of 
causes  tried  two  or  three  centuries  ago?  But  there  is  a  far  more  un- 
thinking and  more  dangerous  prejudice,  to  which  the  same  topic  is  a 
complete  refutation, — I  mean  the  outcry  against  innovation,  set  up  as 
often  as  any  one  proposes  those  reforms  rendered  necessary  by  the 
changes  that  time,  the  great  innovator,  is  perpetually  making, —  Tern- 
pus  novator  rerum.  Those  who  advise  an  increase  of  the  judges 
beyond  their  present  number  are  not  innovators.  The  innovators 
are,  in  truth,  those  who  would  stand  still  while  the  world  is  going  for- 
ward,— who  would  only  employ  the  same  number  of  labourers  while 
the  harvest  has  increased  tenfold, — who,  adhering  to  the  ancient  sys- 
tem of  having  but  twelve  judges,  although  the  work  for  them  to  do 
has  incalculably  increased,  refuse  to  maintain  the  original  equality, 
the  pristine  fitness  of  the  means  to  the  end,  the  old  efficiency  and  ade- 
quacy of  the  establishment;  but  they  are  not  innovators  who  would 
apply  additional  power  when  the  pressure  exceeds  all  former  bounds, 
— who,  when  the  labour  is  changed,  would  alter  the  force  of  work- 
men employed,  and  thus  preserve  the  proportions  that  originally  ex- 
isted in  the  judicial  system, — who  would  most  literally  keep  things  as 
they  were,  or  return  them  to  their  primitive  state  by  restoring  and 
perpetuating  their  former  adaptation  and  harmony.  The  advantage 
of  the  addition  I  am  recommending  will  become  the  more  evident 
when  I  have  to  consider  the  Welsh  judicature,  which  I  believe  to  be 
the  worst  that  was  ever  established.  Why  should  not  the  two  judges 
be  received  amongst  the  others,  and  divide  the  Welsh  circuits  with 
the  old  ones?*  Not  that  I  mean  they  should  always  take  those  cir- 
cuits, but  each  might  take  them  in  his  turn,  as  each  in  his  turn  might 
sit  in  the  Courts  of  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas,  and  at  the  Old 
Bailey,  beside  dividing  with  the  chiefs  the  sittings  at  Nisi  Prius.t 

That  the  King's  Bench  paper  is  now  far  too  heavy,  there  cannot 
be  a  donbt,  and  so  it  will  always  be.  No  one  judge  can  get  through 
the  mass  of  causes  entered  in  the  King's  Bench,  trying  them  patiently, 
and  really  hearing  them  to  an  end.  Depend  upon  it,  when  more 
have  been  tried  in  the  same  time,  they  have  been  half  heard,  and 
forced  to  compromise  or  reference.  Now,  if  you  will  have  two 
judges  sitting  at  Nisi  Priiis  at  once,  each  of  them  taking  a  particular 
class  of  trials — the  one  confining  himself  to  the  heavy  business,  and 

*  This  has  now  become  the  law. 

f  The  three  Puisne  Judges  thus  sitting  in  Bane,  the  fourth  would  each  term  take 
bail  and  insolvents  and  common  motions  in  the  morning1,  and  chamber  business 
afterwards;  he  would  also  take  the  sittings  in  Term,  a  serious  inconvenience  at  pre- 
sent.* 

*  It  is  so  now. 


LAW  REFORM.  527 

the  other  to  bills  of  exchange,  promissory-note  cases,  and  undefended 
causes  generally — the  whole  business  of  the  court  could  be  got 
through  both  thoroughly  and  wiih  despatch;*  but  as  the  law  now 
stands,  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  any  man,  in  days  consisting  of  no 
more  than  twenty-four  hours,  and  labouring  for  eleven  months  in  the 
year,  to  dispose  of  the  business  before  him.  I  say  eleven  months; 
for  the  court,  with  the  exception  of  a  day  or  two  of  respite  at  Easter, 
and  a  week  at  Christmas,  sat  for  above  eleven  months  last  year, 
taking  the  circuits  as  part  of  the  year's  work. 

Another  obvious  distribution  might  be  made  without  having  two 
judges  sitting  together  in  one  court.  As  all  real  actions  have  their 
domicile  in  the  Common  Pleas,  actions  which,  in  their  nature,  partake 
of  real  actions,  as  ejectments,  trespass  to  try  title,  and  so  forth,  might 
be  carried  there  too.  Other  suits  might  be  susceptible  of  a  similar 
classification,  as  if  actions  respecting  tithes,  which  are  not  frequent, 
bills  of  exchange,  and  promissory  notes,  were  carried  into  the  Court 
of  Exchequer.  The  Lord  Chief  Baron  is  allowed,  by  the  57th  of  Geo. 
Ill,  to  sit  in  equity  and  to  hear  alone  all  causes  and  all  motions  in 
equity;  but  he  never,  in  fact,  does  hear  motions,  although  certainly 
no  lawyer  ever  sat  in  that  court  more  fitted  to  despatch  any  branch 
of  equity  practice  than  is  the  present  head  of  the  Exchequer.t  Were 
he  confined  to  the  equity  side,  and  were  another  judge,  a  common 
lawyer,  appointed  to  preside  on  the  law  side  of  that  court,  you  would 
have  two  effective  courts,  instead  of  one  not  very  effective  for  either 
law  or  equity.J  The  Court  of  Chancery  would  be  materially  relieved 
by  this  arrangement;  while  the  double  good  would  be  found,  of  the 
business  being  better  done  both  on  the  bench  and  at  the  bar,  from 
that  expertness  which  ever  attends  the  division  of  labour;  and  of 
seasonable  relief  being  afforded  to  both  the  judges  and  practitioners 
of  the  King's  Bench,  who  would  be  restored  to  something  of  the 
leisure,  at  least  the  moderate  professional  employment,  so  favourable 
to  the  liberal  pursuits  and  that  unfettered  study  of  jurisprudence, 
which  have  always  formed  the  most  accomplished  lawyers. 

There  are  two  observations,  sir,  which  I  have  to  make  relative  to 
the  judges  generally,  and  which  I  may  as  well  state  now  I  am  upon 
that  subject.  I  highly  approve  of  paying  those  learned  persons  by 
salaries,  and  not  by  fees  as  a  general  principle;  but  so  long  as  it  is 
the  practice  not  to  promote  the  judges,  and  which  I  deem  essential  to 
the  independence  of  the  bench,  and  so  long  as  the  door  is  thus  closed 
to  all  ambition,  so  long  must  we  find  a  tendency  in  them,  as  in  all  men 
arrived  at  their  resting  place,  to  become  less  strenuous  in  their  exer- 
tions than  they  would  be  if  some  little  stimulus  were  applied  to  them. 
They  have  an  irksome  and  an  arduous  duty  to  perform;  and,  if  no  mo- 
tive be  held  out  to  them,  the  natural  consequence  must  be,  as  long  as 
men  are  men,  that  they  will  have  a  disposition  growing  with  their 
years  to  do  as  little  as  possible.  I,  therefore,  would  hold  out  an  in- 

•   It  la  so  now.  f  Sir  W.  Alexander. 

This  reform  has  not  been  introduced. 


528  LAW  REFORM. 

dncement  to  them  to  labour  vigorously,  by  allowing  them  a  certain 
moderate  amount  of  fees.  I  say  a  very  moderate  amount,  a  very 
small  addition  to  their  fixed  salary  would  operate  as  an  incentive; 
and  if  this  were  thought  expedient,  it  ought  to  be  so  ordered  that 
such  fees  should  not  be  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  a  suit,  or  the 
number  of  its  stages,  but  that  the  amount  should  be  fixed  and  defined 
once  for  all,  in  each  piece  of  business  finally  disposed  of.  I  am  quite 
aware  that  this  mode  of  payment  is  not  likely  to  meet  with  general 
support,  especially  with  the  support  of  the  reformers  of  the  law;  but 
I  give  the  suggestion  as  the  result  of  long  reflection,  which  has  pro- 
duced a  leaning  in  my  mind  towards  some  such  plan.  I  throw  out 
the  matter  for  inquiry,  as  the  fruit  of  actual  observation,  and  not 
from  any  fancy  that  I  have  in  my  own  head;  but  I  may  also  mention, 
that  some  friends  of  the  highest  rank  and  largest  experience  in  the 
profession,  agree  with  me  in  this  point — men  who  are  among  the 
soundest  and  most  zealous  supporters  of  reform  in  the  courts  of  law.* 
The  other  general  observation  that  I  have  to  make,  with  respect  to 
the  judges,  is  of  a  nature  entirely  different  from  the  last  which  I  have 
submitted  to  the  House.  The  great  object  of  every  government,  in 
selecting  the  judges  of  the  land,  should  be  to  obtain  the  most  skilful 
and  learned  men  in  their  profession,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  men 
whose  character  gives  the  best  security  for  the  pure  and  impartial  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  I  almost  feel  ashamed,  sir,  to  have  troubled 
you  with  such  a  truism;  but  the  House  will  presently  see  the  appli- 
cation I  am  about  to  make  of  it.  Sorry  am  I  to  say,  that  our  system 
of  judicial  promotion  sins  in  both  these  particulars.  Government 
ought  to  fill  the  bench  with  men  taken  from  among  the  most  learned 
lawyers  and  most  accomplished  advocates — men  who  have  both 
knowledge  of  the  depths  of  jurisprudence,  and  sagacity  to  apply  it  — 
men  who,  from  experience  as  leading  advocates,  possess  the  power  of 
taking  large  and  enlightened  views  of  questions,  and  of  promptly 
seizing  the  bearings  of  a  case.  There  cannot  be  a  greater  error  than 
theirs  who  fancy  that  an  able  advocate  makes  a  bad  judge;  all  expe- 
rience is  against  it.  The  best  judges  in  my  time,  with  the  exception 
of  the  present  Lord  Chief  Justice,t  than  whom  no  man  can  discharge 
his  office  more  excellently  and  efficiently,  have  all  of  them  been  pre- 
viously distinguished  in  the  profession  as  advocates.  But  not  only 
should  the  choice  be  unconfined  by  the  legal  acquirements  and  profes- 
sional habits  of  the  practitioner;  there  ought  not  to  be,  in  choosing 
judges  from  the  bar,  any  exclusion  or  restriction.  He  alone  ought  to 
be  selected,  in  whom  talent,  integrity,  and  experience  most  abound, 
and  are  best  united.  The  office  of  judge  is  of  so  important  and  re- 
sponsible a  nature,  that  one  should  suppose  the  members  of  govern- 
ment would  naturally  require  that  they  should  be  at  liberty  to  make 
their  selection  from  the  whole  field  of  the  profession — that  they  would 
themselves  claim  to  have  the  whole  field  open  to  their  choice.  Who 
could  believe  that  a  ministry  would  not  eagerly  seek  to  have  all  men 

*  This  has  not  yet  been  so  arranged.  f  Lord  Tenterden. 


LAW  REFORM.  529 

before  them,  when  their  object  must  be  to  choose  the  most  able  and 
accomplished?  But  although  this  is  obvious  and  undeniable,  and 
although  the  extension  of  the  minister's  search  cannot  fail  to  be  at- 
tended with  the  highest  public  advantage,  as  well  as  the  greatest 
relief  to  him  in  performing  his  (rust,  is  it  the  case  that  any  such  gene- 
ral and  uncontrolled  choice  is  exercised?  Is  all  the  field  really  open? 
Are  there  no  portions  of  the  domain  excluded  from  the  selector's  au- 
thority? True,  no  law  presents  such  a  search  for  capacity  and  worth! 
True,  the  doors  of  Westminster  Hall  stand  open  to  the  minister!  He 
may  enter  those  gates,  and  choose  the  ablest  and  the  best  man  there. 
Be  his  talent  what  it  may,  be  his  character  what  it  may,  be  his  party 
what  it  may,  no  man  to  whom  the  offer  is  made  will  refuse  to  be  a 
judge.  But  there  is  a  custom  above  the  law  —  a  custom,  in  my  mind, 
"  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  the  observance,"  that  party,  as 
well  as  merit,  must  be  studied  in  these  appointments.  One  half  of  the 
bar  is  thus  excluded  from  the  competition;  for  no  man  can  be  a  judge 
who  is  not  of  a  particular  party.  Unless  he  be  the  known  adherent 
of  a  certain  system  of  government  —  unless  he  profess  himself  devoted 
to  one  scheme  of  policy  —  unless  his  party  happen  to  be  the  party  con- 
nected with  the  crown,  or  allied  with  the  ministry  of  the  day,  there  is 
no  chance  for  him;  that  man  is  surely  excluded.  Men  must  be  on 
one  side  of  the  great  political  question  to  become  judges;  and  no  one 
may  hope  to  fill  that  dignified  office,  unless  he  belongs  to  the  side  on 
which  courtly  favour  shines;  his  seat  on  the  bench  must  depend,  gen- 
erally speaking,  on  his  supporting  the  leading  principles  of  the  exist- 
ing administration.* 

But  perhaps,  sir,  I  may  be  carrying  this  distinction  too  far,  and  it 
may  be  said  that  the  ministers  do  not  expect  the  opinions  of  a  judge 
should  exactly  coincide  with  theirs  in  political  matters.  Be  it  so;  I 
stop  not  to  cavil  about  trifles;  but,  at  all  events,  it  must  be  admitted 
that,  if  a  man  belongs  to  a  party  opposed  to  the  views  of  government; 
if,  which  the  best  and  ablest  of  men,  and  the  fittest  for  the  bench,  may 
well  be,  he  is  known  for  opinions  hostile  to  the  ministry,  he  can  ex- 
pect no  promotion  —  rather  let  me  say,  the  country  has  no  chance  of 
his  elevation  to  the  bench,  whatever  be  his  talents,  or  how  conspicu- 
ously soever  he  may  shine  in  all  the  most  important  departments  of 
his  profession.  No  one,  I  think,  will  venture  to  deny  this;  or,  if  he 
do,  I  defy  him  to  show  me  any  instance  in  the  course  of  the  last  hun- 
dred years,  of  a  man,  in  party  fetters,  and  opposed  to  the  principles  of 
government,  being  raised  to  the  bench.  No  such  thing  has  taken 
place  that  1  know  of.  Never  have  I  heard  of  such  a  tiling,  at  least 
in  England;  though  we  have,  perhaps,  known  instances  of  men  who 
have  changed  their  party,  to  arrive  at  the  heights  of  their  profession. 
But  on  this  subject,  desirous  throughout  of  avoiding  all  olfence,  1  will 
not  press  —  well,  I  do  not  wish  to  say  a  woid  about  it. 


*  In  1M1  this  practice  was  broke  through,  and  to  the  prent  benefit  of  the  pro- 
fession, a  Chief  Baron  appointed  from  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition.  80  the  new 
Bankrupt  court  was  coiiblituted  without  uny  regard  to  party. 

VOL.  i.  —  \  r> 


530  LAW  REFORM. 

In  Scotland,  it  is  true,  a  more  liberal  policy  has  been  adopted,  and 
the  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite*  has  done  himself  great 
honour  by  recommending  Mr.  Gillies,  Mr.  Cranstoun  (now  Lords 
Gillies  and  Corehouse),  and  Mr.  Clerk  (Lord  Eldin),  all  as  well  known 
for  party  men  there  as  Lord  Eldon  is  here,t  though,  unfortunately, 
their  party  has  been  what  is  now  once  more  termed  the  wrong  side, 
but  all  men  of  the  very  highest  eminence  among  the  professors  of  the 
law.  Now,  when  I  quote  these  instances  in  Scotland,  I  want  to  see 
examples  of  the  same  sort  in  England;  for  however  great  my  respect 
for  the  law  and  the  people  of  the  north  may  be,  I  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  we  of  the  south  too,  and  our  jurisprudence,  are  of  some  little 
importance,  and  that  the  administration  of  justice  here  may  fairly  call 
for  some  portion  of  attention.  But,  sir,  what  is  our  system?  If,  at 
the  present  moment,  the  whole  of  Westminster  Hall  were  to  be  called 
upon,  in  the  event  of  any  vacancy  unfortunately  occurring  among  the 
Chief  Justices,  to  name  the  man  best  suited  to  fill  it,  to  point  out  the 
individual  whose  talents  and  integrity  best  deserved  the  situation — 
whose  judicial  exertions  were  the  most  likely  to  shed  blessings  on  his 
country — can  any  one  doubt  for  a  moment  whose  name  would  be 
echoed  on  every  side?  No;  there  could  be  no  question  as  to  the  indi- 
vidual to  whom  would  point  the  common  consent  of  those  most  com- 
petent to  judge;  but  then  he  is  known  as  a  party  man.  and  all  his 
merits,  were  they  even  greater  than  they  are,  would  be  in  vain  ex- 
tolled by  his  profession,  and  in  vain  desiderated  by  his  country.  I 
reprobate  this  mischievous  system,  by  which  the  empire  loses  the  ser- 
vices of  some  of  the  ablest,  the  most  learned,  and  most  honest  men 
within  its  bounds. 

And  here  let  me  not  be  supposed  to  blame  one  party  more  than 
another;  I  speak  of  the  practice  of  all  governments  in  this  country; 
and,  I  believe,  when  the  Whigs  were  in  office,  in  180G,  they  did  not 
promote  to  the  bench  any  of  their  political  opponents;  they  had  no 
vacancies  in  Westminster  Hall  to  fill  up,  but  in  the  Welsh  judicature 
they  pursued  the  accustomed  course.  Now  what  is  the  consequence 
of  thus  carrying  party  principles  into  judicial  appointments?  The 
choice  of  judges  is  fettered  by  being  confined  to  half  the  profession: 
so  that  you  have  less  chance  of  able  men;  and  those  you  get  are  of 
necessity  partisans,  and  therefore  less  honest  and  impartial.  Why 
should  the  whole  bench  be  Ministerial  or  Tory?  No  man  can  desire 
it  to  be  so,  for  the  purposes  of  judging  over  a  community,  far  very 
far,  from  being  Ministerial  or  Tory.  Yet  it  must  be  so,  unless  vacan- 
cies should  occur  during  those  visits  of  Whig  ministries,  "few  and 
far  between,"  when  once  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  power  alights 
upon  that  party,  and  then  spreads  its  wings  and  flies  from  them  in  a 
few  months.  Does  not  this  arrangement  instil  into  the  minds,  both 
of  expectant  judges  and  of  men  already  on  the  bench,  a  feeling  of 

*  Sir  R.  Peel. 

|  Two  other  instances  should  be  added— the  learned  and  venerable  Lord  Chief 
Commissioner,  who  has  had  the  signal  happiness  of  presiding  over  the  introduction 
of  Jury  Trial  into  his  native  country,  and  Mr.  Cathcart,  Lord  Allovvay. 


LAW  REFORM.  531 

party  fatal  to  strict  justice  in  political  questions?  I  speak  impartially 
hut  unhesitatingly  on  this  point,  for  it  is  perfectly  notorious  that,  now- 
a-days,  whenever  a  question  comes  before  tiie  bench,  whether  it  be 
upon  a  prosecution  for  libel,  or  upon  any  other  matter  connected  with 
politics,  the  counsel  at  their  meeting  take  for  granted  that  they  can 
tell  pretty  accurately  the  leaning  of  the  court,  and  predict  exactly 
enough  which  way  the  consultation  of  the  judges  will  terminate, 
though  they  may  not  always  discover  the  particular  path  which  will 
lead  to  that  termination.  While  the  system  I  complain  of  continues, 
while  you  suffer  it  to  continue,  such  a  leaning  is  its  necessary  conse- 
quence. The  judges  have  this  leaning,  they  must  have  it,  they  can- 
not help  having  it,  you  compel  them  to  have  it; — you  choose  them 
on  account  of  their  notoriously  having  it  at  the  bar;  and  you  vainly 
hope  that  they  will  suddenly  put  it  off,  when  they  rise  by  its  means 
to  the  bench.  On  the  contrary,  they  know  they  fill  a  certain  situa- 
tion, and  they  cannot  forget  by  whom  they  were  placed  there,  or  for 
what  reason. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  present  judges  will  always  discharge 
their  functions  with  all  the  impartiality  that  any  man  can  expect  from 
them;  but  I  speak  without  reference  to  individual  habits  or  prejudices 
—  I  speak  of  impressions  which  it  is  natural  to  expect  must  exist, 
where  circumstances  all  conspire  to  create  them;  I  speak  too,  I  must 
be  allowed  to  say,  quite  disinterestedly.  I  cannot  take  the  situation, 
of  a  judge — I  cannot  afford  it.  I  speak  not  for  myself,  but  for  the 
country,  because  I  feel  it  to  be  a  matter  of  the  deepest  importance; 
and  from  what  I  have  seen  of  the  right  honourable  gentleman  oppo- 
site,* I  really  do  hope  to  see  this  matter  much  more  maturely  weighed 
than  it  has  heretofore  been. 

ii.  I  am  afraid  that  I  have  already  tired  the  House  with  the  length 
of  these  details;  but  I  must  now  take  my  leave  for  a  time  of  West- 
minster Hall,  and  beg  of  you  to  mark,  in  the  next  place,  the  manner 
in  which  the  law  is  administered  in  Wales.  Why  should  Wales,  be- 
cause it  happens  to  be  termed  the  Principality,  have  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty, and  the  personal  privileges  of  the  inhabitants,  dealt  with  by 
different  judges,  and  almost  by  a  different  system  from  that  which  is 
established  in  England?  In  England  you  have  the  first  men — men 
of  the  highest  education  and  experience — to  sit  in  judgment  on  life 
and  property.  In  Wales  you  have  as  judges,  I  will  not  say  inferior 
men,  but  certainly  not  the  very  first,  nor  in  any  respect  such  as  sit 
upon  what  Roger  North  calls  the  "cushion  in  Westminster  Hall."  I 
shall  here  show  three  great  defects  requiring  a  remedy  most  impera- 
tively. Oftentimes  those  persons  have  left  the  bar  and  retired  to  the 
pursuits  of  country  gentlemen.  I  do  not  say  that  they  are  for  that 
reason  unfit  for  the  office  of  judge,  but  still  they  cannot  be  so  compe- 
tent as  men  in  the  daily  administration  of  the  law,  and  forming  part 
of  our  Supreme  Courts.  In  some  cases  they  continue  in  Westminster 
Hall — which  is  so  much  the  worse, —  because  a  man  who  is  a  judge 

•  Sir  Robert  Peel. 


532  LAW  REFORM. 

one  half  the  year,  and  a  barrister  the  other,  is  not  likely  to  be  either  a 
good  judge  or  a  good  barrister.  But  a  second  and  greater  objection 
is,.that  the  Welsh  judges  never  change  their  circuits.  One  of  them, 
for  instance,  goes  the  Carmarthen  circuit,  another  the  Brecon  circuit, 
and  a  third  the  Chester  circuit — but  always  the  same  circuit.  And 
what  is  the  inevitable  consequence?  Why,  they  become  acquainted 
with  the  gentry,  the  magistrates,  almost  with  the  tradesmen  of  each 
district,  the  very  witnesses  who  come  before  them,  and  intimately  with 
the  practitioners,  whether  counsel  or  attorneys.  The  names,  the  faces, 
the  characters,  the  histories,  of  all  those  persons  are  familiar  to  them; 
and  out  of  this  too  great  knowledge  grow  likings  and  prejudices  which 
never  can  by  any  possibility  cast  a  shadow  across  the  open,  broad, 
and  pure  path  of  the  judges  of  Westminster  Hall.  Then,  again,  they 
have  no  retiring  pensions;  and  the  consequence  is,  they  retain  their 
salaries  long  after  they  have  ceased  to  discharge  properly  the  func- 
tions for  which  they  receive  them.  Now  mark  the  result  of  all  this. 
On  one  of  the  Welsh  circuits,  at  the  last  spring  Assizes,  there  were 
set  down  no  more  than  forty-six  causes  for  trial;  and  how  many  does 
the  House  think  were  disposed  of?  Only  twenty;  and  of  the  twenty- 
six  made  remands,  are  some  that  had  stood  over  from  the  preceding 
Assizes.  It  is  evident  enough  what  should  be  done  here.  If  any  of 
the  judges  of  the  Principality  have  become,  from  the  extreme  pres- 
sure of  business,  on  the  one  hand,  or  from  any  physical  cause,  on  the 
other,  inadequate  to  the  discharge  of  the  business  which  comes  before 
them,  pension  them  off — if  they  be  barristers  yet  remaining  in  West- 
minster Hall,  and  not  fit  to  be  raised  to  the  bench,  pension  them  off 
too:  sure  I  am  that  theirs  will  be  the  cheapest  pension,  nay,  the  most 
beneficial  to  the  giver,  "  being  twice  blessed,"  which  has  ever  been 
bestowed.  I  verily  think  that  the  Principality  would  itself  cheerfully 
pay  this  first  cost  of  a  better  system.  At  all  events,  add  two  judges 
to  your  present  number,  and  let  them  take,  with  the  other  twelve, 
their  turn  and  share  in  the  business  of  the  country.  Let  the  Princi- 
pality of  Wales  be  divided  into  two  circuits,  and  then  you  will  have 
the  work  well  done,  and  quickly  done,  especially  if  you  transfer  the 
equity  jurisdiction  to  the  two  courts  of  Westminster.  In  addition  to 
this,  from  the  accession  to  the  present  number  of  judges,  the  existing 
difficulties  arising  from  the  Bail  Court  and  the  chamber  practice  will 
be  done  away.* 

And  here,  before  passing  to  another  head  of  judicature,  the  Times 
of  the  Circuits  require  a  word  or  two.  Not,  perhaps,  that  this  is  of 
so  much  importance  as  the  other  defects  I  have  already  noticed,  or 
shall  presently  touch  upon;  but  it  regards  classes  of  great  impor- 
tance in  themselves,  judges,  barristers,  and  solicitors;  and  it  touches 
also,  in  no  little  degree,  the  convenience  of  the  community  at  large. 
I  should  be  most  glad  to  see  that  folly — for  really  I  cannot  call  it  by 
any  other  name — that  absurd  and  vexatious  folly  of  regulating  Easter 
term  by  means  of  the  moon,  done  away  with.  It  is  said  by  many 

*  This  evil  is  now  remedied,  the  Welsh  judicature  being  abolished. 


LAW  KEFORM.  533 

that  this  would  be  difficult  to  reform.  I  see  no  such  difficulty  in  the 
matter.  Let  the  Law  Returns  be  made  certain,  and  leave  the  mov- 
able feast  to  the  church.  I  have  no  wish  to  interfere  with  the  times 
and  seasons  of  the  church;  let  those  be  regulated  as  you  please;  but 
let  this  inconvenience  in  the  Law  be  remedied,  by  making  for  Easter 
and  Trinity  terms,  like  those  for  Michaelmas  and  Hilary,  the  returns 
on  some  certain  days.  I  remember  that  when  the  late  Mr.  Erskine 
brought  in  a  bill,  in  1S02,  to  fix  Easter  term,  a  learned  judge  deli- 
vered himself  in  print  against  the  dangerous  innovation;  and  some 
persons,  alarmed  by  him,  exclaimed,  "  Only  imagine  the  horror  of 
attempting  to  change  Easter  term,  when  all  Christians  throughout 
the  world  have  at  present  the  unspeakable,  comfort  of  knowing  that 
they  are  keeping  this  great  festival  upon  one  and  the  same  day." 
For  my  part,  I  have  no  wish  to  deprive  them  of  this  comfort,  admit- 
ting it,  as  I  do,  to  be  unspeakable.  The  day  upon  which  Good  Fri- 
day falls  may  be  determined  as  heretofore,  that  is,  by  the  period  of 
the  full  moon;  by  the  same  certain  varying  rule  may  Easter  Sunday 
be  fixed  for  all  clerical  purposes;  but  temporal  business  ought  not  to 
be  sacrificed  to  these  ideas  of  some  undefined  spiritual  consolation. 
There  is  no  inconvenience  in  Easter  being  movable,  but  there  is  a 
very  great  inconvenience  in  making  the  law  returns  movable.  Why 
not,  then,  let  the  feasts  of  the  church  remain  changeable  as  hereto- 
fore, and  the  terms  of  the  courts,  little  enough  connected  with  sacred 
things,  fall  at  a  stated  period?  Let  it  be  counted,  for  example,  from 
Lady-day,  which  is  always  on  the  25th  of  March.  But  why,  indeed, 
must  we  continue  to  count  from  Saints'  days,  now  that  we  have  hap- 
pily a  very  Protestant  country,  more  especially  under  the  government 
of  the  present  Commander-in-Chief?*  Why  preserve  any  Romish 
folly  of  this  sort,  or  keep  up  a  mere  remnant  of  Popery?  Let  Easter 
term  always  begin  on  the  10th  of  April,  or  on  the  5th,  and  the  incon- 
venience will  cease.  It  is  the  foolishest  of  vulgar  errors  to  suppose, 
that,  by  how  much  the  more  you  harass  the  professors  of  the  law, 
by  so  much  the  more  you  benefit  the  country.  The  fact  is  quite  (he 
reverse:  for  by  these  means  you  make  inferior  men,  both  in  rank,  in 
feelings,  and  in  accomplishments,  alone  follow  that  profession  out  of 
which  the  judges  of  the  land  must  be  appointed.  I  should  rather 
say,  that  by  how  much  the  more  you  surround  this  renowned  pro- 
fession with  difficulties  and  impediments,  calculated  only  to  make  it 
eligible  for  persons  of  mere  ordinary  education,  and  mere  habits  of 
drudgery,  who  otherwise  would  find  their  way  to  employment  in 
tradesmen's  shops,  or  at  best  in  merchants'  counting-houses — by  so 
much  the  more  you  close  it  upon  men  of  talent  and  respectability, 
and  prevent  it  from  being  the  resort  of  genius  and  of  liberal  accom- 
plishment. I  apprehend,  therefore,  that  the  convenience  of  the  bar 
is  a  matter  which  the  legislature  ought  never  to  lose  sight  of,  where 
it  clashes  not  with  the  advantage  of  the  suitor.  The  having  the 
terms  which  are  movable  (Easter  and  Trinity),  and  the  Circuit,  and 

*  Duke  of  York. 
45* 


534  LAW  REFORM. 

the  Long  Vacation,  earlier  by  four  or  five  weeks  in  one  year,  and 
later  by  four  or  five  weeks  in  another,  is  a  most  serious  inconveni- 
ence in  itself,  and  quite  unnecessary  upon  any  principle.  Only  ob- 
serve how  hard  the  present  system  bears,  for  instance,  upon  those 
who,  like  myself,  frequent  the  Northern  Circuit.  It  happened  to  me 
that  I  did  not  get  home  till  the  20th  of  September  last  year,  having 
repaired  to  London  on  the  5th  of  October  the  year  before;  so  that  I 
was  engaged  in  my  profession  for  eleven  months  and  a  half,  and  had 
been  gratified,  out  of  the  twelve  months,  by  exactly  one  fortnight's 
vacation  for  needful  repose.  When  I  should  have  been  obliged  again 
to  bend  my  steps  towards  Guildhall,  appointed  to  open  on  the  9th  of 
October,  I  naturally  enough  joined  those  who  signed  a  requisition  to 
my  Lord  Tenterden,  entreating  him  to  defer  the  sittings.  His  lord- 
ship most  handsomely  expressed  his  willingness  to  meet  the  wishes 
of  the  gentlemen  of  the  bar,  kindly  returning  the  affectionate  respect 
which  all  who  practise  in  his  court  bear  to  his  person.  He  stated 
his  satisfaction  at  being  able  to  accommodate  us,  by  sitting  on  Tues- 
day the  16th,  instead  of  Tuesday  the  9th,  so  that  we  obtained  a  week, 
for  which  we  were  thankful.  My  lord  observed,  that  in  the  state  of 
his  paper  he  could  grant  us  no  more;  indeed,  such  is  his  resolution 
manfully  and  honestly  to  despatch  his  business,  that  he  seems  to  take 
as  much  interest  in  his  work  as  others  do  in  their  relaxation.* 

III.  I  now  pass  to  the  Civil  Law  Courts;  and  their  constitution  I 
touch  with  a  tender,  and,  I  may  say,  a  trembling  hand,  knowing  that, 
from  my  little  experience  of  their  practice,  I  am  scarcely  competent  to 
discourse  of  them;  for  I  profess  to  speak  only  from  such  knowledge  as 
I  have  obtained  incidentally  by  practising  in  the  two  Courts  of  Appeal, 
the  High  Court  of  Delegates,  and  the  Cock-pit,  where  common  law- 
yers are  occasionally  associated  with  civilians.  The  observations 
I  have  to  make  on  this  part  of  the  subject  resolve  themselves,  entirely, 
into  those  which  I  would  offer  upon  the  manner  in  which  their  judges 
are  appointed  and  paid.  In  the  first  place,  I  would  have  them  better 
paid  than  they  are  now,  a  reform  to  which  I  would  fain  hope  there 
may  be  no  serious  objection  on  their  part,  averse,  as  I  know  them 
generally,  to  all  change.  I  think  they  are  underpaid  in  respect  of  the 
most  important  part  of  their  functions.  The  Judge  of  the  Court  of 
Admiralty,  who  has  the  highest  situation,  or  almost  the  highest,  among 
the  judges  of  the  land  (for  there  is  none  of  them  who  decides  upon 
questions  of  greater  delicacy  and  moment,  in  a  national  view,  or  in- 
volving a  larger  amount  of  property,) — this  great  dignitary  of  the  law 
has  £2,500  a-year  salary  only.  The  rest  of  his  income  is  composed 
of  fees,  and  these  are  little  or  nothing  during  peace.  But,  then,  in  time 
of  war  they  amount  to  seven  or  eight  thousand  per  annum.  I  profess 
not  to  like  the  notion  of  a  functionary  who  has  so  many  calls  as  the 
Judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court,  for  dealing  with  the  most  delicate 
neutral  questions — for  drawing  up  manifestoes  and  giving  opinions  on 

*  Easter  and  Trinity  terms  have  since  been  fixed,  and  sitting  in  October  prohi- 
bited, as  here  recommended. 


LAW  REFORM.  535 

those  questions,  and  advising  the  Crown  in  matters  of  public  policy 
bearing  on  our  relations  with  foreign  states, — I  like  not,  I  say,  the 
notion  of  such  a  personage  being  subject  to  the  dreadful  bias  (and  here 
again  I  am  speaking  on  general  principles  only,  and  with  no  personal 
reference  whatever)  which  he  is  likely  to  receive,  from  the  circum- 
stance of  his  having  a  salary  of  £2,500  per  annum  only,  if  a  state  of 
peace  continue,  and  between  ten  or  eleven  thousand  a-year,  if  it  be 
succeeded  by  war.  I  know  very  well,  sir,  that  no  feeling  of  this  kind 
could  possibly  influence  the  present  noble  and  learned  judge  of  that 
court;*  but  I  hardly  think  it  a  decent  thing  to  underpay  him  in  time 
of  peace,  and  still  less  decent  is  it,  to  overpay  him  at  a  period  when 
the  country  is  engaged  in  war.  I  conceive  that  it  may  not  always  be 
safe  to  make  so  large  an  increase  to  a  judge's  salary  dependent  upon 
whether  the  horrors  of  war  or  the  blessings  of  peace  frown  or  smile 
upon  his  country — to  bestow  upon  one,  eminently  mixed  up  with 
questions  on  which  the  continuance  of  tranquillity,  or  its  restoration 
when  interrupted,  may  hinge,  a  revenue,  conditioned  upon  the  coming 
on,  and  the  endurance  of  hostilities.t 

The  other  remark,  which  I  have  to  offer  on  these  courts,  I  would 
strongly  press  upon  the  consideration  of  the  House;  it  relates  to  the 
mode  in  which  their  judges  are  appointed.  Is  it  a  fit  thing,  I  ask, 
now  when  Popery  is  no  longer  cherished  or  even  respected,  indeed 
hardly  tolerated,  among  us — that  one  of  its  worst  practices  should  re- 
main, the  appointment  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  Judges  in  the  Civil 
Law  Courts  by  prelates  of  the  church?  I  except,  indeed,  the  Judge 
of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty,  because  his  commission  proceeds 
from  the  Lord  High  Admiral;  but  I  speak  of  all  those  who  preside  in 
the  Consistorial  Courts — who  determine  the  most  grave  and  delicate 
questions  of  spiritual  law,  marriage  and  divorce,  and  may  decide  on 
the  disposition  by  will  of  all  the  personalty  in  the  kingdom.  Is  it  a 
fit  thing  that  the  judges  in  these  most  important  matters  should  be 
appointed,  not  by  the  Crown,  not  by  removable  and  responsible  officers 
of  the  Crown, — but  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Bishop  of 
London,  who  are  neither  removable  nor  responsible, — who  are  not 
lawyers, — who  are  not  statesmen, — who  ought  to  be  no  politicians, — 
who  are,  indeed,  priests  of  the  highest  order,  but  not,  on  that  account, 
the  most  proper  persons  to  appoint  judges  of  the  highest  order?  So 
it  is  in  the  province  of  York,  where  the  judges  are  appointed  by  the 
Archbishop;  so  in  all  other  Consistorial  Courts,  where  the  judges  are 
appointed  by  the  Bishops  of  the  respective  dioceses  in  which  they  are 
situated.  From  their  courts  an  appeal  lies,  it  is  true,  to  the  Court  of 
Delegates,  in  the  last  resort;  but  so  far  from  tins  affording  an  adequate 
remedy,  it  is  an  additional  evil;  for  I  will  venture  to  affirm,  that  the 
delegates  is  one  of  the  worst  constituted  courts  which  was  ever  ap- 
pointed, and  that  the  course  of  its  proceedings  forms  one  of  the  greatest 

•  Lord   Stowcll,  formerly  Sir  W.  Scott. 

f  This  reform  is  now  determined  upon,  and  has  been  so  ever  since  Sir  (/.  Kobirt- 
son's  death  in  1832,  the  place  being  merely  temporarily  filled  up. 


536  LAW  REFORM. 

mockeries  of  appeal  ever  conceived  by  man.  And  I  shall  demonstrate 
this  to  you  in  a  very  few  words.  The  court  is  thus  formed: — You 
take  three  judges  from  the  Common  Law  Courts,  one  from  each:  to 
these  you  add  some  half  dozen  civil  lawyers,  advocates  from  Doctors' 
Commons,  who  the  day  before  may  have  been  practising  in  those 
courts,  but  who  happened  not  to  have  been  in  the  particular  cause,  in 
respect  of  which  the  appeal  has  been  asserted.  Now,  only  see  what 
the  consequence  of  this  must  be.  The  civilians,  forming  the  majority 
of  the  delegates,  are,  of  necessity,  men  who  have  no  practice,  or  the 
very  youngest  of  the  doctors.  So  that  you  absolutely  appeal  from  the 
three  great  judges  of  the  Civil  and  Maritime  Courts,  from  the  sentences 
of  Sir  William  Scott,  Sir  John  Nicholl,  and  Sir  Christopher  Robin- 
son— of  those  learned  and  experienced  men,  who  are  to  us  the  great 
luminaries  of  the  civil  law — the  venerated  oracles  best  fitted  to  guide 
our  path  through  all  the  difficulties  of  that  branch  of  the  science,  and 
open  to  us  its  dark  passages — you  appeal  from  them  to  judges,  the 
majority  of  whom  must,  of  necessity,  be  the  advocates  the  least  em- 
ployed in  the  courts  where  those  great  authorities  preside,  the  most 
recently  admitted  to  those  courts,  and  the  most  unqualified  to  pro- 
nounce soundly  on  their  proceedings,  if  it  were  decent  that  they  should 
pronounce  at  all;  for,  out  of  so  small  a  bar,  the  chances  are,  (hat  the 
three  or  four  eminent  advocates  have  been  employed  in  the  case  under 
appeal.  Thus  the  absurdity  is  really  much  the  same  as  if  you  were 
to  appeal  from  a  solemn  and  elaborate  judgment,  pronounced  by  my 
Lord  Tenterden,  Mr.  Justice  Bayley,  Mr.  Justice  Holroyd,  and  Mr. 
Justice  Littledale,  to  the  judgment  of  three  young  barristers,  called  but 
the  day  before,  and  three  older  ones,  who  never  could  obtain  any 
practice.* 

Sir,  I  have  spoken  of  the  Primate  and  his  principal  suffragan,  and 
I  hope  I  need  not  protest,  especially  while  I  have  the  pleasure  of  ad- 
dressing you,  that  in  what  I  have  said  of  the  privilege  belonging  to 
the  highest  dignitary  in  the  church,  my  observations  were  meant  to 
be  most  remote  indeed  from  everything  like  personal  disrespect.  To- 
wards no  persons  in  their  exalted  station  do  I  bear  a  more  profound 
respect  than  to  both  the  distinguished  prelates  I  have  named,  well 
knowing  the  liberality  of  their  conduct  in  exercising  the  powers  I  am 
objecting  to,  as  all  the  country  knows  the  extent  of  learning  and  in- 
tegrity of  character  which  have  made  them  the  ornaments  of  our 
hierarchy.! 

IV.  I  next  come  to  speak  of  the  Privy  Council — a  very  important 
judicature,  and  of  which  the  members  discharge  as  momentous  duties 
as  any  of  the  judges  of  this  country,  having  to  determine  not  only 
upon  questions  of  colonial  law  in  plantation  cases,  but  to  sit  also  as 
judges,  in  the  last  resort,  of  all  prize  causes.  The  point,  however,  to 
which  I  more  immediately  address  myself  on  this  head  is,  that  they 

*  The  Court  of  Delegates  has  since  been  abolished,  and  its  judicature  transfer- 
red to  the  new  Court  of  Privy  Council. 

j-  Measures  were  taken  in  1832  to  abolish  this  absurd  kind  of  Episcopal  pa- 
tronage. 


LAW  REFORM.  537 

hear  and  decide  upon  all  our  plantation  appeals.  They  are  thus  made 
the  supreme  judges  in  the  last  resort,  over  every  one  of  your  foreign 
settlements,  whether  situated  in  those  immense  territories  which  you 
possess  in  the  East,  where  you  and  a  trading  company  together  rule 
over  not  less  than  seventy  millions  of  subjects — or  established  among 
those  rich  and  populous  islands  which  stud  the  Indian  ocean,  and  form 
the  great  eastern  Archipelago — or  have  their  stations  in  those  lands, 
part  lying  within  the  tropics,  part  stretching  towards  the  pole,  peopled 
by  various  castes  differing  widely  in  habits,  still  more  widely  in  privi- 
leges, great  in  numbers,  abounding  in  wealth,  extremely  unsettled  in 
their  notions  of  right,  and  excessively  litigious,  as  all  the  children  of 
the  new  world  are  supposed  to  be,  both  from  their  physical  and  poli- 
tical constitution.  All  this  immense  jurisdiction  over  the  rights  of 
property  and  person,  over  rights  political  and  legal,  and  over  all  the 
quesiious  growing  out  of  such  a  vast  and  varied  province,  is  exercised 
by  the  Privy  Council  unaided  and  alone.  It  is  obvious  that,  from  the 
mere  distance  of  those  colonies,  and  the  immense  variety  of  matters 
arising  in  them,  foreign  to  our  habits  and  beyond  the  scope  of  our 
knowledge,  any  judicial  tribunal  in  this  country  must  of  necessity  be 
an  extremely  inadequate  court  of  review.  But  what  adds  incredibly 
to  the  difficulty  is,  that  hardly  any  two  of  the  colonies  can  be  named 
which  have  the  same  law;  and  in  the  greater  number,  the  law  is 
wholly  unlike  our  own.  In  some  settlements,  it  is  the  Dutch  law,  in 
others  the  Spanish,  in  others  the  French,  in  others  the  Danish.  In 
our  eastern  possessions  these  variations  are,  if  possible,  yet  greater; — 
while  one  territory  is  swayed  by  the  Mahommedan  law,  another  is 
ruled  by  the  native,  or  Hindoo  law;  and  this  again,  in  some  of  our 
possessions,  is  qualified  or  superseded  by  the  law  of  Buddah,  the 
English  jurisprudence  being  confined  to  the  handful  of  British  settlers, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  three  presidencies.  All  those  laws  must 
come  in  their  turns  in  review,  before  the  necessarily  ignorant  Privy 
Councillor,  after  the  learned  doctors  in  each  have  differed.  The  diffi- 
culty thus  arising  of  necessity  from  our  distance,  an  unavoidable  inci- 
dent to  our  colonial  empire,  may  almost  be  deemed  an  incnpncity,  for 
it  involves  both  ignorance  of  the  law  and  unfit noss  to  judge  of  the 
facts.  But  so  much  the  more  anxious  should  we  be  to  remove  every 
unnecessary  obstacle  to  right  judgment,  and  to  use  all  the  correctives 
in  our  power.  The  judges  should  be  men  of  the  largest  legal  and 
general  information,  accustomed  to  study  other  systems  of  law  beside 
the.ir  own,  and  associated  with  lawyers  who  have  practised  or  pre- 
sided in  the  Colonial  courts.  They  should  be  assisted  by  a  bar  limit- 
ing its  practice,  for  the  most  part,  to  this  Appeal  Court;  at  any  rate, 
unking  it  their  principal  object.  To  counteract,  in  some  degree,  the 
delays  necessarily  arising  from  the  distance  of  the  courts  below,  and 
give  ample  time  for  patient  inquiry  into  so  dark  and  difficult  matters, 
the  Court  of  Review  should  sit  frequently  and  regularly  at  all  seasons. 
Because  all  these  precautions  would  still  leave  much  to  wish  for,  that 
is  no  kind  of  reason  why  you  should  not  anxiously  adopt  them.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  your  bounden  duty,  among  those  countless  millions 


538  LAW  REFORM. 

whom  you  desire  to  govern  all  over  the  globe,  not  to  suffer  a  single 
unnecessary  addition  to  the  inevitable  impediments  which  the  remote 
position  of  the  seat  of  empire  throws  in  the  way  of  correct  and  speedy 
justice. 

Widely  different  are  our  arrangements.  The  Privy  Council,  which 
ought  to  be  held  more  regularly  than  any  other  court,  sits  far  less  con- 
stantly than  any,  having  neither  a  regular  bench  nor  a  regular  bar. 
It  only  meets  on  certain  extraordinary  days — the  30th  of  January,  the 
Feast  of  the  Purification,  some  day  in  May,  Midsummer-day,  and  a 
few  others.  I  find  that,  on  an  average  of  twelve  years,  ending  1826, 
it  sat  in  each  year  nine  days,  to  dispose  of  all  the  appeals  from  all  the 
British  subjects  in  India;  from  our  own  civil  courts,  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  which  all  our  subjects  are  locally  amenable,  throughout  the  wide 
extent  of  the  several  presidencies  of  Calcutta,  Bombay,  and  Madras; 
to  dispose  of  all  the  causes  which  come  up  to  the  three  several  native 
courts  of  last  resort,  the  Sudder  Adawluts,  from  the  inferior  courts  of 
Zilla  and  Circuit,  comprising  all  contested  suits  between  the  Hindoos, 
the  half-caste  people,  and  Mahommedan  inhabitants.  But  in  the 
same  nine  days  are  to  be  disposed  of  all  the  appeals  from  Ceylon,  the 
Mauritius,  the  Cape,  and  New  Holland;  from  our  colonies  in  the 
West  Indies  and  in  North  America;  from  our  settlements  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  from  the  islands  in  the  Channel; — nine  days'  sit- 
tings are  deemed  sufficient  for  the  decision  of  the  whole.  But  nine 
days  do  not  suffice,  nor  anything  like  it,  for  this  purpose;  and  the 
summary  I  have  in  my  hand  demonstrates  it,  both  by  what  it  contains 
and  by  what  it  does  not.  It  appears  that,  in  all  those  twelve  years 
taken  together,  the  appeals  have  amounted  to  but  few  in  number.  I 
marvel  that  they  are  so  few — and  yet  I  marvel  not,  for,  in  point  of 
fact,  you  have  no  adequate  tribunal  to  dispose  of  them;  and  the  want 
of  such  a  tribunal  is  an  absolute  denial  of  justice  to  the,  subjects  of  the 
crown  in  those  colonies.  The  total  number  is  only  467;  but  including 
about  50  which  came  from  India,  and  appear  not  to  have  been  regu- 
larly entered,  though  they  are  still  undisposed  of,  there  are  517.  Of 
these,  243  only  have  been  disposed  of,  but  only  129  have  been  heard; 
for  the  others  were  either  compromised,  from  hopelessness,  owing  to 
the  delay  which  had  intervened  between  the  appeal  and  the  sentence, 
or  dismissed  for  want  of  prosecution.  Consequently,  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil must  have  heard  ten  or  eleven  appeals  only  by  the  year,  or  little 
more  than  one  in  the  course  of  each  day's  sitting.  Again,  of  the  129 
which  were  heard  and  disposed  of,  no  less  than  56  were  decided 
against  the  original  sentences,  which  were  altered,  and  generally 
speaking,  were  wholly  reversed.  Now,  56  out  of  129  is  a  very  large 
proportion,  little  less  than  one-half,  and  clearly  shows  that  the  limited 
number  of  appeals  must  have  arisen,  not  from  the  want  of  cases  where 
revision  was  required,  but  from  the  apprehension  of  finding  no  ade- 
quate court  of  review,  or  no  convenient  despatch  of  business.  And 
that  the  sentences  in  the  colonies  should  oftentimes  be  found  ill- 
digested,  or  hasty,  or  ignorant,  can  be  no  matter  of  astonishment, 
when  we  find  a  bold  Lieutenant-General  Lord  Chancellor  in  one 


LAW  REFORM.  539 

court,  and  an  enterprising  Captain  President  in  another,  and  a  worthy 
Major  officiating  as  judge-advocate  in  a  third.  In  many  of  these 
cases,  a  gallant  and  unlearned  Lord  Chancellor  has  decided,  in  the 
court  below,  points  of  the  greatest  legal  nicety,  and  ihe  judges  of  ap- 
peal, who  are  to  set  him  right  here,  are  chosen  without  much  more 
regard  to  legal  aptitude;  for  you  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  business 
of  these  nine  days  upon  which  they  sit  is  all  transacted  before  law- 
yers; one  lawyer  there  may  be,  but  the  rest  are  laymen.  Certainly  a 
right  honourable  gentleman*  whom  I  see  opposite  to  me  is  there 
sometimes  by  chance,  and  his  presence  is  sure  to  be  attended  with 
great  advantage  to  us.  Occasionally,  we  see  him  or  my  learned  friend, 
his  predecessor,!  but  this  good  fortune  is  rare;  the  Master  of  the  Kolls 
alone  is  always  to  be  seen  there,  of  the  lawyers;  for  the  rest,  one 
meets  sometimes  in  company  with  him,  an  elderly  and  most  respecta- 
ble gentleman,  who  has  formerly  been  an  ambassador,  and  was  a 
governor  with  much  credit  to  himself  in  difficult  times;  and  now  and 
then  a  junior  lord  of  the  admiralty,  who  has  been  neither  ambassador 
nor  lawyer,  but  would  be  exceedingly  fit  for  both  functions,  only  that 
he  happened  to  be  educated  for  neither.  And  such,  sir,  is  the  consti- 
tution of  that  awful  Privy  Council  which  sits  at  Westminster,  making 
up,  for  its  distance  from  the  suitors,  by  the  regularity  of  its  sittings, 
and  for  its  ignorance  of  local  laws  and  usages,  by  the  extent  and 
variety  of  its  general  law  learning;  this  is  the  court  which  determines, 
without  appeal,  and  in  a  manner  the  most  summary  that  can  be  con- 
ceived in  this  country,  all  those  most  important  matters  which  come 
before  it.  For  instance,  I  once  saw  property  worth  thirty  thousand 
pounds  sterling  per  annum,  disposed  of  in  a  few  minutes  after  the  ar- 
guments at  the  bar  ended,  by  the  learned  members  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil, who  reversed  a  sentence  pronounced  by  all  the  judges  in  the  set- 
tlement, upon  no  less  than  nineteen  days'  most  anxious  discussion. 
Such  a  court,  whose  decisions  are  without  appeal — irreversible,  unless 
by  act  of  Parliament — is  the  supreme  tribunal  which  dispenses  the 
law  to  eighty  millions  of  people,  and  disposes  of  all  their  property. 

1  cannot  pass  from  this  subject  without  relating  a  fact  which  illus- 
trates the  consequences  of  the  delays  necessarily  incident  to  such  a 
jurisdiction.  The  Rariee,  or  Queen  of  Ramnad,  having  died,  a  ques- 
tion arose  among  the  members  of  her  family  respecting  the  succession 
to  the  vacant  Musnud  (or  throne),  and  to  the  personal  property  of  the 
deceased  sovereign,  as  well  as  the  territorial  revenue.  The  situation 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  its  population  and  wealth,  render  it  a  pro- 
vince of  some  note.  It  reckons  four  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  it  lies  in  the  direct  road  which  the  pilgrims  from  the  south  of 
India  take  to  the  sanctuary  in  the  island  of  Rcmisseram,  frequented 
by  them  as  much  as  the  Juggernaut  is  by  those  of  the  north.  On 
the  death  of  Her  Highness  in  1809,  proceedings  commenced  in  the 
courts  below  upon  the  disputed  succession.  An  appeal  to  the  King 

*  Sir  John  Beckclt,  Judge-Advocate. 

|  Mr.  Abercromby  (now  speaker  of  llie  House  of  Commons). 


540  LAW  REFORM. 

in  Council  was  lodged  in  1814;  it  is  still  pending.  And  what  has 
been  the  consequence  of  this  delay  of  justice?  Why,  that  the  king- 
dom of  Ramnad  has  been  all  this  time  in  the  keeping  of  sheriffs' 
officers,  excepting  the  Honourable  Company's  peshcush,  or  share  of 
the  revenues,  which,  I  have  no  manner  of  doubt,  has  been  faithfully 
exacted  to  the  last  rupee.  It  is  strictly  in  what  amounts  to  the  same 
thing  as  the  custody  of  sheriffs'  officers,  having  been  taken,  as  I  may 
say,  in  execution,  or  rather  by  a  kind  of  mesne  process,  such  as  we 
have  not  in  our  law. 

As  the  papers  on  the  table,  to  which  I  have  referred,  show  so  much 
fewer  appeals  from  the  Plantations  than  might  have  been  expected, 
it  is  fit  now  to  remind  the  House  how  equivocal  a  symptom  this  is  of 
full  justice  being  done.  It  is  the  worst  of  all  follies,  the  most  iniqui- 
tous, as  well  as  the  most  mistaken  kind  of  policy,  to  stop  litigation, 
not  by  affording  a  cheap  and  expeditious  remedy,  but  by  an  absolute 
denial  of  justice,  in  the  difficulties  which  distance,  ignorance,  expense, 
and  delay  produce.  The  distance  you  cannot  remove,  if  you  would; 
the  ignorance  it  is  hardly  more  easy  to  get  rid  of:  then,  for  God's  sake, 
why  not  give  to  these  your  foreign  subjects,  what  you  have  it  in  yonr 
power  to  bestow — a  speedy  and  cheap  administration  of  justice? 
This  improvement  in  the  Court  of  Appeal  would  create  more  busi- 
ness, indeed,  but  justice  would  no  longer  be  taxed  and  delayed,  and, 
in  the  cost  and  the  delay,  be  denied.  But  if  you  would  safely,  and 
without  working  injustice,  stop  appeals  from  the  colonies,  carry  your 
reforms  thither  also:  I  should  say,  for  instance,  that  a  reform  of  the 
judicatures  of  India  would  be  matter  most  highly  deserving  the  con- 
sideration of  his  Majesty's  government.  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know, 
why  there  should  be  so  rigorous  an  exclusion  of  jury  trials  from  the 
native  courts  of  India.  I  know,  and  every  one  must  know,  who  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  inquire,  that  the  natives  are  eminently  capable 
of  applying  their  minds  to  the  evisceration  of  truth  in  judicial  inqui- 
ries; that  they  possess  powers  of  discrimination,  ready  ingenuity,  and 
sagacity  in  a  very  high  degree;  and  that,  where  they  have  been  ad- 
mitted so  to  exercise  those  powers,  they  have  been  found  most  useful 
and  intelligent  assistants  in  aiding  the  investigations  of  the  judge. 
But  I  know,  also,  that  your  present  mode  of  administering  justice  to 
these  native  subjects  is  such  as  I  can  hardly  speak  of  without  shame. 
Look  at  your  local  judges — at  their  fitness  for  judicial  functions.  A 
young  writer  goes  out  to  India;  he  is  appointed  a  judge,  and  he  re- 
pairs to  his  station,  to  make  money,  by  distributing  justice,  if  he  can, 
but,  at  all  events,  to  make  money.  In  total  ignorance  of  the  manners, 
the  customs,  the  prejudices,  possibly  of  the  language,  of  those  upon 
whose  affairs  and  conduct  he  is  to  sit  in  judgment,  and  by  whose  testi- 
mony he  is  to  pursue  his  inquiries,  and  very  possibly  equally  unin- 
formed of  the  laws  he  is  to  administer — he  must  needs  be  wholly 
dependent  upon  his  Pundit,  for  direction  both  as  to  matter  of  fact  and 
matter  of  law,  and,  most  probably,  becomes  a  blind  passive  tool  in 
the  hands  of  a  designing  minister. 

The  house  will  not  suppose  that  I  mean  to  insinuate  for  a  moment 


LAW  REFORM.  541 

the  possibility  of  suspicion  as  lo  the  wilful  misconduct  of  the  judge  in 
this  difficult  position.  I  am  very  sure  that  the  party  who  may  hap- 
pen to  occupy  that  high  office  would  rather  cut  off  his  right  hand,  if 
the  alternative  were  offered  him,  than  take  the  bribe  of  a  paria  to 
misdecide  a  cause  that  came  before  him.  But  I  am  by  no  means  so 
secure  of  the  pundit  upon  whom  the  judge  must  be  necessarily  de- 
pendent; and  while  he  is  both  less  trustworthy  and  wholly  irrespon- 
sible, the  purity  of  the  responsible,  but  passive  instrument  in  his  hands 
is  a  thing  of  perfect  insignificance.  The  experiment  of  trial  by  jury, 
by  which  this  serious  evil  may,  in  part,  be  remedied,  has  been  already 
tried.  The  efforts  made  by  a  learned  judge  of  Ceylon,  Sir  Alexander 
Johnson,  to  introduce  into  that  colony  the  British  system  of  justice, 
manfully  supported  by  the  government  at  home,  have  been  attended 
with  signal  success.  I  am  acquainted  with  a  particular  case,  indeed, 
the  details  of  which  are  too  long  to  lay  before  the  House,  but  which 
showed  the  fitness  of  the  natives  to  form  part  of  a  tribunal,  notwith- 
standing the  prevalence  of  strong  prejudices  in  a  particular  instance 
among  them,  where  the  failure  of  the  experiment  might,  therefore, 
have  been  apprehended.  A  Brahmin  was  put  on  his  trial  for  mur- 
der, and  a  great  feeling  excited  against  him,  possibly  against  his  caste. 
Twelve  of  the  jury  were  led  away  by  this  feeling,  and  by  the  very 
strong  case  which  a  subtle  conspiracy  had  contrived  against  the  pri- 
soner, when  a  young  Brahmin,  the  thirteenth  juror,  examined  the 
evidence  with  a  dexterity  and  judgment  that  excited  the  greatest  ad- 
miration, and  from  his  knowledge  of  the  habits  and  manners  of  the 
witnesses,  together  with  extraordinary  natural  sagacity,  succeeded  in 
exposing  the  plot  and  saving  the  innocent  man.  Oilier  considerations 
there  are,  less  immediately  connected  with  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, and  which  I  might  press  upon  the  House,  to  evince  the  expe- 
diency of  introducing  our  system  of  trial  in  the  East.  Nothing  could 
be  better  calculated  to  conciliate  the  minds  of  the  natives  than  allow- 
ing them  to  form  part  of  the  tribunals  to  which  they  are  subject,  and 
share  in  administering  the  laws  under  which  they  live.  It  would 
give  them  an  understanding  of  the  course  of  public  justice,  and  of  the 
law  by  which  they  are  ruled;  a  fellow  feeling  with  the  government 
which  executes  it;  and  an  interest  in  supporting  the  system  in  whose 
powers  they  participate.  The  effect  of  such  a  proceeding  would  lie, 
that  in  India,  as  in  Ceylon,  in  the  event  of  a  rebellion,  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  instead  of  joining  the  revolters,  would  give  all  their  sup- 
port to  the  government.  This  valuable,  but  not  costly  fruit  of  the 
wise  policy  pursued  in  that  Island,  has  already  been  gathered.  In 
1S10,  the  same  people  which,  twelve  years  before,  had  risen  against 
your  dynasty,  were  found  marshalled  on  your  side,  and  helping  you 
to  crush  rebellion.  So  will  it  be  in  the  Peninsula,  if  you  give  your 
subjects  a  share  in  administering  your  laws,  and  an  interest  and  a 
pride  in  supporting  you.  Should  the  day  ever  come  when  dis  .ll'rriioii 
may  appeal  to  se'a-nly  millions,  against  a  few  thousand  siranu'crs, 
who  have  planted  themselves  upon  the  ruins  of  their  ancient  dynaMu-s, 
VOL.  i. — l(j 


542  LAW  REFORM. 

you  will  find  how  much  safer  it  is  to  have  won  their  hearts,  and  uni- 
versally cemented  their  attachment  by  a  common  interest  in  your  sys- 
tem, than  to  rely  upon  a  hundred  and  fifty  Seapoy  swords,  of  excel- 
lent temper,  but  in  doubtful  hands.* 

V.  I  now,  sir,  come  to  the  administration  of  law  in  the  country, 
by  justices  of  peace;  and  I  approach  this  jurisdiction  with  fear  and 
trembling,  when  I  reflect  on  what  Mr.  Windham  was  accustomed  to 
say,  that  he  dreaded  to  talk  of  the  game  laws  in  a  House  composed 
of  sportsmen;  and  so  too,  I  dread  to  talk  of  the  quorum  in  an  assem- 
bly of  magistrates.  Surrounded  as  I  am  both  among  my  honourable 
friends,  and  among  members  on  the  other  side,  by  gentlemen  in  the 
commission,  I  own  that  this  is  a  ground  on  which  I  have  some  reluc- 
tance to  tread.  But  1  have  to  deal  with  the  principle  only,  not  with 
the  individuals:  my  reflections  are  general,  not  personal.  Neverthe- 
less, considering  the  changes  which  have  been  effected  in  modern 
times,  I  cannot  help  thinking  it  worth  inquiry,  whether  some  amend- 
ment might  not  be  made  in  our  Justice-of-peace  system.  The  first 
doubt  which  strikes  me  is,  if  it  be  fit  that  they  should  be  appointed  as 
they  are,  merely  by  the  Lords  Lieutenant  of  counties,  without  the 
interference  of  the  Crown's  responsible  ministers.  It  is  true  that  the 
Lord  Chancellor  issues  the  commission,  but  it  is  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
who  designates  the  persons  to  be  comprehended  in  it.  Such  a  thing 
is  hardly  ever  known  as  any  interference  with  respect  to  those  indi- 
viduals on  the  part  of  the  Lord  Chancellor.  He  looks  to  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  or  rather  to  the  "  Custos  Kotulorum,"  which  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  most  frequently  is  (indeed  everywhere  but  in  counties 
Palatine),  for  the  names  of  proper  persons.  The  Lord  Lieutenant, 
therefore,  as  Custos  Rolulorum,  absolutely  appoints  all  the  justices  of 
the  peace  in  his  county,  at  his  sole  will  and  pleasure.  Now  I  cannot 
understand  what  quality  is  peculiar  to  a  keeper  of  the  records,  that 
fits  him,  above  all  other  men,  to  say  who  shall  be  the  judges  of  the 
district  whose  records  he  keeps.  I  think  it  would  be  about  as  conve- 
nient and  natural  to  let  the  Master  of  the  Rolls  appoint  the  judges  of 
the  land  (indeed,  more  so,  for  he  is  a  lawyer),  or  to  give  the  appoint- 
ment to  the  keeper  of  the  state  papers.  The  Custos  Rotulorum  may- 
issue  a  new  commission,  too,  and  leave  out  names;  I  have  known  it 
done;  but  I  have  also  known  it  prevented  by  the  Great  Seal;  indeed, 
it  was  laid  down  as  a  rule  by  the  late  Lord  Chancellor  Eldon,  from 
which  no  consideration,  his  lordship  was  used  to  say,  should  induce 
him  to  depart,  that  however  unfit  a  magistrate  might  be  for  his  office, 
either  from  private  misconduct  or  party  feeling,  he  would  never  strike 
him  oft0  the  list  until  he  had  been  convicted  of  some  offence  by  the 
verdict  of  a  court  of  record.  Upon  this  principle  he  always  acted. 
No  doubt  his  lordship  felt,  that  as  the  magistrates  gave  their  services 
gratis,  they  ought  to  be  protected;  but  still  it  is  a  rule  which  opens 

*  All  these  evils  have  now  been  remedied  by  the  Judicial  Committee  Act,  con- 
stituting a  regular  court  of  four  professional  judges  in  the  Privy  Council,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  hearing  of  the  East  India  causes. 


LAW  REFORM.  5-43 

the  door  to  very  serious  mischief  and  injustice,  and  I  myself  could,  if 
necessary,  quote  cases  in  which  it  has  been  most  unfortunately  perse- 
vered in.  On  looking,  however,  at  the  description  of  persons  who 
are  put  into  the  commission,  I  am  not  at  all  satisfied  that  the  choice  is 
made  with  competent  discretion;  and  upon  this  part  of  the  question  I 
may  as  well  declare  at  once,  that  I  have  very  great  doubts  as  to  the 
expediency  of  making  clergymen  magistrates.  This  is  a  course  which, 
whenever  it  can  be  done  conveniently,  I  should  certainly  be  glad  to 
see  changed,  unless  in  counties  where  there  are  very  few  resident  lay 
proprietors.  My  opinion  is,  that  a  clerical  magistrate,  in  uniting  two 
very  excellent  and  useful  characters,  pretty  generally  spoils  both;  that 
the  combination  produces  what  the  alchymists  called  a  tertium  quid, 
with  very  little,  indeed,  of  the  good  qualities  of  either  ingredient,  and 
no  little  of  the  bad  ones  of  both,  together  with  new  evils  superinduced 
by  their  commixture.  There  is  the  activity  of  the  magistrate  in  an 
excessive  degree;  over-activity  is  a  very  high  magisterial  offence,  in 
my  view;  yet  most  of  the  magistrates  distinguished  for  over-activity 
are  clergymen:  joined  to  this  are  found  the  local  hatings  and  likings, 
and,  generally,  somewhat  narrow-minded  opinions  and  prejudices, 
which  are  apt  to  attach  to  the  character  of  the  resident  parish  priest, 
one  of  the  most  valuable  and  respectable,  if  kept  pure  from  political 
contamination.  There  are  some  Lords  Lieutenant,  I  know,  who 
make  it  a  rule  never  to  appoint  a  clergyman  to  the  magistracy;  and  I 
entirely  agree  in  the  policy  of  that  course,  because  the  education  and 
the  habits  of  such  gentlemen  are  seldom  of  a  worldly  description,  and 
therefore  by  no  means  qualify  them  to  discharge  the  duties  of  such  an 
office;  but,  generally  speaking,  as  the  House  must  be  aware,  through 
the  country  the  practice  is  far  otherwise.  Again,  some  Lords  Lieu- 
tenant appoint  men  for  their  political  opinions;  some  for  activity  as 
partisans  in  local  contests;  some  are  so  far  influenced  as  to  keep  out 
all  who  take  a  decided  part  against  themselves  in  matters  where  all 
men  should  be  free  to  act  as  their  opinions  dictate;  and  in  the  exercise 
of  this  patronage  no  responsibility  whatever  substantially  exists.  Ap- 
pointed, then,  by  irresponsible  advisers,  and  irremovable  without  a 
conviction,  let  us  now  see  what  is  the  authority  of  men  so  chosen  and 
so  secure.* 

In  the  first  place,  they  have  the  privilege  of  granting  or  withholding 
licenses.  As  we  all  know,  it  lies  in  the  breast  of  two  Justices  of  the 
Peace  to  give  or  to  refuse  this  important  privilege.  It  is  in  their  absolute 
power  to  give  a  license  to  one  of  the  most  unfit  persons  possible;  and 
it  is  in  their  power  to  refuse  a  license  to  one  of  the  most  fit  persons 
possible.  They  may  continue  a  license  to  some  person  who  has  had  it 
but  a  twelvemonth,  and  who,  during  that  twelvemonth,  has  made  his 
house  a  nuisance  to  the  whole  neighbouihood;  or  they  may  take  away 

*  The  course  uince  1828,  and  especially  since,  1832,  has  been  for  the  Great  Seal 
to  exercise  a  much  more  active  interference  in  appointing  magistrates;  and  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  (or  rather  ('iMloa  Kotulornm)  no  longer  is  the,  person  alone  con- 
sulted. This  is  now  the  case  with  Durham  also,  where  the  Bishop  is  no  longer 
Custos,  that  office  being  now  held  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 


544  LAW  REFORM. 

a  license  from  a  house  to  which  it  has  been  attached  for  a  century,  and 
the  enjoyment  of  which  has  not  only  been  attended  by  no  evil,  but  has 
been  productive  of  great  public  benefit.  And  all  this,  be  it  observed, 
they  do  without  even  the  shadow  of  control.  There  is  no  rule 
more  certain  than  that  a  mandamus  does  not  lie  to  compel  justices 
either  to  grant  or  withhold  a  license.  I  hardly  ever  remember  mov- 
ing for  one;  and  I  only  once  recollect  a  rule  being  granted — it  was 
on  the  motion  of  my  honourable  and  learned  friend,  the  Solicitor- 
General.  But  I  know  that  great  astonishment  was  expressed  on  the 
occasion;  that  every  one  asked  what  he  could  have  stated  to  make 
the  court  listen  to  the  application;  that  all  took  for  granted  it  would 
be  discharged,  as  a  matter  of  course;  which  it  accordingly  was,  in 
less  time  than  I  have  taken  to  relate  the  circumstance.  What  other 
control  is  there  over  the  conduct  of  the  licensing  magistrate?  I 
shall  be  told  that  he  may  be  proceeded  against,  either  by  a  criminal 
information,  or  by  impeachment.  As  to  the  latter,  no  man  of  com- 
mon sense  would  dream  of  impeaching  a  magistrate,  any  more  than 
he  would  think  now-a-days  of  impeaching  a  minister.  Then,  as  to 
proceeding  by  criminal  information: — In  the  first  place,  it  is  ne- 
cessary, in  order  even  to  obtain  the  rule,  to  produce  affidavits,  that 
the  magistrate  has  been  influenced  by  wilful  and  corrupt  motives: 
not  merely  affidavits  of  belief  in  those  who  swear,  but  of  facts  prov- 
ing him  guilty  of  malversation  in  his  office.  Then,  suppose,  as  not 
unfrequently  happens,  a  rule  obtained  on  this  ex  parte  statement; 
the  magistrate  answers  the  charges  an  oath;  he  swears  last,  and  may 
touch  many  points  never  anticipated  by  the  other  party,  consequently 
not  answered;  and  unless  the  alleged  facts  remain,  upon  the  discus- 
sion, undeniable,  and  the  guilt  to  be  inferred  from  them  seems  as 
clear  as  the  light  of  day,  the  rule  is  discharged  with  costs.  The  dif- 
ficulty of  proving  corruption  is  rendered  almost  insuperable,  because 
all  the  magistrate  has  to  do,  in  order  to  defend  himself  from  the  con- 
sequences of  granting  or  withholding  a  license,  is  to  adopt  the  short 
course  of  saying  nothing  at  the  time — of  keeping  his  own  counsel — 
of  abstaining  from  any  statement  of  his  reasons.  Let  him  only  give 
no  reason  for  his  conduct,  and  no  power  on  earth  can  touch  him. 
He  may  grant  a  license  to  a  common  brothel,  or  he  may  refuse  a 
license  to  one  of  the  most  respectable  inns  on  the  North  road;  let  him 
withhold  his  reasons,  and  his  conduct  remains  unquestionable;  al- 
though the  real  motive  by  which  he  is  actuated  may  be,  that  he  is  in 
the  habit  of  using  the  one  house,  and  that  the  landlord  of  the  other 
will  not  suffer  him  to  use  it  in  the  same  way.  Unless  you  can  show 
that  he  has  himself  stated  his  motives,  or  that  there  are  circumstances 
so  strong  against  him  as  amount  to  conviction,  you  are  prevented 
from  even  instituting  an  inquiry  on  the  subject.  Thus  absolute  is  the 
authority  of  the  magistrate  with  regard  to  licensing.  With  the  permis- 
sion of  the  House,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  abuse  of  this  extensive 
power,  I  will  read  a  letter  which  I  received  some  time  ago  on  the 
subject  of  the  licensing  system,  from  one  of  the  most  worthy  and 
learned  individuals  in  this  country — a  man  of  large  fortune,  and  of 


LAW  REFORM.  545 

most  pure  and  estimable  character,  who  long  acted  as  a  magistrate 
in  one  of  the  neighbouring  counties. 

[Mr.  13.  here  read  a  letter,  in  which  the  tendency  of  justices  is  stated 
to  favour  particular  houses,  and  not  take  away  their  licenses,  though 
guilty  of  the  grossest  irregularities,  on  the  pretence,  become  a  maxim 
with  many  of  them,  that  "the  house  being  brick  and  mortar  cannot 
offend,"  whereas  a  haunt  of  bad  company  being  established,  it  becomes 
the  magistrate's  duty  to  break  it  up.  It  was  also  shown  how  the 
power  of  licensing  placed  millions  of  property  at  the  disposal  of  the 
justices,  a  license  easily  adding  £500  to  the  value  of  a  lease,  and  often 
much  more,  and  the  number  of  victuallers  exceeding  40,000.  It  further 
showed  the  partiality  of  the  bench  towards  brewers  and  their  houses-, 
especially  in  Middlesex  and  the  home  counties.] 

I  have  received  a  variety  of  other  information  upon  this  subject,  all 
leading  to  the  same  result.  That  which  I  have  described,  the  leaning 
of  justices  towards  brewers,  whom,  in  licensing,  they  favour,  as  brother 
magistrates,  although  the  latter  are  not  allowed  by  law  to  preside  at 
a  Brewster  Sessions,  is,  perhaps,  the  most  crying  evil  connected  with 
the  system;  but  who  does  not  know  (I  am  sure  I  do,  in  more  parts  of 
the  kingdom  than  one  or  two)  that  licenses  are  granted,  and  refused, 
from  election  motives!  When,  some  time  ago,  I  brought  the  Beer 
Bill  into  this  House,  I  had,  of  course,  an  extensive  correspondence  on, 
the  subject;  and  I  was  assured  by  many  highly  respectable  persons, 
that  the  evil  of  this  system  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  London,  of  which  they  gave  me  numerous  instances.* 

Nor  is  the  licensing  power  of  the  magistracy  that  in  which  alone 
great  abuses  exist.  They  prevail  wheresoever  their  authority  is  ex- 
ercised; in  the  commitments  for  offences  against  the  Game  Laws;  in 
dealing  with  petty  offences  against  property;  in  taking  cognizance  of 
little  assaults,  especially  on  oflicers;  in  summary  convictions  for  non- 
payment of  tithes,  and  a  number  of  other  matters  affecting  the  liberties 
and  property  of  the  subject;  and,  yet,  for  their  conduct  in  all  of  these 
matters  they  are  not  amenable  to  any  superior  power,  provided,  as  I 
have  said  before,  they  only  keep  their  own  counsel,  and  abstain  from 
stating  the  reasons  by  which  they  have  been  actuated,  should  their 
motives  be  evil.  There  is  not  a  worse  constituted  tribunal  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  not  even  that  of  the  Turkish  Cadi,  than  that  at  which 
summary  convictions  on  the  Game  Laws  constantly  take  place;  I  mean 
a  bench  or  a  brace  of  sporting  justices.  I  am  far  from  saying  that,  on 
such  subjects,  they  are  actuated  by  corrupt  motives;  but  they  are  un- 
doubtedly instigated  by  their  abhorrence  of  that  caput  lupimirn,  that 
host  is  hnrnani  generis,  as  an  honourable  friend  of  mine  once  called 
him  in  his  place,  thai  ./era  nuturx — a  poacher.t  From  their  decisions 
on  those  points,  where  their  passions  are  the  most  likely  to  mislead 


*  The  alteration  of  the  Law  on  Beer  Licenses  has  deprived  the  Justices  of  this 
power. 

|  The  alteration  of  the  Law  as  to  the  sale  of  Game  has  since  greatly  remedied 
these  evils. 

4G» 


546  LAW  REFORM. 

them,  no  appeal  in  reality  lies  to  a  more  calm  and  unprejudiced  tribu- 
nal; for,  unless  they  set  out  any  matter  illegal  on  the  face  of  the  con- 
viction, you  remove  the  record  in  vain.     Equally  supreme  are  they  in 
cases  where,  sitting  in  a  body  at  Quarter  Sessions,  they  decide  upon 
the  most  important  rights  of  liberty  and  property.     Let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  they  can  sentence  to  almost  unlimited  imprisonment,  to 
whipping,  to  fine,  nay,  to  transportation  for  seven  and  fourteen  years. 
I  have  shuddered  to  see  the  way  in  which  these  extensive  powers  are 
sometimes  exercised  by  a  jurisdiction  not  responsible  for  its  acts.     It  is 
said  that  the  magistracy  ought  not  to  be  responsible,  because  it  is  not 
paid;  but  we  ought  not  to  forget,  that  as  gold  itself  may  be  bought  too 
dear,  so  may  economy;  money  may  be  saved  at  too  high  a  price. 
Mark  the  difference  of  responsibility  between  the  Quarter  Sessions  and 
one  of  the  superior  courts  of  the  kingdom.     In  the  King's  Bench,  the 
name  of  the  judge  who  pronounces  the  judgment  is  known,  and  the 
venerable  magistrate  stands  before  the  country  in  his  own  proper  per- 
son, always  placed  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion.     Here  it  is  Lord  Ten- 
terden — it  is  Mr.  Justice  Bailey,  by  their  names:  in  the  other  case,  it 
is  merely  the  Quarter  Sessions,  which,  as  Dean  Swift  says,  is  nobody's 
name.     The  individual  magistrates  composing  it  are  not  thought  of; 
their  names  are  not  even  published.     It  is  a  fluctuating  body.     If  the 
same  individuals  always  sat  in  the  court,  there  might  be  some  approach 
to  responsibility.     At  present  there  is  none;  and  where  there  is  no 
responsibility,  injustice  will  occasionally  be  committed,  as  long  as  men 
are  men.     It  would  be  some  correction  of  the  evil,  if  the  number  of 
magistrates  was  fixed;  if  their  names  were  always  known  in  con- 
nection with  their  acts;  and  if  they  were  more  easily  removable  on 
proof  of  their  misconduct.     Then  comes  the  question — Is  it,  after  all, 
gratuitous  service?     We  are  told  that  we  cannot  visit  the  magistrates 
severely,  or  even  watch  them  very  strictly,  because  they  volunteer 
their  duty,and  receive  no  remuneration  for  their  trouble.   But  although 
they  have  no  money  for  it,  they  may  have  money's  worth.     Cheap 
justice,  sir,  is  a  very  good  thing;  but  costly  justice  is  much  better  than 
cheap  injustice.     If  I  saw  clearly  the  means  by  which  the  magistrates 
could  be  paid,  and  by  which,  therefore,  a  more  correct  discharge  of 
the  magisterial  duties  might  be  insured,  I  would  certainly  prefer  paying 
them  in  money  to  allowing  them  to  receive  money's  worth  by  jobs, 
and  other  violations  of  their  duty.     Not  only  may  the  magistrate  him- 
self receive  compensation  in  money's  worth;  he  may  receive  it  in  hard 
money  by  his  servants.     The  fees  of  a  justice's  clerk  amount  to  a  little 
income,  often  to  many  times  a  man's  wages.   I  have  heard  of  a  reverend 
justice  in  the  country,  having  a  clerk  whose  emoluments  he  wished  to 
increase,  and  therefore  he  had  him  appointed  surveyor  of  weights  and 
measures,  with  a  salary  of  a  guinea  and  a  half  a  week.     This  person 
appointed  a  deputy,  to  whom  he  gave  five  shillings  and  sixpence,  and 
who  did  all  the  duty.     These  circumstances  came  under  the  considera- 
tion of  his  brother  justices;  when,  after  a  strenuous  opposition,  and 
among  others,  on  the  part  of  the  gentleman  who  communicates  the 
occurrence  in  a  letter  now  lying  before  me,  it  was  decided,  not  only 


LAW  REFORM.  547 

not  to  remove  the  first  appointed  person,  who  it  was  proved  was  doing 
nothing,  but  to  swear  in  the  other  as  his  assistant!  My  friend  is  not 
entirely  without  suspicion  that  this  functionary,  having  so  small  a  re- 
muneration as  five  shillings  and  sixpence  a  week,  can  only  have  under- 
taken the  duty  with  a  view  of  increasing  it  by  some  understanding 
with  the  people  whose  weights  and  measures  it  is  his  duty  to  super- 
intend. 

The  operation  of  pecuniary  motives  in  matters  connected  with  the 
magistracy,  is  more  extensive  than  may  at  first  sight  appear.  There 
was  a  bill  introduced  by  the  right  honourable  gentleman  opposite,* 
for  extending  the  payment  of  expenses  of  witnesses  and  prosecutors 
out  of  the  county  rates.  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  it  has  greatly 
increased  the  number  of  commitments,  and  has  been  the  cause  of 
many  persons  being  brought  to  trial,  who  ought  to  have  been  dis- 
charged by  the  magistrates.  The  habit  of  committing,  from  this 
and  other  causes^  has  grievously  increased  everywhere  of  late,  and 
especially  of  boys.  Eighteen  hundred  and  odd,  many  of  them  mere 
children,  have  been  committed  in  the  Warwick  district,  during  the 
last  seven  years.  Nor  is  this  a  trifling  evil.  People  do  not  come  out 
of  gaol  as  they  went  in.  A  boy  may  enter  the  prison  gate  merely  as 
the  robber  of  an  orchard;  he  may  come  out  of  it  "fit  for"-  —1  will 
not  say  "treasons" — but  certainly  "stratagems  and  spoils."!  Many 
are  the  inducements  independent  of  any  legislative  encouragement, 
to  these  commitments.  The  justice  thinks  he  gains  credit  by  them. 
He  has  the  glory  of  being  commemorated  at  the  Assizes  before  the 
lord  judge,  and  the  sheriff,  and  the  grand  jury,  and  all  who  can  read 
the  Crown  calendar.  On  that  solemn  occasion,  he  has  the  gratifica- 
tion of  hearing  it  fly  from  mouth  to  mouth — "He  is  a  monstrous 
good  magistrate;  no  man  commits  so  many  persons."  Then  there 
is  the  lesser  glory  acquired  among  neighbours,  into  whose  pockets 
they  are  the  means  of  putting  money,  by  making  them  prosecutors 
and  \vitnesses  in  petty  criminal  cases;  and  thus  converting  (as  Sir 
Eardley  Wilinot  says)  their  journey  of  duty  into  a  jaunt  of  pleasure 
to  the  Assizes.  The  reputation  of  activity  is  very  seducing  to  a 
magistrate;  but  I  have  known  it  curiously  combined  with  things  more 
solid  than  empty  praise.  In  a  certain  town  which  I  am  well  ac- 
quainted with,  one  suburb  was  peopled  by  Irishmen  and  Scots,  who 
were  wont  to  fight  on  every  market-day  a  good  deal,  at  fair  tides  a 
good  doal  more,  but  without  any  serious  affray  taking  place.  IJeside 
these  two  classes  of  the  King's  subjects,  there  also  dwelt  in  those 
parts  two  justices  of  the  King,  assigned  to  keep  the  peace;  for  the 
better  conserving  of  which,  they  repaired  at  the  hour  of  fight  to  an 
ale-house  conveniently  situated,  hard  by  the  scone  of  action,  and 
there  took  their  seat  with  a  punch-bowl  full  of  warrants,  ready  to 
fill  up.  If  the  Irish  happened  to  be  victorious,  the  Scots  came  one 
after  another  and  applied  for  commitments  against  those  who  had 

*   Sir  Robert  Perl. 

f  There  is  still  wanting  much  reform  of  the  criminal  law  on  this  material  subject. 


548  LAW  REFORM. 

assaulted  them.  The  despatch  with  which  warrants,  at  least  if  not 
justice,  were  administered,  was  notable.  Then  came  the  other  party, 
and  swore  to  as  many  assaults  upon  them;  and,  justice  being  even- 
handed,  they  too  had  their  desire  gratified,  until  the  bowl  was  by 
degrees  emptied  of  its  paper  investment,  and  a  metallic  currency,  by 
like  degrees,  took  its  place. 

Some  of  these  details  may  be  ludicrous;  but  the  general  subject  is 
a  most  serious  and  a  most  important  one,  because  these  facts  show  the 
manner  in  which  justice  is  administered  to  the  people  out  of  sight  of 
the  public,  and  out  of  reach  of  the  higher  courts  of  law.  It  is  through 
the  magistracy,  more  than  through  any  other  agency — except, indeed, 
that  of  the  tax-gatherer — that  the  people  are  brought  directly  into 
contact  with  the  government  of  the  country;  and  this  is  the  measure 
of  justice  with  which,  when  they  approach  it,  they  are  treated  by 
functionaries  irresponsible  for  their  proceedings.  A  justice  of  the 
peace,  whether  in  his  own  parlour  or  on  the  bench — whether  em- 
ployed in  summary  convictions,  or  in  enforcing  what  is  called,  after  a 
very  worthy  friend  of  mine,  Mr.  Nicholson  Calvert's  Act  (one  of  the 
worst  in  the  statute-book,  which  I  hope  to  see  repealed,*  and  which 
I  trust  its  excellent  author  will  very  long  survive) — is  never  an  osten- 
sible individual,  responsible  in  his  own  proper  person  to  public 
opinion;  hardly  ever,  unless  he  chooses  by  some  indiscretion  to  make 
himself  so,  amenable  to  a  higher  and  purer  judicature.  The  judges  of 
the  land,  chosen  from  the  professors  of  the  law,  after  the  labours  of  a 
life  previously  devoted  to  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  calculated  to 
fit  them  for  their  office,  and  clothed  with  attributes  of  supreme  power 
over  petty  magistrates,  are  responsible  for  every  word  and  act,  and  are 
subject  to  every  species  of  revision  and  control.  They  were  selected 
wiih  the  most  anxious  caution  for  every  qualification  of  high  character 
and  of  profound  knowledge;  and  yet  they  are  incapable  of  pro- 
nouncing a  single  decision  from  which  an  appeal  will  not  lie  to  some 
other  tribunal  immediately  above  them:  while,  from  the  decision  of 
the  country  justices — taken  from  the  community  at  hazard,  or  recom- 
mended by  the  habits  least  calculated  to  make  themjust — subject  to 
no  personal  responsibility,  because  beyond  or  below  the  superintend- 
ence of  public  opinion — and  irremovable,  unless  by  a  verdict  for 
some  indictable  offence — from  their  decision  there  is  no  appeal;  from 
their  decision,  although  they  have  to  deal  with  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant interests  in  the  country,  there  is  no  appeal,  unless  their  mis- 
deeds shall  have  been  set  forth  in  a  case,  submitted  by  their  own  free 
will,  with  their  expression,  to  the  Court  of  King's  Bench. 

These  are  the  principal  points  to  which,  in  the  first  division  of  my 
subject,  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House,  as  deserving  your 
deliberate  consideration,  and  as  the  materials  of  solemn  inquiry.  I 
could  have  wished  to  accomplish  my  object  more  briefly,  but  I  found 
it  impossible,  consistently  with  distinctness.  I  am  not  aware  that  I 
have  made  an  unnecessary  comment;  and  I  must  trust  to  the  candour 

*  This  act  still  exists,  and  continues  liable  to  the  same  objections. 


LAW  REFORM.  549 

of  honourable  members  in  weighing  the  importance  of  these  state- 
ments, to  pardon  the  apparent  prolixity  unavoidably  incident  to  the 
handling  of  a  very  extensive  and  varied  argument. 

II.  1  wish  I  could  give  the  Mouse  any  promise,  that  my  speech  was 
approaching  its  termination;  but  that  hope  can  hardly  be  entertained, 
when  I  state  that  I  am  now  about  to  enter  on  the  still  more  vast  and 
momentous  consideration  of  the  law  as  administered  in  those  tribu- 
nals, whose  construction  we  have  been  surveying — the  distribution 
of  justice  in  those  courts  in  which  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  practise 
during  a  pretty  long  professional  life. 

There  is  a  consideration  of  a  general  nature,  to  which  I  would  first 
of  all  advert;  I  mean  the  inconvenient  differences  in  the  tenures  by 
which  property  is  held,  and  the  rules  by  which  it  is  conveyed  and 
transmitted,  in  various  districts  of  the  country.  Is  it  fitting  or  con- 
sistent with  reason,  or  indeed  with  justice,  that  merely  crossing  the 
river,  or  travelling  a  distance  of  some  miles  in  this  neighbourhood, 
should  make  so  great  an  alteration  in  the  law  of  real  property,  as 
that,  to  the  eastward  of  us,  all  the  sons  inherit  equally;  to  the  west- 
ward, the  youngest  alone;  and  here,  the  eldest?  But  these  rules  of 
the  Common  Law,  of  Gavelkind,  and  of  Borough  English,  are  better 
known,  and  operate  within  more  defined  limits.  What  shall  be  said 
of  the  customary  tenures,  in  a  thousand  manors,  all  different  from  the 
Common  Law  that  regulates  freehold  estates,  most  of  them  differing 
from  each  other?*  Is  it,  I  ask,  fit  that  this  multitude  of  laws,  this 
variety  of  codes,  the  relics  of  a  barbarous  age,  should  be  allowed  to 
exist  in  a  country  subject  to  the  same  general  bonds  of  government? 
I  should  trespass  at  greater  length  than  I  am  willing  to  do,  were  I  to 
detail  the  various  customs  which  exist  in  the  manors  of  this  country; 
but  to  give  the  house  an  idea  of  their  diversity,  I  must  mention  a  few. 
In  one  manor,  the  copyhold  property  is  not  allowed  to  pass  by  will; 
in  another,  it  may  be  so  conveyed.  I  admit  that  a  great  improve- 
ment has  been  made  in  this  respect,  by  the  act  of  an  honourable  friend 
of  mine  (Mr.  M.  A.  Taylor),  to  whom  we  owe  several  other  impor- 
tant legislative  measures,  allowing  it  to  be  devised  by  will  without 
surrender.  This  is  the  only  material  improvement  which  lias  been 
made,  with  respect  to  such  property,  within  the  last  hundred  years; 
but  it  only  operates  in  facilitating  the  transmission,  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  manor  of  passing  the  copyhold  by  will.  In  one  ma- 
nor, a  devise  is  not  valid,  if  made  longer  than  two  years  before  the 
testator's  decease;  so  that  it  is  necessary  for  wills  to  be  renewed 
every  two  years;  in  another,  one  year;  in  a  third,  three  years  are  the 
period;  while  in  many  there  are  no  such  restrictions.!  In  some  ma- 
nors, the  eldest  daughter  succeeds,  to  the  exclusion  of  her  sisters,  as 
the  eldest  daughter  (in  default  of  male  heirs)  succeeds  to  the  crown 

*  Tlio  Real  Property  Law  Commission,  issued  after  tliis  motion,  has  fully  in- 
vestigated this  subject,  and  made  a  very  learned  and  satisfactory  report,  <>u  which 
bills  have  been  founded,  but  are  not  yet  passed. 

|  This  evil  has  been  all  removed  by  the  Wills  Act,  prepared  by  the  Heal  Pro- 
perty Commissioners,  and  passed  with  some  changes. 


550  LAW  REFORM. 

of  England;  in  other  manors,  all  the  daughters  succeed  jointly,  as 
co-partners,  after  the  manner  of  the  Common  Law.  In  some  manors 
a  wife  has  her  dower,  one-third  of  the  tenement,  as  in  case  of  free- 
hold. In  others,  she  has,  for  her  "free  bench,"  one-half;  and  again, 
in  some,  she  takes  the  whole  for  life,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  heir. 
The  fines  on  death  or  alienation  vary;  the  power  and  manner  of 
entailing  or  cutting  off  entails,  vary;  the  taking  of  heriots  and  lords' 
services  varies.  There  are  as  many  or  more  of  these  local  laws  than 
in  France,  in  the  Pays  de  Coutiime,  of  which  I  have  seen  four 
hundred  enumerated,  so  as  to  make  it  the  chief  opprobrium  of  the 
old  French  law,  that  it  differed  in  every  village.  Is  it  right  that  such 
varieties  of  custom  should  be  allowed  to  have  force  in  particular 
districts,  contrary  to  the  general  law  of  the  land?  Is  it  right,  I  may 
also  ask,  that  in  London,  Bristol,  and  some  other  places,  the  debts 
due  to  a  man  should  be  subject  to  execution  for  what  he  owes  him- 
self, while  in  all  the  rest  of  England  there  is  no  such  recourse; 
although  in  Scotland,  as  in  France,  this  most  rational  and  equitable 
law  is  universal?* 

All  these  local  peculiarities  augment  the  obstacles,  both  to  the  con- 
veyance and  to  the  improvement  of  landed  estates.  They  prevent  the 
circulation  of  property  in  a  great  degree;  and  they  lessen  the  chance 
that  an  owner  of  such  tenements  would  otherwise  have  of  raising 
money,  on  their  security,  adequate  to  their  value.  The  greater  faci- 
lity of  conveyance  is  nothing  set  against  the  ignorance  of  local  cus- 
tom; and  then  copyhold  property  is  not  liable  even  for  specialty  debts, 
nor  can  it  be  extended  by  elegit;  and  thus,  absurd  and  unjust  as  is  the 
law  which  prevents  freehold  property  from  being  charged  with  sim- 
ple contract  debtst,  it  goes  further  in  this  instance,  and  exempts  the 
copyhold  from  liability,  even  to  those  of  the  highest  nature,  a  judg- 
ment itself  not  giving  the  creditor  any  right  of  execution  against  it. 
The  obvious  remedy  to  be  adopted  in  this  case  is,  to  give  all  parts  of 
the  country  the  same  rules  touching  property;  and, therefore,  I  would 
propose  an  assimilation  of  the  laws  affecting  real  estates,  all  over 
England,  to  take  place  at  a  given  period,  say  twenty  or  thirty  years 
hence,  so  as  to  prevent  interference  with  vested  interests. 

Having  now,  sir,  pointed  out  some  of  the  varieties  of  our  law  in 
certain  districts, — its  inequalities  in  respect  of  place, — let  us  proceed 
to  examine  whether  it  is  more  uniform  and  more  equal  in  respect  of 
persons.  And  here  we  are  met,  at  the  very  outset,  with  a  most  fear- 
ful exception  to  the  maxim,  which  describes  the  law  as  no  respecter 
of  persons.  It  is  commonly  said  that  the  Crown  and  the  subject  come 
into  court  on  equal  terms.  Lawyers  of  the  present  day  do  not,  I  am 
aware,  profess  this;  but  that  eminent  dealer  in  panegyric,  Mr.  Justice 
Blacksfone,  has  spoken  as  if  the  King  had  no  greater  advantage  in 
litigation  than  any  of  his  people.  It  would  have  been  well  if  he  had 

*  This  anomaly  is  remedied  by  the  new  bill  about  to  pass  on  the  Law  of  Debtor 
and  Creditor. 

This  evil  has  since  been  removed. 


LAW  REFORM.  551 

stated  that  this  was  only  a  fiction;  though  he  must  have  been  puzzled 
to  prove  it,  like  other  fictions,  invented  for  the  furtherance  of  justice. 
It  is  true  that  the  law  itself  makes  no  such  pretensions  to  impartiality; 
for  of  the  two  classes  of  manifest  inequality  which  I  am  about  to  men- 
tion, one  is  avowedly  such,  by  reason,  as  it  is  said,  of  the  prerogative; 
although  the  oilier,  just  as  substantial  in  reality,  is  not  avowed  to  be 
so.  I  begin  with  the  latter.  It  is  said,  that  the  Crown  can  no  more 
take  my  estate  that)  I  can  another  man's;  for  if  I  have  a  claim  against 
the  Crown,  I  am  told  that  I  have  a  remedy,  by  the  decent  and  respect- 
ful mode,  as  they  term  it,  of  a  petition  de  droit,  or,  in  case  of  a  title 
by  matter  of  record,  a  monstrans  de  droit.  The  same  eloquent  pane- 
gyrist, whom  I  have  mentioned,  describing  the  very  name  of  the  pro- 
cess to  have  arisen  from  the  presumption  of  the  law,  that  the  King 
can  do  no  wrong,  adds,  that,  from  the  great  excellence  ascribed  to  the 
Crown,  "  to  know  of  an  injury  and  to  redress  it,  are  one  and  the  same 
thing;  therefore  the  subject  has  only  to  make  his  grievance  known  by 
his  petition."  From  this  is  drawn  the  conclusion,  that  when  a  sub- 
ject lias  a  right,  he  can  have  the  means  of  defending  it  with  equal 
facility  against  the  Crown  as  against  any  other  party.  Now,  let  us 
see  how  far  this  consequence  is,  in  point  of  fact,  realized.  The  Crown 
never  moves  by  itself,  but  through  the  medium  of  the  King's  Attor- 
ney-General. No  proceeding  can  be  taken  against  the  Crown  without 
{\\efiat  of  the  Attorney-General;  and  unless  a  party  obtains  that,  all 
his  trouble  and  expense  in  going  to  Whitehall,  and  asking  the  permis- 
sion of  the  Secretary  of  State,  are  lost,  because  all  such  affairs  are  re- 
ferred to  the  crown  lawyer;  and  if  he  should  refuse  leave,  the  only 
remedy  left  to  the  subject  is  the  very  convenient  and  practical  one  of 
impeaching  that  officer.  It  may  be  said  that  the  Attorney-General 
would  not  refuse  his  fiat,  because  it  is  a  mere  proceeding  in  the  first 
instance,  like  suing  out  an  original  writ,  or  a  /«///«/,  to  bring  a  cause 
into  the  King's  Bench;  and  the  Attorney-General  here  is  like  the 
Chancellor  or  the  sealers  of  the  writs  elsewhere,  who  issue  writs  to 
any  suitor  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  I  make  answer  that,  although 
it  ought  to  be  so,  it  is  not  so.  It  is  in  the  discretion  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  that  is,  of  your  adversary's  counsel,  to  let  you  bring  your 
action  or  not  as  he  pleases.  Why,  I  demand,  should  it  be  left  in  the 
breast  of  any  man  to  refuse  that  which  another  may  claim  as  a  right, 
and  as  the  lowest  of  all  rights,  to  have  his  right  inquired  into  by  law? 
To  show  you  how  this  discretionary  power  is  used,  I  might  say 
abused,  I  will  mention  a  case;  and,  following  the  rule  I  prescribed  to 
myself  at  setting  out,  it  shall  be  one  that  has  come  within  my  own 
knowledge  professionally.  A  consitlerable  estate  had,  on  a  supposed 
default  of  heirs,  been  granted  to  a  gentleman  of  great  respectability,  a 
friend  of  mine.  After  some  time  another  individual  set  up  a  claim  to 
it,  on  the  ground  of  being  the  heir  of  the  body  of  the  original  grantee, 
the  first  gift  having  been  in  tail  male.  The  case  was  submitted  to 
me,  and  to  a  learned  friend  at  the  chancery  bar;  and  we  advised  that 
the  party  should  proceed  by  petition  of  right.  We  examined  all  the 
cases  upon  the  subject,  and  deeming  this  the  only  mode,  we  applied  to 


552  LAW  REFORM. 

the  Attorney-General;  and  he  refused  his  fiat,  giving  no  better  rea- 
son than  that  we  ought  to  have  proceeded  hy  ejectment  against  the 
tenant  in  possession.  We  preferred  our  writ  of  right  against  the 
crown,  as  all  lawyers  term  the  petition  de  droit.  Had  the  question 
been  with  a  subject,  we  might  either  have  proceeded  by  ejectment  to 
recover  possession,  or  by  writ  to  try  the  mere  right  as  the  higher  re- 
medy; and  no  officer  could  have  shut  us  out  at  either  door  by  which 
we  chose  to  enter  the  court.  Now,  I  can  state  conscientiously  my 
opinion,  that  the  case  of  the  individual  alluded  to  was  a  strong  one  in 
statement.  It  was  one  of  pedigree,  and  certainly  one  of  the  clearest 
I  had  seen  on  paper.  I  do  not  mean  to  assert, — for  I  had  no 
means  of  ascertaining  it, — that  it  was  unanswerable.  There  may 
have  been  some  gap  in  the  chain,  some  marriage  or  some  birth  not 
proved,  or  some  other  flaw  in  the  claimant's  title;  but  of  that  I  can 
form  no  judgment,  because  that  I  was  not  allowed  to  try;  and  this  is 
the  hardship  of  the  case, — the  matter  of  which,  I  hold,  my  client  had 
just  reason  to  complain — he  was  not  allowed  to  bring  forward  his 
proofs.  Then,  I  ask,  is  it  not  a  mere  mockery  in  those  panegyrists  of 
things  as  they  are,  to  say  that  the  crown  and  the  subject  stand  on 
equal  footing?* 

But  the  cases  in  which  the  same  disparity  prevails  between  their 
rights,  avowedly  and  by  the  declared  sanction  of  the  law,  are  much 
more  numerous;  they  are  of  constant  occurrence,  too,  in  practice;  and 
I  will,  therefore,  mention  them  for  the  information  of  those  who  are 
not  lawyers,  and,  I  believe  I  may  say,  of  some  who  are.  In  the  first 
place,  it  is  the  general  principle  that  a  demurrer  is  an  admission  of 
the  facts  in  dispute;  but  this,  it  is  said,  does  not  extend  to  the  crown, 
and  that,  if  defeated  in  this  way,  it  can  begin  again,  and  is  not  con- 
cluded. Secondly,  it  has  been  decided  lately  in  the  Exchequer — I 
\vas  not  in  the  case,  but  so  I  have  heard,  from  those  who  attend  that 
court — that  no  such  thing  is  allowed  as  an  exception  for  insufficiency 
to  an  answer  filed  by  the  Attorney-General  on  behalf  of  the  crown. 
But  the  subject  notoriously  enjoys  no  such  privilege;  his  answer  is 
open  to  all  exceptions;  were  it  not,  you  must,  in  suing  him,  take  for 
an  answer  just  what  he  chooses  to  tell  you,  and  he  escapes  the  equi- 
table jurisdiction  entirely.  Next  (and  an  instance  occurred  lately, 
which  I  argued  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  which  was  decided 
against  me,  without  hearing  the  other  side),  wherever  a  suit  is  com- 
menced, whether  it  be  in  Cumberland,  Middlesex,  or  Cornwall  (and 
in  Cornwall  was  the  case  I  allude  to),  if  the  crown  has  any  title  which 
may,  however  indirectly,  come  in  question,  although  no  party,  the 
proceedings  can  at  once  be  removed  by  a  more  suggestion,  not  of 
record,  but  on  the  part  of  the  Attorney-General,  stating  it  from  his 
place  in  court,  and  a  trial  must  then  be  had  at  bar  before  the  four 
judges.  In  this  way  all  the  preparations  made  by  the  parties  are  put 
an  end  to,  and  witnesses  must  be  brought  to  town  at  an  inordinate 
expense,  and  under  every  disadvantage.  There  is  no  doubt  that  an 

*  This  evil  remains  still  without  remedy. 


LAW  REFORM.  553 

allowance  would,  in  such  cases,  be  made  by  the  crown  to  compensate 
for  this  additional  cost;  but  still  the  party  has  to  pay  in  the  first  in- 
stance, together  with  being  taken  away,  as  well  as  his  witnesses,  from 
that  part  of  the  country  in  which  he  and  they  are  known,  to  the 
county  of  Middlesex,  where  the  power  of  the  crown  is  more  accurately 
known  than  the  character  of  the  other  suitor.  When  this  point  was 
argued,  the  court  held  the  prerogative  too  clear  to  be  discussed. 
There  is  a  fourth  advantage  which  the  crown  possesses  over  any 
other  party.  No  person  can,  after  the  jury  is  sworn,  withdraw  a  re- 
cord, but  must  be  nonsuited,  to  avoid  a  verdict.  The  crown  has,  to 
my  knowledge,  withdrawn  it,  afier  counsel  hod  been  heard,  and  wit- 
nesses examined,  and  the  jury  been  charged  by  the  judge;  I  have 
known  the  record  withdrawn  while  they  were  deliberating,  and  be- 
cause they  were  deliberating,  which  indicated  hesitation;  and  this  late 
retreat  is  made  without  the  penalty  to  which  any  other  party  would 
be  liable,  who  had  fled  before  the  cause  was  called  on,  namely,  the 
costs  of  the  day:  for  there  is  another  unfairness  to  justify  this  course; 
that  as  the  crown  is  supposed  above  receiving  costs,  so  it  is  to  be  ex- 
empt also  from  paying  them.  But  the  reason  of  this  I  cannot  possibly 
see.  I  cannot  grant  that  the  digniiy  of  the  crown  places  it  above 
taking  costs,  when  I  reflect  that  by  the  crown  is  here  meant  the 
revenue  raised  from  the  people  for  the  public  service,  and  that,  con- 
sequently, the  non-payment  of  costs  to  the  crown  is  an  increase  of  the 
people's  burthens.  Hut,  even  if  I  could  admit  the  propriety  of  the 
crown's  receiving  none,  it  would  by  no  means  follow  that  it  should 
pay  none  to  the  subject,  who  is  in  a  widely  different  predicament. 
All  this,  however,  arises  out  of  notions  derived  from  the  feudal  times, 
when  the  crown  was  in  a  situation  the  very  reverse  of  that  in  which 
it  stands  at  present,  its  income  then  arising  almost  entirely  from  a  land 
revenue.  There  is  now  no  reason  why  it  should  be  exempt  from 
paying,  or  disabled  from  receiving,  in  all  cases  where  costs  would  be 
due  between  common  persons.  Indeed,  there  has  been  of  late  years 
an  exception  made  in  the  cro\\  n  law  on  this  head,  but  so  as  to  aug- 
ment the  inequality  I  complain  of.  In  all  stamp  prosecutions,  the 
costs  of  the  crown  are  paid  by  the  unsuccessful  defendant;  so  far  does 
it  stoop  from  its  former  dignity;  but  not  so  low  as  to  pay  the  defend- 
ant a  farthing  of  his  costs  should  he  be  acquitted. 

The  last  and  the  worst  part  of  the  history  remains;  whenever  a 
Special  Jury  is  summoned  in  a  Crown  case,  and  that  all  the  twelve 
jurors  do  not  attend,  a  Tales  cannot  be  prayed  to  let  the  cause  proceed, 
without  a  warrant  from  the  Attorney-General:  so  th;it  it  is  in  the  power 
of  your  adversary  to  refuse  this  at  the  time  it  may  be  most  for  his  ad- 
vantage, so  to  do;  while  you  have  no  option  whatever  in  case  it  should 
be  for  his  interest  to  proceed,  and  for  yours  to  delay.  I  pray  the  House 
will  mark  attentively  what  I  am  now  about  to  relate, although,  indeed. 
I  should  apologize  for  thus  appealing  to  them,  after  the  singular 
patience  with  winch  I  have  been  heard  throughout,  for  the  great  length 
of  time  I  have  already  occupied.  There  was  a  case  in  the  Conn  of 
Exchequer,  in  which  I  acted  as  counsel  for  the  defendant,  and  had  to 
VOL.  i. — 47 


554  LAW  REFORM. 

subject  a  Crown  witness  to  a  severe  cross-examination;  he  exhibited 
strong  indications  of  perjury,  but  the  verdict  went  against  me  notwith- 
standing. My  learned  friend,  Mr.  Sergeant  Jones  (whose  talent  and 
professional  skill  entitle  him  to  higher  praise  than  any  in  my  power  to 
bestow,)  whether  he  profited  by  my  experience,  or  was  more  dexterous 
in  dealing  with  the  case,  did  honour  to  himself  by  succeeding  in  the 
next  trial,  when  the  same  witness  was  examined;  for  the  suspicion  of 
perjury  entertained  before  was  now  turned  into  certainty,  and  the  party 
acquitted.  A  prosecution  for  perjury  was  instituted  against  that  man 
and  others  connected  with  him;  eighteen  indictments  were  found  at 
the  Sessions,  and  the  Crown  at  once  removed  the  whole  by  certiorar i 
into  the  Court  of  King's  Bench.  There  they  were  all  to  be  tried,  and 
a  former  Attorney-General  conducted  the  prosecution.  On  the  first, 
Meade,  the  witness  I  have  mentioned,  was  clearly  convicted.  The 
other  seventeen  were  then  to  have  been  tried,  and  Mr.  Sergeant  Jones 
called  them  on,  but  the  Crown  had  made  the  whole  eighteen  Special 
Jury  causes:  a  sufficient  number  of  jurymen  did  not  attend;  my  learned 
friend  wanted  to  pray  a  Tales,  and  the  Crown  refused  a  warrant. 
Thus  an  expense  often  thousand  pounds  was  incurred,  and  a  hundred 
witnesses  from  Yorkshire  were  brought  to  London,  all  for  nothing, 
except,  after  the  vexation,  trouble,  and  delay,  he  had  endured,  to  work 
the  ruin  of  the  prosecutor,  who  had  been  first  harassed  upon  the  tes- 
timony of  the  perjured  witnesses.  These  poor  Yorkshire  farmers, 
whom  the  villain  had  so  vexed,  had  no  more  money  to  spend  in  law; 
all  the  other  prosecutions  dropped;  Meade  obtained  a  rule  for  a  new 
trial,  but  funds  were  wanting  to  meet  him  again,  and  he  escaped.  So 
that  public  justice  was  utterly  frustrated,  as  well  as  the  most  grievous 
wrong  inflicted  upon  individuals.  Nor  did  it  end  here;  the  poor  farmer 
was  fated  to  lose  his  life  by  the  transaction.  Meade,  the  false  witness, 
and  Law,  the  farmer  whom  he  had  informed  against,  and  who  was 
become  the  witness  against  him  upon  the  approaching  trial,  lived  in 
the  same  village;  and  one  evening,  in  consequence,  as  was  alleged,  of 
some  song  or  madrigal  sung  by  him  in  the  street,  this  man  Meade 
seized  a  gun,  and  shot  Law  from  his  house  dead  upon  the  spot.  He 
was  acquitted  of  murder,  on  the  ground  of  something  like  provocation, 
but  he  was  found  guilty  of  manslaughter,  and  such  was  the  impression 
of  his  guilt  upon  the  mind  of  the  court,  that  he  was  sentenced  to  two 
years'  imprisonment.  A  case  of  more  complicated  injustice — one 
fraught  with  more  cruel  injury  to  the  parties,  I  never  knew  in  this  coun- 
try, nor  do  I  conceive  that  worse  can  be  found  in  any  other.  We  may 
talk  of  our  excellent  institutions,  and  excellent  they  certainly  are, 
though  I  could  wish  we  were  not  given  to  so  much  Pharisaical  prais- 
ing of  them;  but  if,  while  others,  who  do  more  and  talk  less,  go  on 
improving  their  laws,  we  stand  still,  and  suffer  all  our  worst  abuses  to 
continue,  we  shall  soon  cease  to  be  respected  by  our  neighbours,  or  to 
receive  any  praises  save  those  we  are  so  ready  to  lavish  upon  ourselves.* 

*  These  inequalities  in  the  Crown  law,  between  the  Crown  and  the  Subject,  stil 
exist. 


LAW  REFORM.  555 

i.  And  now,  having  thus  far  cleared  the  way  for  examining  the  pro- 
ceedings in  our  Courts  of  Justice,  the  first  inquiry  that  meets  us  is,  by 
what  means  unnecessary  litigation  may  be  prevented;  in  other  words, 
suits  unjustly  and  frivolously  brought,  and  wrongfully  defended,  by 
oppressive  or  intemperate  parties.  I  shall  here,  as  under  almost  all 
the  other  heads  of  the  subject,  begin  by  laying  down  what  I  take  to  be 
the  sound  principles  of  legislation  applicable  to  the  point,  and  then 
comparing  with  these  the  provisions  actually  adopted  by  our  jurispru- 
dence. The  first  and  most  obvious  step  is,  to  remove  the  encourage- 
ment given  to  rich  and  litigious  suitors,  by  lessening  the  expense  of  all 
legal  proceedings;  and  I  would  put  an  end  to  all  harassing  and  unjust 
defences,  by  encouraging  expedition.  Next,  I  would  not  allow  of  any 
action  or  proceeding  which  only  profits  the  court  and  the  practitioners, 
and  the  object  of  which  is  always  granted  as  a  mere  matter  of  course; 
all  things  should  be  considered  as  done  at  once  and  for  nothing,  which 
may  be  now  done  on  a  simple  application  to  the  court  with  some  delay 
and  expense.  Thirdly,  no  party  should  be  sent  to  two  courts  where 
one  is  able  to  afford  him  his  whole  remedy;  nor  to  a  dear  and  bad 
court,  when  he  can  elsewhere  have  a  cheaper  and  a  better  remedy; 
nor  should  any  one  be  obliged  to  come  twice  over  to  the  same  court 
for  different  portions  of  his  remedy,  which  he  might  have  all  in  one 
proceeding.  Fourthly,  whenever  a  strong  presumption  of  right  appears 
on  the  part  of  a  plaintiff,  the  burden  6f  disputing  his  claim  should  be 
thrown  on  the  defendant.  This  I  would  extend  to  such  cases  as  bills 
of  exchange,  bonds,  mortgages,  and  other  such  securities.  In  those 
cases  I  think  the  plaintiff  should  be  allowed  to  have  his  judgment,  upon, 
due  notice  given,  unless  good  cause  be,  in  the  first  instance,  shown  to 
the  contrary,  and  security  given  to  prosecute  a  suit  for  setting  the  in- 
strument aside.*  This  is  a  mode  well  known  in  the  law  of  Scotland, 
and  would  put  an  end  to  all  those  undefended  causes,  which  are  now 
attended  with  such  great  and  useless  expense,  as  well  as  injurious 
delay  to  the  parties  and  the  public.  Fifthly,  I  would  suggest,  that  in 
all  cases  where  future  suits  are  to  be  apprehended,  proceedings  might 
be  adopted  immediately  to  raise  the  question,  and  quiet  the  title.  The 
law  on  this  head,  also,  is  very  different  in  the  two  parts  of  the  island. 
In  England,  it  is  not  possible  to  have  the  opinion  of  any  court,  until 
the  parlies  are  actually  engaged  in  a  lawsuit,  opportunities  for  which 
may  very  frequently  not  occur  until  the  witnesses  to  prove  a  case  may 
be  dead,  or  an  infant,  or  a  person  living  abroad  and  incapable  of  well 
defending  his  right,  has  come  into  possession,  lint  the  Scotch  law 
furnishes  a  kind  of  action,  the  adoption  of  which  may  be  productive 
of  the  greatest  benefit,  as  1  have  once  and  again  heard  Lord  E!don  hint 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  I  know  very  well  that  here  we  may  file  a 
bill  for  perpetuating  testimony,  but  there  must  be  an  actual  vested 
right  in  the  party  instituting  the  suit;  and  the  proceeding  is,  besides,  so 
cumbrous,  as  rarely  to  be  used.  The  Scotch  law,  on  the  contrary,  per- 

*  This  important  improvement  has  since  been  made,  but  tlie  declaratory  action 
has  not  yet  been  introduced. 


556  LAW  REFORM. 

mits  a  Declaratory  Action  to  be  instituted  by  the  party  in  possession  or 
expectancy,  quia  timef,  and  enables  him  to  make  all  whose  claims  he 
dreads  parties,  so  as  to  obtain  a  decision  of  the  question  immediately. 
This  is,  of  course,  and  very  properly,  at  the  expense  of  him  who  brings 
forward  the  suit  for  his  own  interest,  unless  where  a  very  obvious 
benefit  arises  to  the  other  party;  for  in  Scotland  they  have  nothing 
like  our  statute  of  Gloucester,  and  costs  are  always  in  the  discretion  of 
the  court,  as  with  us  in  equity.  Sixthly,  I  would  abolish  all  obsolete 
proceedings,  which  serve  only  as  a  trap  to  ihe  unwary,  or  tools  in  the 
hands  of  litigious  and  dishonest  parties,  and  lie  hid  or  unheeded  until, 
unexpectedly,  they  are  brought  forth  to  work  injustice.*  For  an  in- 
stance, I  will  name  Wager  of  Law,  a  defence  which  may  be  set  up  in 
answer  to  an  action  of  detinue,  or  of  debt  on  simple  contract.  'I  his 
is  another  of  the  remains  of  the  old  system.  The  defendant  has  only 
to  swear  that  he  does  not  owe  the  sum  of  money  claimed  by  the 
plaintiff,  and  bring  eleven  others  to  swear  that  they  believe  him;  and 
a  defendant  would  certainly  be  badly  off  if  he  could  not  find  out  so 
many  persons  to  do  this  kind  office  for  him,  as  he  needs  only  bring 
those  who  know  him,  but  know  nothing  at  all  of  the  circumstances, 
for  the  less  they  know,  the  more  ready  will  they  be  to  swear  they  be- 
lieve their  friend.  He  has  only  to  place  them  on  opposite  sides,  at  the 
end  of  the  table  (for  the  wisdom  of  past  ages  hath  carefully  fixed  the 
stations  which  the  parties  are  to  occupy  pending  this  "solemnity,") 
get  them  to  swear,  and  there  is  an  end  at  once  of  the  action.  It  is  true 
that  pleas  of  this  kind  are  seldom  pleaded,  though  it  was  done  some 
time  ago  in  the  Common  Pleas;  and  the  oldest  practitioners  there,  not 
being  acquainted  with  the  plea,  were  about  demurring  to  it,  when  it 
was  discovered  to  be  a  law  wager  well  pleaded,  and  a  complete  good 
defence  in  law,  though  the  practice  was  obsolete. 

Now,  these  being  the  fundamental  principles  that  should  guide  us 
on  this  head,  nothing  can  depart  more  widely  from  them  than  our  prac- 
tice, and  nothing  can  be  more  easy  than  making  it  conform  to  them. 
In  the  first  place,  without  throwing  away  a  thought  upon  the  pain 
which  I  should  necessarily  inflict  upon  some  of  rny  learned  friends 
much  wedded  to  such  lore,  without  caring  a  rush  for  the  quantity  of 
curious  learning  which  would  thus  be  thrown  to  waste,  or  dropping 
a  tea'r  over  the  musty  records  which  must  be  swept  away,  1  would 
abolish  at  once  the  whole  doctrine  and  procedure  of  fines  and  recove- 
ries.! I  hope  I  may  not  offend  the  ears  of  my  respected  brethren  the 
conveyancers;  but  I  must  say,  that  if  ever  there  was  an  absurdity  not 
to  be  tolerated,  it  is  those  fictitious  suits,  at  any  time,  but,  above  all,  in 
the  present  state  of  society. 

I  wish  to  make  myself  understood,  for  I  see  by  the  countenances  of 
some  gentlemen  that  they  do  riot  quite  comprehend  the  whole  absur- 
dity of  the  law  respecting  fines  and  recoveries.  I  do  not  by  any  means 
wish  to  interfere  with  the  power  of  making,  or  of  barring  entails;  I 

*  The  new  rules  of  pleading  and  practice  have  removed  these  evils. 
|  These  have  now  been  entirely  abolished. 


LAW  REFORM.  557 

consider  the  English  law  as  hitting  very  happily  the  just  medium  be- 
tween too  great  strictness  and  too  great  latitude,  in  the  disposition  of 
landed  property;  sufficient  restraints  upon  perpetuities,  upon  endless 
settlements,  are  provided,  to  allow  a  free  commerce  in  land,  as  far  as 
that  is  consistent  with  the  interests  of  agriculture,  and  the  exigencies 
of  our  mixed  constitution;  while  as  much  power  is  given  of  annexing 
estates  to  families,  as  may  prevent  a  minute  division  of  property,  and 
preserve  the  aristocratic  branch  of  the  government.  With  the  sub- 
stance of  our  law  in  entail,  then,  I  have  no  wish  to  meddle;  all  I  de- 
sire is,  to  abolish  the  ridiculous  machinery  by  which  fines  are  levied 
and  recoveries  suffered.  Every  gentleman  knows  that  if  he  has  an 
estate  in  fee  he  can  sell  it,  or  bestow  it  in  any  way  he  may  please,  but 
if  he  has  an  estate  tail,  to  which  he  succeeds  in  (he  long  vacation,  he 
can  go,  on  the  first  day  of  Michaelmas  Term,  and  levy  a  fine,  which 
destroys  the  expectant  rights  of  the  issue  in  tail;  or  he  may,  by  means 
of  a  recovery,  get  rid  of  those  rights  and  of  all  remainders  over,  lie 
can  thus,  by  going  through  certain  mere  forms,  make  himself  absolute 
master  of  his  estate,  and  do  with  it  as  he  pleases.  But  this  must  be 
done  through  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  at  certain  seasons  of  the 
year;  and  why  should  there  exist  a  necessity  for  going  there?  Why 
not,  if  it  be  necessary,  pay  the  fines  which  are  due,  without  going 
there  at  all?  I,  the  other  day,  asked  this  question  of  some  learned 
friends, — Why  force  tenants  in  tail  into  court,  for  mere  form's  sake? 
They  laughed  at  my  simplicity,  and  said, "  All  this  was  asked  a  hun- 
dred years  ago;  there  is  no  necessity  for  the  proceeding,  only  to  keep 
up  the  payment  of  the  King's  silver,  alienation  fines,  and  other  duties." 
In  case  of  bankruptcy,  the  necessity  for  those  forms  is  not  felt.  A 
trader  who  is  tenant  in  tail  commits  an  act  of  bankruptcy,  and  by  the 
assignment  under  the  commission  not  only  the  interest  vested  in  him 
is  conveyed,  but  all  remainders  expectant  upon  it  are  destroyed  for 
the  benefit  of  his  creditors,  and  the  estate  passes  to  his  assignees  free 
from  all  restriction.  The  courts  have  held  the  conveyance  in  bank- 
ruptcy to  be  a  statutory  barring  of  the  entail — an  enlarger  of  the  estate 
tail  to  a  fee,  as  indeed  the  bankrupt  laws  evidently  intended.*  Now, 
I  would  do  that  for  honest  landowners  which  the  law  at  present  per- 
mits to  be  done  for  insolvent  tradesmen  and  their  creditors.  So,  too, 
a  man  and  his  wife  cannot  convey  an  estate  of  the  wife  without  a  fine 
or  a  recovery,  neither  can  the  wife  be  barred  of  her  dower  without  a 
similar  proceeding.  The  reason  is,  the  influence  her  husband  may 
possess  over  her  mind;  and,  consequently,  a  judge  takes  the  woman, 
in  these  cases,  into  a  private  room,  to  examine  her,  first,  as  to  whether 
she  acts  from  fear,  and  then,  when  that  is  out  of  the  case,  whether  she 
is  influenced  by  favour  and  affection;  and  he  also  examines  her  as  to 

•  Of  the  bar  to  the  issue  in  tail  there  can  he  no  doubt;  but  them  are  decisions 
which  lean  against  the  operation  of  the  bankruptcy,  to  bar  the  remainders  OVIT,  con- 
trary to  lilackstone's  decided  opinion  ('2  Com.  28(5,  3(il.)  and,  it  should  seem,  to 
the  plain  intent  of  the  legislature.  See  Doe  v.  Clarke,  5  B.  A.  4 5 8,  and  Jennings 
r.  Taylenrc,  3  B.  A.  557,  where  it  is  considered  that  a  base  fee  only  passes  in  th« 
remainder. 

47* 


558  LAW  REFORM. 

any  temporary  increase  of  affection  from  any  passing  cause;  and  then, 
when  she  has  purged  herself  of  all  temporary  increase  of  affection,  of 
all  fear,  and  all  love,  she  is  allowed  to  give  her  consent.  I  would  pro- 
pose, in  place  of  all  this  inquiry,  not  always  very  delicate,  nor  ever 
very  satisfactory,  to  let  husband  and  wife  join  in  a  common  convey- 
ance, with  the  consent  of  a  guardian  to  be  appointed,  or  of  the  next 
male  relative  of  the  wife,  who  is  not  related  to  the  husband,  and  not 
interested  in  either  the  succession  or  the  conveyance. 

Now,  there  is  certainly  nothing  very  real  in  a  fine;  but  as  to 
recoveries,  I  ask,  do  those  persons  who  seem  to  hold  by  them,  know 
at  all  what  they  avowedly  proceed  upon?  They  go  upon  the  ground 
of  compensation  in  value  being  paid  to  the  remainder-man,  whose 
right  they  cut  off,  and  who,  but  for  this  fictitious  suit,  would  have  a 
title  to  take  the  estate  after  the  tenant-in-tail's  decease.  He  is  said 
to  recover  a  compensation  in  value;  and  from  whom  does  he  get  it? 
Why,  the  common  vouchee,  who  is  the  crier  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon. Pleas,  and  who,  like  the  man  at  the  custom-house  obliged  to 
take  all  the  oaths  other  people  do  not  like,  lies  groaning  under  the 
weight  of  all  the  liabilities  he  has  incurred  to  every  remainder-man, 
since  he  became  crier,  and  answerable  for  the  millions  of  property, 
the  rights  to  which,  in  remainder,  have  been  barred,  he  not  being 
worth  a  shilling.  Locke  says,  that  a  madman  is  one  who  reasons 
rightly  from  wrong  premises;  so  it  is  with  the  lawyers  on  recoveries, 
who  argue  very  ingeniously,  and  even  soundly  and  consistently,  on. 
the  principle  of  the  compensation,  and  whose  conclusions  could  in  no 
wise  be  impeached,  if  you  once  allowed  the  fact,  that  those  in  the 
remainder  are  compensated  by  the  proceedings.  Indeed,  it  happened 
to  myself,  not  long  ago,;in  a  case  where  a  very  large  estate  was  in 
question,  to  argue,  and  to  prevail,  respecting  the  effect  of  a  recovery, 
on  this  very  ground  of  compensaiion  in  value.  I  there  had  to  con- 
tend that  the  claimant  was  barred  by  the  recovery,  in  consequence  of 
the  compensation  received  from  the  vouchee,  though  it  was  quite 
certain  that,  from  the  vouchee,  there  never  was,  nor  ever  could  be, 
received  a  single  shilling.  My  argument,  on  that  occasion,  did  not 
excite  a  smile  in  the  court,  because  the  principles  of  the  law  were 
known  to  be  thus  established,  and  the  consequences  were  of  serious 
import,  be  the  premises  ever  so  ludicrous.  But,  were  I  to  use  the 
same  argument  elsewhere,  it  would,  if  understood,  be  received  with 
much  less  gravity.  Put  an  end,  then,  to  all  such  ridiculous  forms, 
which  have  no  earthly  use  but  to  raise  a  little  money  by  way  of  fees; 
and  which,  beside  creating  expense  and  delay,  and  oftentimes  pre- 
venting tenants  in  tail  from  passing  their  property  by  will,  which 
they  cannot  if  they  die  before  suffering  the  recovery,  give  rise  to  a 
number  of  questions  in  law,  often  very  puzzling,  always  dilatory  and 
costly — not  rarely  to  mistakes  in  fact:  as  where  I  knew  an  estate  go 
to  the  tenant  in  tail  in  remainder,  instead  of  the  recoveree's  heir-at- 
law  or  devisee,  which  he  fully  intended  it  should,  merely  because  in 
suffering  the  recovery  an  omission  was  made  of  one  parcel. 

Sir,  I  also  would  put  an  end  to  those  imaginary  trusts  in  settlements 


LAW  REFORM.  559 

for  the  purpose  of  preserving  contingent  remainders.  It  has  been  said 
that  some  members  of  this  House,  who,  during  the  Commonwealth 
retired  to  the  country  and  employed  themselves  in  conveyancing,  in- 
vented those  refinements  which  characterize  what  are  called  Strict 
Settlements.  I  repeat,  that  my  object  is  not  to  touch  the  principle  of 
the  law  of  entails,  as  it  now  exists  in  this  country,  believing  that 
owners  of  estates  should  not  be  laid  under  greater  restrictions  than 
they  now  are  in  disposing  of  them  by  will  after  their  death,  or  by 
settlement  upon  marriages  in  their  families.  But  let  the  purpose  of  the 
owner  be  accomplished  more  simply  and  more  easily  than  can  now  be 
done.  I  would  allow  every  man  to  settle  or  to  devise  his  property  to 
A.  during  his  life,  and  after  him  to  B.  and  C.  in  succession,  making 
by  plain  words  so  many  life  estates,  and  giving  a  fee  to  the  person 
who,  by  our  present  law,  takes  the  first  estate  tail,  not  allowing  the 
latter  to  have  any  power  over  the  property  until  it  became  vested  in 
possession,  but  requiring  that,  in  order  to  affect  it  while  in  expectancy, 
he  and  the  tenant  for  life  should  join  in  some  simple  conveyance  as  a 
feoff  men  t,  whereby  the  settlement  might,  if  the  parties  chose,  be 
carried  on.  The  property  then  would  not  be  alienable  an  hour 
sooner  than  it  now  is,  and  it  would  be  alienable  without  fine  or 
recovery;  and  I  would  make  the  act,  which  the  law  now  deems  a 
discontinuance,  as  a  feoffment  in  fee  by  tenant  for  life,  absolutely 
void  to  all  purposes,  instead  of  making  a  forfeiture  of  the  particular 
estate  of  the  feoffer,  though  void  as  a  conveyance;  so  that  I  would 
get  rid  of  the  necessity  of  trustees  being  interposed  to  save  the  con- 
tingent uses  from  destruction. 

Again,  I  would  restore  the  Statute  of  Uses  to  what  it  was  clearly 
intended  to  be.  Our  ancestors  made  that  law,  by  which,  if  land 
were  given  to  A.  for  the  use  of  B.,  the  latter  was  deemed  the  legal 
owner,  the  use  being  executed  in  him,  just  as  if  A.  did  not  exist.  It 
was  justly  observed  by  Lord  Ilardwicke,  that  all  the  pains  taken  by 
this  famous  law  ended  in  the  adding  of  three  words  to  a  conveyance. 
This  has  been  said  by  conveyancers  to  be  a  severe  remark,"  but  it  is 
perfectly  correct;  for  the  courts  of  equity  invented  second  uses  or 
trusts,  by  holding  with  the  courts  of  law  that  the  statute  did  not 
apply  to  land  given  to  A.  to  the  use  of  B.,  in  trust  for  C.;  that  it 
executed  the  use  only  in  B.,  but  not  in  C. ;  therefore  the  whole  pro- 
vision is  evaded,  by  making  the  gift  "to  Me  use  of  B.,  in  trust  for 
C.;"  and  these  three  words  send  the  whole  matter  into  Chancery, 
contrary  to  the  plain  intent  of  the  statute.  It  was  also  held  that 
copyhold  estates  are  not  within  the  statute  in  any  way;  and  there 
are  other  nice  exceptions,  but  not  much  better  grounded.  Can  there 

*  Some  have  nuestioned  its  authenticity,  as  not  to  he  found  in  a  MS.  note  of 
Hopkins  r.  Hopkins;  but  the  words  are  far  too  remarkable  to  have  been  invented: 
— "By  this  means  a  statute,  made  upon  »rc,it  consideration,  introduced  in  a 
solemn  and  pompous  manner,  by  this  strict  construction,  has  had  no  other  effect 
than  to  add  at  moat  three  words  to  a  conveyance." — 1  Alk.  f>'Jl.  The  remark, 
nearly  in  the  same  words,  is  adopted  by  Ulackstone,  who  cites  Lord  Ilurdwicke 
in  support  of  it. — 2  Com.  336. 


560  LAW  REFORM. 

be  any  reason  whatever  for  not  making  all  such  estates  legal  at  once, 
and  restoring  them  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  common  law,  by  recog- 
nising, as  the  owner,  the  person  to  whom  in  reality  the  estate  is 
given,  and  passing  over  him  who  is  a  mere  nominal  party?* 

Another  deviation  from  the  principles  I  have  laid  down,  and  a  great 
source  of  multiplicity  of  suits,  is  the  law  with  respect  to  agreements 
for  sales,  leases,  and  other  conveyances.  Thus,  if  I  agree  with  a  per- 
son to  give  him  a  lease,  though  he,  under  the  agreement,  becomes  my 
tenant,  he  is  my  equitable  tenant  only,  but  not  my  legal  tenant.  He 
may  be  possessed  of  a  written  agreement,  signed  and  sealed,  for  a 
lease  of  ten  years,  and  may  occupy  under  it,  but  he  has  no  lease 
which  a  court  of  law  can  take  notice  of;  and  if  an  ejectment  is 
brought,  he  must  go  out.  He  may  go  into  a  court  of  equity  on  his 
agreement,  if  that  is  any  comfort  to  him;  he  may  apply  for  a  decree 
against  me  to  perform  my  agreement;  but  till  then  his  claims  are  not 
recognised  in  a  court  of  common  law.  If  an  injunction  be  brought, 
the  expenses  are  further  multiplied.  Why,  I  ask,  should  not  the 
agreement,  such  as  I  have  described,  be  as  good  as  a  lease;  when,  in 
substance,  it  is  the  very  same  thing,  and  only  wants  a  word  added  or 
left  out  to  make  it  the  same  in  legal  effect  too?  A  case  illustrative  of 
this  subject  happened  to  come  within  my  own  observation.  I  was 
counsel  in  a  case  at  York,  where  an  agreement  had  been  entered  into 
and  possession  given;  but  because  it  did  not  contain  words  of  present 
demise,  it  was  no  lease,  and  therefore  the  tenant  could  not  stand  a 
moment  against  the  ejectment  that  was  brought,  but  was  driven  into 
the  Court  of  Chancery,  where  the  other  party  could  just  as  little  stand 
against  him.  How  much  inconvenience,  expense,  and  delay,  then, 
might  be  saved,  if  such  an  agreement  were  pronounced  equivalent  to 
a  lease;  and,  in  general,  everything  were  supposed  done  in  one  court 
which  may  be  ordered  as  a  matter  of  course  to  be  done  by  another — 
reserving,  no  doubt,  all  objections  on  the  head  of  fraud,  mistake,  sur- 
prise, and  the  like,  which  may  be  raised  by  pleading  at  law,  just  as 
easily  as  in  equity. 

In  like  manner,  I  would  allow  a  legatee  to  sue  an  executor  or  ad- 
ministrator for  his  legacy ,t  and  the  mortgager  to  sue  for  his  rights. 
It  is  always  said  that  in  these  and  the  like  cases  of  active  trusts, 
accounts  must  be  taken;  and  so  they  must  in  every  action  where  there 
is  a  matter  of  set-off  against  a  demand.  The  old  action  of  account 
might  be  greatly  improved;  and  by  its  aid,  and  by  reference  to  arbi- 
tration, where  necessary,  much  that  now  goes  to  equity  might  be  dis- 
posed of  at  law.  The  only  reason  why  such  cases  as  these,  where 
the  assets  are  to  be  marshalled  and  cross  claims  considered,  now  go 
into  the  Court  of  Chancery,  is,  not  for  any  superior  fitness  of  that 

*  The  late  Wills-Act  has  introduced  very  great  improvements  into  the  law 
respecting  executing  devises,  and  put  an  end  to  by  far  the  most  fruitful  source  of 
vexatious  litigation  on  this  head. 

f  The  Local  Courts  hill,  brought  in  according  to  the  recommendation  of  the 
Common  Law  commissioners  appointed  in  consequence  of  this  motion,  provided 
for  these  defects,  but  it  was  thrown  out  by  a  bare  majority  in  the  Lords,  1833. 


LAW  REFORM.  561 

court  itself,  but  because  of  its  appendage,  the  masters'  office,  without 
which  it  would  be  no  better  able  than  the  King's  Bmch  to  manage 
even  long  trusts,  chronic  cases,  as  they  have  been  termed,  though 
every  suit  in  equity  might  be  thus  named.  Let  the  court  of  King's 
Bench  have  an  equal  number  of  masters — let  arbitrators  be  publicly 
appointed,  to  whom  parties  may  refer  before  any  expense  has  been 
incurred,  as  they  do  now  after  all  the  bill  has  been  run  up— nay,  to 
whom  they  may  go  without  even  consulting  an  attorney — and  if  this 
machinery  be  found  not  enough  effectually  and  properly  to  despatch 
the  business  of  the  court,  let  its  machinery  be  increased,  and  sure  I 
am  it  would  be  the  cheapest  and  most  powerful  that  ever  was  set  up. 
It  would  do  away  with  the  ridiculous  importance  attached  to  a  few 
words  of  conveyance; — it  would  oust  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery  in  all  the  matters  of  which  I  have  been  speaking,  and 
which  it  has  from  time  to  time  drawn  over  from  the  common  law,  to 
which  those  matters  originally  belonged.  Then  the  Courts  of  Equity 
would  be  left  to  execute  their  ordinary  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  ac- 
count requiring  a  long  course  of  time,  and  minute  and  daily  attention 
— cases  calling  not  for  decision,  but  superintendence — to  the  care 
of  infants,  idiots,  and  insolvent  estates,  and  other  matters  which  it 
would  be  impossible  for  a  Court  of  Common  Law  effectually  to  take 
charge  of. 

Again,  on  the  same  principle  of  avoiding  multiplicity  of  suits,  why, 
in  ejectments,  should  two  processes  be  requisite  to  give  the  plaintiff 
his  remedy?  As  things  now  stand,  after  a  man  has  succeeded  iti  one 
action,  and  established  his  title  to  the  possession,  he  must  have  re- 
course to  another,  to  recover  that  which  he  ought  to  have  obtained  by 
one  and  the  same  verdict  that  established  his  title — the  mesne  profits. 
Why  could  not  the  same  jury  settle  the  matter  at  once?  Why  is  an 
individual  driven  to  maintain  two  actions  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
one  and  the  same  remedy?  Or  why  should  not  the  jury  that  tries  the 
right,  also  assess  the  damages?  Mr.  Tennyson's  bill,  which  was  in- 
tended to  remedy  some  part  of  this  evil,  is  only  permissive;  it  ought 
to  have  been  compulsory.  It  is  partial,  and  it  is  only  recommend- 
atory, and  its  recommendations  are  not  always  attended  to,  because 
the  lawyers,  having  the  choice,  do  not  think  fit  to  pursue  that  which 
is  least  profitable;  they  choose  the  two  actions,  when  one  would  suffice 
for  the  interests  of  justice — for  the  interests  of  the  plaintiff  and  defend- 
ant— for  all  interests  except  those  of  the  practitioners." 

ii.  Having  considered  how  the  number  of  needless  suits  may  be 
diminished,  I  now  proceed  to  the  next  head  of  my  inquiry — to  ascer- 
tain how,  after  their  number  is  reduced  as  low  as  possible,  and  (hose 
only  brought  into  court  which  ought  to  be  tried,  you  may  best  shorten 
the  suits  brought,  by  disposing  of  them  in  the  shortest  time,  and  with 
the  least  expense.  And  this  topic  leads  me  to  examine  the  principles 
which  ought  to  be  adopted  for  encouraging  the  parties  to  come  to  an 
amicable  settlement  as  speedily  as  possible.  The  law  cites  as  iis  war- 

•  This  defect  lias  since  been  supplied  l>y  legislative  enactment. 


562  LAW  REFORM. 

rant  for  certain  steps  in  every  suit,  the  injunction  of  Scripture — "Agree 
with  thy  adversary  quickly,  whilst  thou  art  in  the  way  with  him,  lest 
at  any  time  the  adversary  deliver  thee  to  the  judge,  and  the  judge 
deliver  thee  to  the  officer,  and  thou  be  cast  into  prison.  Verily  I  say 
unto  thee,  thou  shah  by  no  means  come  out  thence  till  thou  hast  paid 
the  uttermost  farthing."  The  latter  part  of  the  text  is  applicable 
enough  to  the  proceedings  under  the  English  law;  and  this  scriptural 
advice  to  compromise  ought  to  be  constantly  set  before  the  eyes  of 
suitors  in  all  our  courts,  with  the  penalty  denounced.  Our  law,  how- 
ever, no  sooner  adopts  the  principle,  by  allowing  a  party  to  impart, 
than  it  departs  from  the  spirit  of  it;  for  it  must  be  observed,  that  the 
delay  of  imparlance  is  admissible,  not  "  in  the  way,'7  but  in  the  court, 
after  arrest,  and  when  the  effect  is  only  to  produce  unnecessary  loss 
of  time,  and  fees  equally  unnecessary.  Here,  however,  the  sound 
principles  are  as  obvious  as  before.  Whatever  brings  the  parties  to 
their  senses  as  soon  as  possible,  especially  by  giving  each  a  clear  view 
of  his  chance  of  success  or  failure,  and,  above  all  things,  making  him 
well  acquainted  with  his  adversary's  case  at  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment, will  always  be  for  the  interests  of  justice,  of  the  parties  them- 
selves, and  indeed  of  all  but  the  practitioners.  It  is  the  practitioners, 
generally,  that  determine  how  the  matter  shall  proceed,  and  it  may  be 
imagined  that  their  own  interests  are  not  the  last  attended  to.  The 
seeming  interest  of  two  parties  disposed  to  be  litigious,  in  many  cases 
appears  to  be  different  from  the  interests  of  justice,  although  their  real 
interests,  if  strictly  examined,  will  not  uufrequently  be  found  to  be  the 
same.  Now,  justice  is  embarrassed  by  the  disingenuousness  of  con- 
flicting parties;  justice  wants  the  cases  of  both  to  be  fully  and  early 
stated;  but  both  parties  take  care  to  inform  each  other  as  little  as  pos- 
sible, and  as  late  as  possible,  of  the  merits  of  their  respective  cases. 
One  tells  as  much  of  his  cise  as  he  thinks  good  for  the  furtherance  of 
his  claim,  and  the  frustration  of  the  enemy's — so  does  the  other  give 
only  as  much  of  his  case  in  answer  as  may  help  him,  without  aiding 
his  adversary;  and  the  judge  is  oftentimes  left  to  guess  at  the  truth  in 
the  trick  and  conflict  of  the  two.  The  interest  of  the  court  and  of 
justice  being  to  make  both  parties  come  out  with  the  whole  of  the  case 
as  early  as  possible,  the  law  should  never  lend  itself  to  their  conceal- 
ments. This  remark  extends  to  the  proof  as  well  as  the  statement  of 
the  case.  Au  intimation  of  what  the  evidence  is,  may  often  stop  a 
cause  at  once.  In  Scotland,  the  law  in  this  respect  is  better  than  ours; 
for  no  man  can  produce  a  written  instrument  on  the  trial  without 
having  previously  shown  it  to  his  adversary.  For  want  of  this  salu- 
tary rule,  we  have  often  seen  the  most  useless  litigation  protracted 
for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  practitioners.  I  was  myself  lately  engaged 
in  a  cause,  the  circumstances  of  which  will  give  the  House  an  idea 
of  the  mischief.  I  was  instructed  not  to  show  a  certain  receipt  to  the 
opposite  party,  as  my  client,  the  defendant,  meant  to  nonsuit  his  ad- 
versary in  great  style,  as  he  would  call  it.  Well,  the  plaintiff  (an 
executor)  stated  his  case,  and  called  his  witnesses  to  prove  the  debt. 
I  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  cross-examine,  which  would  have  been 


LAW  REFORM.  563 

quite  unnecessary.  Equally  so  was  it  to  address  the  jury.  I  acknow- 
ledged the  truth  of  all  that  had  been  sworn  on  the  other  side,  but  added 
that  it  was  useless,  as  I  happened  to  have  a  receipt  for  the  money, 
which  had  been  paid  to  the  testator.  This,  of  course,  put  an  end  to 
the  case.  The  sum  sought  to  be  recovered  did  not  exceed  twenty 
pounds,  and  the  expenses  could  not  have  been  less  than  a  hundred. 
If  that  action  had  been  brought  in  Scotland,  it  never  could  have  come 
to  trial,  nor,  indeed,  been  prosecuted  beyond  the  mere  demand:  for, 
this  receipt  being  shown,  the  claim  would  have  been  abandoned. 
Here  some  person  or  other,  I  will  not  say  who,  had  an  interest  in  the 
cause  being  suffered  to  proceed,  and  the  law  enabled  him  to  accom- 
plish his  purpose.  I  think,  sir,  the  adoption  of  some  such  rule  as  the 
Scotch  might  be  desirable.  At  least,  it  would  be  well  to  inquire  how 
it  works  in  Scotland,  and  be  guided  by  the  result.* 

Next,  the  greatest  encouragement  should  be  given  to  compromises 
in  all  cases.  At  present  the  law  recognises  the  principle  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  permits  money  to  be  paid  into  court,  in  some  instances, 
as  cases  of  contract  and  quasi-contract,  where  the  damages  are  cer- 
tain. But  nothing  can  be  less  judicious  than  restricting  the  power  of 
paying  money  into  court  to  those  classes  of  causes,  and  excluding 
actions  upon  contract  with  uncertain  damages,  and  actions  upon  tort, 
which  are  far  more  likely  to  be  brought  hastily,  or  obstinately  de- 
fended, because  they  are  accompanied  by  irritated  feelings.t  The 
earliest  opportunity  should  be  afforded  in  all  cases  to  each  party  of 
getting  rid  of  the  suit  on  receiving  or  making  compensation.  I  would, 
therefore,  extend  the  right  of  paying  into  court,  or  tendering  amends, 
to  all  cases  whatever.  As  ihe  law  now  stands,  it  is  only  magistrates, 
officers,  and  other  persons  specially  protected  by  the  statutes  of  James 
I,  and  George  II,  who  can  thus  proceed  in  actions  for  injury  offered 
to  the  person  or  proper! y4 

But  the  great  means  of  shortening  litigation  are  to  be  found  in  an 
enlargement  of  our  law  of  arbitrament.  I  much  fear  that  this,  my 
next  proposal,  may  seem  strange,  especially  as  coming  from  a  pro- 
fessional man;  for  it  goes  directly  to  abridge  the  length  and  the 
expense  of  law  proceedings  in  a  great  number  of  cases,  and  of  pre- 
venting not  a  few  from  ever  coming  into  court.  But  it  is  calculated 
to  secure  justice  effectually,  without  which  no  saving  of  expense  or 
of  time  deserves  the  name  of  an  improvement.  Now  I  do  not  lay 
claim  to  any  peculiar  disinterestedness  in  broaching  this  rnaiter.  Few 
persons,  it  is  true,  have  less  interest  in  diminishing  the  amount  of 
business  in  our  courts,  because  there  are  not  many  who  gain  more 

*  The  late  rules  of  the  judges,  under  the  act  of  1833,  have,  to  a  great  degree, 
provided  this  remedy. 

f  It  has  heen  held  that  money  cannot  he  paid  into  court  in  actions  for  breach  of 
contract  to  deliver  goods  at  a  fixed  price  (3  13.  and  P.  14),  for  dilapidations  (87  K. 
47),  on  bond  for  money  in  a  foreign  currency  depreciated  (57  R.  87).  Chainhro 
J.,  in  the  first  and  the  strongest  of  these  cases,  says — "It  could  not  be  done  with- 
out violating  every  rule  of  practice."  See  Com.  J'leader,  C.  10. 
Thia  is  now  remedied. 


564  LAW  REFORM. 

by  it,  and  to  whom,  therefore,  the  abuses  which  I  am  describing,  if 
such  they  be,  are  more  profitable.  But  I  really  believe  that  lopping  off 
needless  litigation,  by  measures  calculated  to  lessen  the  expense  of 
procedure  in  all  its  branches,  would  greatly  increase  the  number  of 
lawsuits — real  suits,  which  ought  to  be  encouraged,  as  necessary  to 
justice,  but  which  at  present  are  kept  out  of  court,  by  the  double  tax 
of  cost  and  delay.  The  county  courts  ought  to  be  diligently  reformed 
— their  process  extended  to  matters  of  a  larger  amount,  and  of 
greater  variety — their  officers  rendered  more  able  and  effeciive.* 
This  improvement  of  itself  would  greatly  diminish  the  number  of 
trifling  suits  brought  into  the  higher  judicatures;  and  how  can  I,  or 
any  one  conversant  with  the  practice  of  the  law,  adequately  express 
the  benefits  of  having  a  speedy  and  cheap  redress  for  petty  wrongs, 
when  we  daily  witness  the  evils  of  the  opposite  system!  How  often 
have  I  been  able  to  trace  bankruptcies  and  insolvencies  to  some  law- 
suit about  ten  or  fifteen  pounds,  the  costs  of  which  have  mounted  up 
to  large  sums,  and  been  the  beginning  of  embarrassment!  Nay,  how 
often  have  we  seen  men  in  the  situation  described  by  Dean  Swift, 
who  represents  Gulliver's  father  as  ruined  by  gaining  a  Chancery 
suit,  with  costs!  The  public  generally  are  little  aware  of  the  number 
of  petty  actions  forming  the  bulk  of  every  cause  paper  at  Nisi  Prius. 
Professional  men  can  tell  how  many  now  stand  for  trial  concerning 
demands  under  twenty  pounds;  how  few  of  these  have  been  thus 
far  ripened  by  the  fostering  care  of  the  profession  and  the  offices, 
under  a  hundred  pounds  expense.  I  made  the  Prothonotary,  four 
years  ago,  at  Lancaster,  give  me  a  list  of  fifty  verdicts  obtained  at 
the  Lent  Assizes;  the  average  was  under  fourteen  pounds,  including, 
however,  two  or  three  actions  brought  to  try  rights,  where  the 
damages  were  of  course  nominal.  But  if  the  money  recovered 
amounted  in  all  to  less  than  nine  hundred  pounds,  the  costs  incurred 
certainly  exceeded  five  thousand  pounds;  fifty  pounds  a-side  being 
indeed  a  very  low  average  of  costs  as  between  attorney  and  client. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  affirm  that  not  above  a  tiMith  part  of  those  fifty 
cases  would  ever  have  seen  the  court  at  Lancaster,  had  a  right  system 
prevailed;  that  is,  if  the  parties  who  were  to  bear  the  heavy  charge, 
whether  of  losing  or  seeming  to  gain  (for  the  loss,  generally  speaking, 
only  differed  in  degree)  had  been  early  apprized  of  their  real  situation, 
and  exercised  their  own  judgment  upon  the  question  of  going  on  or 
settling  betimes.  An  extension  and  improvement  of  arbitration  is 
one  of  the  remedies  I  have  ventured  to  suggest,  at  least  for  further 
discussion.  If  arbitrators  were  publicly  appointed,  before  whom 
parties  themselves  might  go  in  the  first  instance,  state  their  grounds 
of  contention,  and  hear  the  calm  opinion  of  able  and  judicious  men 
upon  their  own  statements,  their  anger  would  often  be  cooled,  and 
their  confidence  abated,  so  as  to  do  each  other  justice  without  any 
expense  or  delay.  Such  a  tribunal  exists  in  France,  under  the  name 

*  The  Act  of  1833  has  extended  and  improved  this  jurisdiction  materially;  but 
the  Local  Courts  Bill  would  have  done  so  far  more  effectually. 


LAW  REFORM.  565 

of  Cour  de  Conciliation;  in  Denmark  it  exists;  and  for  certain 
mercantile  causes,  in  Holland  also.  If  it  be  thought  too  great  a 
change  to  introduce  it  here,  in  what  I  deem  its  best  form,  I  think 
much  good  would  arise  from  a  modificaiion  of  it — (he  appointment 
of  public  arbitrators,  who  might  at  all  times  sit  and  take  references 
by  consent,  with  process  to  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses,  and 
the  execution  of  their  awards.  At  least  we  should  see  all  those  cases 
taken  before  them  at  once,  which  are  now  brought  at  great  cost  into 
courts  wholly  unable  to  try  them,  and  are  uniformly  greeted  with  the 
observation  from  both  Bench  and  Bar — "Oh,  an  account  and  a  set-off 
— a  hundred  items — so  many  issues — no  judge  or  jury  can  try  it," 
after  all  the  expense  of  trying  it  has  been  incurred.* 

iii.  The  course  of  our  inquiry  has  thus  brought  us,  in  the  third 
place,  to  the  commencement  of  a  suit;  and  here  the  principles  and 
rules  which  present  themselves  are  as  obvious  as  they  are  important. 
The  first  is  to  prevent  the  debtor's  escape,  and  hinder  him  from  delay- 
ing his  creditor,  by  wilfully  absenting  himself.  The  second  is  to  give 
the  debtor  due  notice  of  the  particular  nature  of  the  claim,  so  that  he 
may  defend  himself  if  right,  or  yield  if  wrong,  that  is,  if  actually  in- 
debted. The  third  is,  to  give  the  debtor  no  unnecessary  inconveni- 
ence, till  found  to  be  in  the  wrong  (that  is,  indebted),  as  far  as  is  con- 
sistent with  due  security  to  the  plaintiff  against  a  defendant  likely  to 
escape;  taking  care  also  to  protect  the  defendant  against  a  plaintiff 
likely  to  oppress  him  with  costs,  and  leave  him  without  remedy  on 
dropping  the  suit. 

Now,  against  all  these,  which  I  consider  cardinal  virtues  in  this  im- 
portant stage  of  procedure,  our  laws  offend  most  grievously.  For,  in 
the  first  place,  we  assume  the  defendant  to  be  in  the  wrong,  and  not 
only  so,  but  to  be  meditating  flight  from  his  country  and  his  home; 
we,  therefore,  arrest  him  immediately,  and  cast  him  into  prison,  or 
compel  him  to  find  bail.  A  member  of  this  honourable  House,  if,  by 
the  acceptance  of  an  office,  he  happens,  for  the  space  of  a  few  days, 
to  be  out  of  Parliament,  may  thus  be  arrested,  and  put  to  the  most 
serious  inconvenience.  It  might  have  happened  the  other  day  to  the 
member  for  Oxford.  If  he  bought  twenty  pounds'  worth  of  goods  on 
a  Saturday,  went  to  his  villa  and  returned  on  Monday,  on  knocking 
at  his  door  he  might  meet  with  an  arrest,  and  he  must  then  accom- 
pany the  sheriff's  officer  to  a  lock-up  house  till  he  procured  bail.  He 
would  then  do  what  I  understand  is  usual  in  such  cases,  send  for  his 
butcher  and  his  baker,  and  get  bailed;  but  a  gentleman  could  not, 

*  Out  of  the  Statute  of  William,  arbitration  is  no  favourite  of  our  law.  An 
agreement  or  a  covenant  to  refer  is  waste  paper;  no  action  can  he  maintained  for 
a  breach  of  either;|  and  equity  will  not  enforce  the  performance.  (G  Ves.  H1H.) 
A  {(reat  judge  said  on  this  case,  that  he  had,  since  a  cause,  ho  mentioned,  made  it 
a  rule  never  to  recommend  an  arbitration.  The  Local  Courts  Hill  established 
Courts  of  Conciliation,  under  tho  name  of  Courts  of  Reconcilement,  with  tlio 
fullest  powers. 

t  The  proceedings  in  arbitrations  arc  very  much  improved  by  the  lute  Act  of  1-33. 
VOL.  I. '18 


566  LAW  REFORM. 

after  that,  complain  so  well  of  the  meat,  or  the  bread,  or  the  bills 
during  the  next  half  year.  Certainly  he  would  not  be  in  a  situation, 
the  week  after,  to  criticise  his  tradesman's  conduct  with  a  good  grace. 
I  have  known  worse  inconvenience  happen  from  such  use  being 
made  of  the  law,  at  elections;  indeed,  when  candidates  have  carried 
their  adversary's  voters  to  Norway,  instead  of  letting  them  reach  Ber- 
wick, we  may  believe  they  would  not  scruple  to  use  the  writ  for  a 
similar  purpose.  But  however  malicious  or  spiteful  may  be  the  mo- 
tives of  any  one  in  so  employing  the  process  of  the  law,  there  being  a 
probable  cause  of  detention,  and  the  process  not  being  abused,  no 
action  lies  against  the  wrong  doer.  If  he  have  no  accomplices,  so  as 
to  fall  within  the  charge  of  conspiracy,  he  is  safe.  To  the  wealthy, 
however,  all  these  inconveniences  are  trivial;  but  how  does  such  a 
proceeding  operate  on  a  poor  man,  or  a  tradesman,  in  moderate  cir- 
cumstances? He  has  no  facilities  for  obtaining  bail;  if  he  does,  he 
pays  one  way  or  another  afterwards  for  the  favour;  and  if  he  cannot 
procure  it,  he  must  go  to  prison.  Perhaps  no  man  ever  holds  up  his 
head,  or  is  the  same  man  again,  after  having  once  been  in  prison,  un- 
less for  a  political  offence.  But,  I  ask,  why  should  a  man  ever  be 
arrested  on  mesne  process  at  all?  The  honourable  member  for  Mon- 
trose  has  brought  this  subject  before  the  House,  and  he  has  my  hearty 
thanks  for  it.  On  what  ground  of  common  sense  does  our  law  in  this 
matter  rest?  Why  should  it  be  supposed  that  a  man,  owing  twenty 
pounds,  will  leave  his  house,  his  wife,  his  children,  his  country,  his 
pursuits;  and  incur  voluntarily  the  punishment  awarded  for  great 
crimes,  by  banishing  himself  for  life?  Yet  the  law  always  proceeds 
on  the  supposition  that  a  man  will  run  away  the  moment  he  has 
notice  given  him  of  an  action  for  the  debt.  Some  men  might  possibly 
act  thus,  but  their  conduct  forms  the  exception,  not  the  rule;  and  do 
you  legislate  wisely — do  you  legislate  like  men  of  sense — do  you 
legislate  with  common  consistency — when  you  denounce  a  penalty 
against  all  men  in  order  to  meet  a  case  not  likely  to  occur  once  in  a 
thousand  times? 

What  would  be  the  effect  of  altering  the  law  in  this  respect?  Could 
its  reformation  injure  anyone?  Certainly  not;  on  the  contrary,  it 
would  benefit  all  classes  of  the  community.  The  very  first  conse- 
quence of  such  an  alteration  would  be  to  make  tradesmen  less  easy  in 
giving  credit,  by  rendering  them  more  cautious.  At  present  they  are 
induced  to  rely  on  the  suddenness  of  personal  arrest  for  compelling  a 
payment  of  their  demands,  in  preference  to  others,  and  thus  to  specu- 
late upon  the  chance  of  payment  from  insolvent  persons;  so  they  enter 
into  a  competition — not  an  honest,  praiseworthy  competition,  in  the 
correctness  of  their  dealings,  or  the  goodness  of  their  wares — but  a 
competition  in  the  credit  to  give  to  needy  and  profligate,  or  suspected 
and  extravagant  men,  unable  to  pay  anything  like  the  whole  amount 
of  the  debts  which  the  rashness  or  cupidity  of  tradesmen  may  allow 
them  to  contract.  And  on  whom  does  the  loss  thus  incurred  by  the 
tradesman  finally  fall?  Not  unfrequently  on  those  who  can  and  do 
pay;  they  have  to  answer  for  those  who  do  not;  they  pay  a  sort  of 


LAW  REFORM.  567 

del  credere  in  proportion  to  the  loss  incurred  through  giving  credit — 
a  species  of  insurance  on  all  bad  debts.  Even  the  more  respectable 
customers  would  be  all  the  more  regular  in  their  dealings  and  econo- 
mical in  their  habits,  were  they  never  tempted  by  easy  credits  to  buy 
what  they  have  not  money  to  pay  for.* 

My  next  objection  to  the  present  system,  under  this  head,  is,  that 
no  proceeding  can  take  place  in  our  courts  unless  there  be  an  actual 
appearance.  We  outlaw  a  man  to  compel  an  appearance.  Why  do 
so?  Why  can  we  not  proceed  as  in  the  case  of  ejectment,  where  a 
notice  is  left  at  the  dwelling-house?  Why  can  we  not  leave  a  writ 
at  a  man's  house,  stating  what  we  sue  him  for;  and  only  when  we 
think  him  about  to  fly,  call  upon  him  to  give  surety?  I  repeat,  why 
not  send  a  writ  to  the  known  domicile  or  house  of  business  of  the 
debtor;  a  writ,  too,  which  shall  plainly  describe  the  cause  of  action, 
instead  of  serving  him  with  a  writ  that  only  tells  him  he  is  a  prisoner 
for  some  reason  or  other,  which  in  due  time  he  will  be  informed  of; 
and  if  he  cannot  be  found,  outlawing  him  after  nine  months'  delay? 
This  is  done  in  Holland,  a  mercantile  country,  and  in  Scotland,  a  wary 
country,  where  too  great  charity  is  not  generally  shown  to  the  debtor; 
at  least  the  Scotch  have  not  the  reputation  of  being  unnecessarily 
merciful  on  such  occasions;  yet  a  writ  to  take  the  debtor's  person  is 
only  obtainable  there  if  he  be  in  meditationefugas.  Our  process  of 
outlawry  is,  in  its  nature,  extremely  foolish;  its  object  being  to  compel 
an  appearance,  which,  after  all,  is  not  necessary,  provided  the  party 
wilfully  absents  himself  after  due  notice.  If  a  man  chooses  to  keep 
away,  why  not  proceed  without  him  after  such  a  delay,  and  so  many 
services  at  his  place  of  residence  as  shall  insure  him  having  a  know- 
ledge of  the  action?  As  for  any  scruple  about  proceeding  against  an 
absent  man,  without  making  perfectly  sure  of  his  having  notice,  the 
present  law  has  no  right  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject;  for  its  process 
of  outlawry  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  mean  by  which  you  harass 
an  absent  man,  without  even  pretending  to  give  him  notice.  He  may 
be  in  the  Greek  Islands,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  or  in  the  backwoods 
of  America,  and  his  creditor  can  outlaw  him,  and  proceed  to  have  his 
goods  forfeited,  without  his  being  aware  of  the  transaction,  and  with- 
out the  proceeds  of  the  forfeiture  necessarily  benefiting  any  one  but 
the  Crown.  In  exchequer  cases,  it  is  true,  the  debt  and  costs,  not  ex- 
ceeding £50,  are  paid  out  of  the  fund  which  arises  from  selling  the 
goods;  in  all  other  cases,  a  party  must  apply  to  the  Lords  of  the  Trea- 
sury. Why  should  this  be?  What  have  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury 
to  do  with  the  legal  remedy  of  plaintiffs  in  suits?  Why  send  anyone 
to  the  executive  power  for  the  redress  which  the  judicial  authority 
alone  ought  to  administer?! 

iv.   We  are  now  to  suppose  the  parties  in  court,  and  called  upon  to 

•  I'ponthe  grounds  here  stated,  thn  Common  Law  Commissioners  recommended 
abolishing  imprisonment  lor  debt  entirely,  unless  where  fraud  had  lieen  committed, 
or  contumacy  exerted,  or  escape  meditated.  The  hill  now  before  Parliament  will 
effect  thin. 

\  This  clumsy  and  inconsistent  process  remains  unaltered. 


568  LAW  REFORM. 

state  their  cases,  the  claim  of  one,  and  defence  of  the  other.  Anciently 
this  pleading,  as  it  is  termed,  was  by  word  of  month;  but  in  more 
modern  times  it  has  been  carried  on  in  writing.  Originally,  too,  Pleas 
were  in  French,  afterwards  in  Latin,  and  for  a  century  past,  by  a  great, 
but  most  salutary  innovation,  doubtless  much  reviled  and  dreaded  in 
its  day,  they  have  been  conducted  in  English.  I  must  own  that  I 
approach  the  subject  of  Special  Pleading,  in  the  presence  of  my  most 
worthy  friend  and  learned  instructor  in  that  art,*  with  some  degree  of 
awe.  That  excellent  person's  attainments  in  its  mysteries  are  well 
known,  and  justly  appreciated.  He  is  intimately  acquainted  with  the 
subject.  The  distrust  of  my  own  learning,  therein,  while  addressing 
him,  is  not  lessened  by  my  recollection  of  the  praises  lavished  upon  the 
science  by  high  authorities  of  past  times.  Lord  Coke  deemed  it  so  de- 
lightful a  science,  that  its  very  name  was  derived,  according  to  him, 
from  its  pleasurable  nature — "  Quia  bene  placitare  omnibus  placet." 
Incapable  of  inventing  a  new  pleasure,  I  would  fain  restore  a  lost  one, 
by  bringing  back  Pleading  to  somewhat  of  its  prestine  state,  when  it 
gave  our  ancestors  such  exquisite  recreation.  Certain  it  is  that  our 
deviation  from  the  old  rules  in  this  branch  of  the  law,  has  been  attended 
with  evil  effects.  Those  rules,  as  Lord  Mansfield  once  said,  were 
founded  in  reason  and  good  sense;  accuracy  and  justice  was  their 
object,  and  in  the  details  much  of  ingenuity  and  subtlety  was  displayed ; 
but  by  degrees  the  good  sense  has  disappeared,  and  the  ingenuity  and 
subtlety  have  increased  beyond  measure,  and  been  oftentimes  misdi- 
rected; nay,  to  such  a  pitch  have  the  changes  proceeded,  that  at  last 
subtlety  has  superseded  sense;  accuracy  and  justice  are  well  nigh  lost 
sight  of;  and  ingenuity  is  exhausted  in  devising  pretexts  for  prolixity 
and  means  of  stratagem.  In  these  really  hurtful  innovations  the 
courts  of  law  have  been  the  far  too  ready  accomplices;  and  the  legis- 
lature has  been  a  most  willing  instrument  to  increase  the  evil,  by 
sanctioning,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  in  each  new  act,  the  power 
of  pleading  the  general  issue;  so  that  to  call  the  modern  practice  by 
the  name  of  special  pleading,  is  really  an  abuse  of  terms.  It  can 
only  be  restored  to  its  ancient  condition,  and  made  deserving,  if  not  of 
Lord  Coke's  panegyric,  yet  of  the  more  measured  commendations  of 
Lord  Mansfield,  by  reviewing  the  entire  system  as  it  at  present  stands. 
My  wish  is,  as  far  as  possible,  to  revive  the  accuracy  of  the  old  plead- 
ing, without  its  niceties  and  verbosity;  while  pains  are  taken  to  improve 
it,  where  this  can  safely  be  done,  by  adapting  it  to  the  advanced  state 
of  modern  jurisprudence. 

The  precedents  of  the  ancient  pleaders,  and  the  other  rules  recog- 
nised in  their  times,  furnish  the  most  valuable  materials  for  this  reform; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  chiefly  from  the  science  as  they  left  it  that  the  princi- 
ples I  am  about  to  state  are  drawn.  The  first  great  rule  of  pleading 
should  be,  to  induce  and  compel  the  litigant  parties  to  disclose  fully 
and  distinctly  the  real  nature  of  their  respective  contentions,  whether 
claim  or  defence,  as  early  as  possible.  The  second  is.  that  no  needless 

*  Sir  N.  C.  Tindal. 


LAW  REFORM.  569 

impediment  should  be  thrown  in  (he  way  of  either  party,  in  any  stage 
of  the  discussion  within  the  court,  whether  plea,  replication,  or  rejoin- 
der, whereby  he  may  be  hindered  to  propound  his  case  in  point  of  fact, 
or  of  law.  In  the  third  place,  all  needless  repetitions,  and  generally  all 
prolixity  should,  as  well  as  mere  reasoning,  which  neither  simply 
affirms  nor  denies  any  proposition  of  fact  or  of  law,  be  prevented;  and 
all  repugnant  or  inconsistent  pleas  should  be  disallowed,  as  well  as  all 
departure  from  ground  once  taken.* 

1.  That  these  were  the  principles  on  which  the  ancient  pleaders 
bottomed  their  system  entirely,  I  will  not  affirm;  but  upon  them  it  was 
mainly  built.  And  I  regret  to  say,  that  the  last  century  and  a  half  has 
witnessed  great  and  prejudicial  alterations  in  the  original  plan;  so  that 
the  record,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  instead  of  exhibiting  a  plain 
view  of  what  each  party  is  prepared  to  prove,  contains  an  endless 
multitude  of  words,  from  which,  if  the  real  matter  in  dispute  can  be 
gathered  at  all,  it  is  only  by  guess  work,  or  by  communications  out  of 
the  record  relating  to  things  of  which  it  gives  not  even  a  hint.  Let  us 
look  into  this  a  little  more  narrowly.  The  Count  of  a  Declaration 
should  convey  information  as  to  the  subject  of  the  action;  but  it  con- 
veys no  precise  knowledge  of  the  plaintiff's  demand,  or  indeed  of  what 
the  suit  is  about.  Take  the  instance  of  the  common  counts,  as  they 
are  justly  termed,  in  assumpsit,  being  those  constantly  resorted  to;  and 
take  the  most  common  of  these,  the  count  for  money  had  and  received. 
I  will  take  no  advantage  of  the  audience  I  speak  before  being  unac- 
quainted with  legal  niceties,  in  order  to  make  merry  with  the  venera- 
ble formalities  of  the  art.  All  lawyers  know  how  easy  it  would  be  in 
this  place  to  raise  a  smile,  at  the  least,  by  recounting  the  little  fooleries 
of  our  draftsmen;  but  I  disdain  it,  and  will  treat  the  subject  precisely 
as  if  I  were  addressing  professional  men.  The  plaintiff  declares  that 
the  defendant,  being  indebted  to  him  for  so  much  money  had  and  re- 
ceived to  the  use  of  the  said  plaintiff',  to  wit,  one  thousand  pounds, 
undertook  and  faithfully  promised  to  pay  it,  but  broke  his  engagement; 
and  the  count  is  thus  framed,  the  self-same  terms  being  invariably 
used,  whatever  be  the  cause  of  action  which  can  be  brought  into  court 
under  this  head.  Now,  observe  how  various  the  matters  are  which 
may  be  all  described  by  the  foregoing  words.  In  the  first  place,  such 
is  the  declaration  for  money  paid  by  one  individual  to  another,  for  the 
use  and  benefit  of  the  plaintiff — this  is  what  alone  the  words  of  the 
count  imply,  but  to  express  this  they  are  rarely,  indeed,  made  use  of. 
iJdly,  The  self-same  terms  are  used  on  suing  for  money  received  on  a 
consideration  that  fails,  and  used  in  the  same  way  to  describe  all  the 
endless  variety  of  cases  which  can  occur  of  such  failure,  as  an  estate 
sold  with  a  bad  title,  and  a  deposit  paid;  a  horse  sold  with  a  concealed 
nnsoundness,  and  so  forth.  3dly,  The  same  words  are  used  when  it 
is  wished  to  recover  money  paid  under  mistake  of  fact.  <lthly,  To 
recover  money  paid  by  one  person  to  a  stakeholder,  in  consideration 

*  The  valuable  improvements  introduced  with  so  bold  a  hand,  but  so  judiciously, 
under  the  Act  of  I -.'!.'!,  arc  mainly  fuumlrd  upon  these  principles. 

48* 


570  LAW  REFORM. 

of  an  illegal  contract  made  with  another  person.*  Sthly,  Money  paid 
to  revenue-officers  for  releasing  the  goods  illegally  detained,  of  the  per- 
son paying.t  Gthly,  To  try  the  right  to  any  office,  instead  of  bringing 
an  assize. 1  Tthly,  To  try  the  liability  of  the  landlord  for  rates  levied 
on  his  tenant.  What  information,  then,  does  such  a  declaration  give? 
It  is  impossible,  on  reading  this  count,  to  say  which  of  the  seven  causes 
of  action  has  arisen;  and  it  is  not  merely  those  sev-en,  for  each  one  of 
them  has  a  vast  number  of  varieties,  which  are  declared  on  in  the 
same  words.  In  actions  of  Trover,  the  case  is  even  worse.  Suppose 
the  case  of  a  plaintiff  suing  for  any  chattel,  as  a  gun,  the  declaration 
will  be  such  as  may  apply  equally  to  at  least  eight  different  heads,  under 
each  of  which  are  many  different  causes  of  action.  The  words  in  all 
would  be  the  very  same — that  the  plaintiff  was  possessed  of  a  gun,  as  of 
his  own  proper  goods  and  chattels;  that  he  accidentally  lost  it;  that  the 
defendant  found  it,  and  converted  it  to  his  use.  Now  this  count  de- 
scribes only  one  case,  that  of  a  gun  lost  by  its  owner,  and  detained  by 
the  finder.  But  it  is  employed  to  mean,  2dly,  That  the  gun  has  been 
taken  by  the  defendant  under  pretence  of  some  title,  or  in  any  way  not 
felonious.  3dly,  That  it  was  deposited  with  the  defendant,  who  re- 
fused to  deliver  it  up.  4thly,  That  it  was  stopped  in  transitu,  the 
price  not  having  been  paid.  5thly,  That  the  plaintiff  is  the  assignee 
of  a  bankrupt,  and  seeks  to  recover  the  gun,  as  having  been  sold  after 
the  bankruptcy  of  the  vendor.  6thly,  That  the  plaintiff  has  been  im- 
properly made  a  bankrupt,  and  sues  the  assignees  to  try  the  bank- 
ruptcy. 7thly,  That  his  goods  have  been  unlawfully  taken,  and  he 
sues  to  try  the  validity  of  an  execution,  on  any  of  the  various  grounds 
of  fraud,  &c.,  which  impeach  the  validity  of  the  process.  Sthly,  That 
the  gun  has  been  misdelivered,  or  detained,  by  a  warehouseman  or 
carrier.  All  those  causes  of  action  differ  from  each  other  as  much  as 
different  things  can  differ,  and  yet  they  are  all  stated  in  the  declaration 
the  same  way,  and  signified  under  the  same  form  of  words. 

The  pleadings  in  cases  where  it  might  be  expected  that  the  greatest 
particularity  would  be  given  to  the  statement,  actions  upon  torts  to 
the  person,  are  somewhat,  but  for  the  most  part,  not  remarkably  more 
definite  and  precise  in  their  description.  The  declarations  on  the  se- 
duction of  a  wife,  servant,  or  daughter,  assault,  and  false  imprison- 
ment, are  drawn  so  that  you  can  say,  no  doubt,  what  the  action  is 
about,  which  you  hardly  ever  can  in  <?ases  of  Assurnpsit  or  Trover; 
but  the  same  form  of  words  is  used,  whatever  the  particular  shape  of 
the  cause  may  be.  Of  the  circumstances  peculiar  to  the  transaction, 
the  pleadings  tell  the  defendant  nothing — they  tell  the  counsel  nothing 
— they  tell  the  judge  nothing.  It  may  be  said  that  the  defendant 
must  know  the  cause  of  action  himself;  but  that  does  not  always  fol- 
low, especially  if  (which  may  be  presumed  barely  possible,  though  it 
seems  never  to  be  thought  so)  the  allegations  are  groundless.  There 
is,  however,  one  person  who  must  know  the  cause  of  action,  and  that 

*  1.  B.  and  P.  3.     Hi.  296.  f  4  T.  R.  485. 

Str.  747.     Carlh.  95.  1  T.  R.  255. 


LAW  REFORM.  571 

is  the  plaintiff.  He  ought,  for  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned,  to 
state  it  distinctly.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  counts  in  trespass, 
for  taking  goods.*  In  trespass  quare  chni.fHrn  fregit,  perhaps  the 
description  of  the  wrong  done  is  more  specific.  Hut  it  happens  that 
the  circumstances  here  are  of  far  less  importance;  damages  are  not  in 
question;  a  shilling  or  so  is  to  be  recovered,  the  object  of  the  action 
being  almost  always  to  try  a  right  of  property  or  an  easement.  In 
all  oilier  cases  of  trespass,  where  a  knowledge  of  the  wrong  suffered 
is  most  material,  the  parties  are  left  to  fight,  and  the  court  to  decide, 
in  the  dark;  but  in  the  case  I  have  just  alluded  to,  where  a  know- 
ledge of  the  circumstances  in  which  the  trespass  was  committed  is 
immaterial,  everything  is  told  them  of  which  it  is  wholly  unimportant 
that  they  should  be  informed;  in  a  cumbrous  way,  no  doubt,  and 
with  much  fanciful  statement,  but  still  it  is  told.  Actions  for  slander 
and  libel,  for  malicious  prosecutions,  and  malicious  arrest,  or  holding 
to  bail,  with  others  on  the  case,  are  very  particular,  and  form,  cer- 
tainly, an  exception  to  the  ordinary  course  of  pleading;  at  least,  as  far 
as  the  declaration  goes;  no  further,  as  we  shall  presently  see — for  I 
now  proceed  to  the  next  stage  of  the  pleadings,  namely,  to  the  pleas 
which  the  defendant  puts  upon  the  record  in  answer  to  the  plaintiff's 
complaints. 

In  this  stage  of  the  cause,  we  encounter  the  same  evils,  but  in 
greater  abundance;  for  they  affect  those  actions  on  the  case  where 
the  count  is  most  precise.  Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  said,  that  if 
the  plaintiff  tells  us  nothing  in  his  declaration,  the  defendant,  in  return, 
tells  us  as  little  in  his  plea;  in  that  respect,  at  least,  they  are  even. 
This  is,  perhaps,  a  consequence  of  the  former  evil,  but  be  that  as  it 
may,  it  ought  to  be  remedied.  The  plaintiff  ought  to  tell  the  defend- 
ant the  real  nature  of  his  complaint,  and  the  defendant  ought  to  make 
him  equally  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  his  answer.  If  this  were 
always  done,  perjury  would  not  so  often  be  committed;  everything 
intended  to  be  proved  would  be  stated  on  each  side;  and  tho  parties, 
knowing  the  evidence  on  which  the  respective  statements  must  be  es- 
tablished, would  have  an  opportunity  of  examining  into  the  character 
of  the  witnesses,  and  of  procuring  the  best  evidence  to  elucidate  the 
point.  At  present,  the  mystery  of  pleading  leaves  them  in  doubt;  and 
the  vague  and  indistinct  statements  on  the  record,  unaccompanied  by 
other  information,  open  a  door  to  the  entrance  of  falsehood  in  the  wit- 
nesses, far  wider  than  any  you  could  open,  by  enabling  them  to  get 
up  proofs  in  answer  to  those  expected  from  the  opposite  side.  When- 
ever the  parties  fight  each  other  by  trick,  on  the  record  in  the  first  in- 
stance, fencing  to  evade  telling  their  grounds  of  contention,  they  re- 
new the  fight  afterwards  by  perjury  in  court.  I  will  now  give  the 
House  some  instances  of  the  vagueness  of  this  part  of  pleading. 

In  the  indebilatus  aft.su mpxif,  from  which  I  took  my  first  example, 
the  general  issue  is  non  (ts.sinnjisit.  Now,  under  that  plea  no  less 
than  eight  different  defences  may  be  set  up;  as,  for  instance,  a  denial 

•  These  defects  arc  in  a  great  measure  remedied  hy  the  late  changes. 


572  LAW  REFORM. 

of  the  contract,  payment,  usury,  gaming,  infancy,  coverture,  accord 
and  satisfaction,  release.  All  these  defences  are  entirely  different, 
and  yet  they  are  all  stated  in  the  self-same  words.  So,  too,  in  the 
action  of  trover;  take  our  former  case  of  the  gun:  the  defendant, 
under  the  plea  of  "not  guilty,"  may  set  up  as  a  defence,  that  he  is  a 
gamekeeper,  and  took  it  by  virtue  of  the  statute  of  Charles  II;*  or 
that  he  had  a  lien  upon  it  as  a  carrier  for  his  general  balance,  and 
had,  therefore,  a  right  to  detain  it;  or  a  particular  lien  for  work  done 
upon  it;  or  that  he  had  received  it  as  a  deposit,  and  was  entitled  to 
keep  it;  or  that  he  took  it  for  toll,t  or  detained  it  till  passage-money 
due  by  its  owner  were  paid;J  or  the  reward  due  for  saving  it  from 
shipwreck  were  given. §  Any  one  of  these  defences  may  be  con- 
cealed under  the  plea  of  "not  guilty,"  without  the  possibility  of  the 
plaintiff  discovering  which  it  is  that  his  adversary  means  to  set  up; 
so  that  every  body  will,  I  think,  agree  with  me,  that  if  the  count 
teaches  the  court  and  opposite  party  little,  the  plea  teaches  them  not 
a  whit  more. || 

It  is  of  these  things  that  Mr.  Justice  Blackstone  must  be  speaking, 
when  he  thus  eloquently  closes  his  account  of  special  pleading  and 
actions  (not  otherwise  remarkable  for  accuracy)!!  with  a  panegyric 
upon  that  perfection  which  it  shares  in  his  eyes  with  all  the  rest  of 
our  system. — "  This  care  and  circumspection  in  the  law,  in  provid- 
ing that  no  man's  right  shall  be  affected  by  any  legal  proceeding 
without  giving  him  previous  notice,  and  yet  that  the  debtor  shall 
not,  by  receiving  such  notice,  take  occasion  to  escape  from  justice; 
in  requiring  that  every  complaint  be  accurately  and  precisely 
ascertained  in  writing,  and  be  as  pointedly  and  exactly  answered; 
in  clearly  stating  the  question  either  of  law  or  of  fact;  in  deliberately 
resolving  the  former  after  full  argumentative  discussion,  and  indis- 
putably fixing  the  latter  by  a  diligent  and  impartial  trial;  in  correcting 
such  errors  as  may  have  arisen  in  either  of  those  modes  of  decision, 
from  accident,  mistake,  or  surprise;  this  anxiety  to  maintain  and  to 
restore  to  every  individual  the  enjoyment  of  his  civil  rights,  without 
entrenching  upon  those  of  any  other  individual  in  the  nation — this 
parental  solicitude,  which  pervades  our  whole  legal  constitution,  is 
the  genuine  offspring  of  that  spirit  of  equal  liberty  which  is  the  sin- 
gular felicity  of  Englishmen."** 

2.  The  inconsistency  of  many  of  our  rules  of  pleading  forms  the 
next  head  of  complaint  to  which  I  shall  direct  your  attention;  and  it 
is  just  as  manifest  as  the  vagueness  and  indistinctness  I  have  been 
pointing  out.  Why  are  infancy  and  coverture  to  be  given  in  evidence 
under  the  general  issue,  while  other  defences  of  a  similar  description 

*  St.  22,  23  Car.  II.— Dawe  and  Walter  in  Bull.  N.  P.  48. 
f  Sir  W.  Jones,  240.  J  2  Camp.  G31. 

§  Lord  R.  393. 

||  The  new  rules  remove  these  evils  in  a  great  measure. 

Tf  e.  g.  His  giving  as  an  example  of  Assumpsit,  an  undertaking  without  con- 
sideration. 
**  3  Corn.  423. 


LAW  REFORM.  573 

must  be  pleaded  specially,  as  the  statute  of  limitations  always,  and 
leave  and  license  in  trespass?  If  it  is  right  that  specific  defences,  of 
v.'hich  your  general  plea  gives  yonr  opponent  no  notice,  should  be 
couched  under  that  plea,  why  should  you  be  compelled  to  give  notice 
of  other  averments  before  being  suffered  to  prove  them?  Why  do 
you,  in  one  case,  multiply  pleas,  which,  in  the  other,  your  own  prac- 
tice declares  to  be  unnecessary?  One  or  other  course,  the  vague  or 
the  definite,  the  prolix  or  the  concise,  may  be  fitting;  both  cannot  be 
right.  Nay,  there  is  often  an  option  given  as  to  the  same  thing;  in- 
fancy, coverture,  release,  accord  and  satisfaction,  and  others,  may  either 
be  given  under  the  general  issue  in  assumpsit,  or  pleaded.  Why,  this 
choice  amounts  to  no  rule  at  all!  If  a  ground  of  defence  is  ever  to  be 
pleaded  specially,  why  not  always?* 

3.  Akin  to  tins  inconsistency  of  principle  is  the  variety  of  repugnant 
counts  and  pleas  allowed  in  all  cases  whatever.  Where  there  are  ten 
different  ways  of  stating  a  defence,  and  all  of  them  are  employed,  it  is 
hardly  possible  that  any  three  of  them  can  be  true;  at  the  same  time 
their  variety  tends  to  prevent  both  the  opposite  party  and  the  court  from 
knowing  the  real  question  to  be  tried.  Yet  this  practice  is  generally 
resorted  to,  because  neither  party  knows  accurately  what  course  his 
opponent  may  take;  each,  therefore,  throws  his  drag-net  over  the 
whole  ground,  in  hopes  to  avail  himself  of  everything  which  cannot 
escape  through  its  meshes.  Take  the  case  of  debt  on  bond.  The 
first  plea  in  such  an  action,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  is  the  general 
issue,  non  estfactitm,  whereby  the  defendant  denies  that  it  is  his  deed; 
the  second,  as  usually  is,  solvit  ad  diem — he  paid  it  on  the  day  men- 
tioned in  the  bond,  a  circumstance  not  very  likely  to  happen,  if  it  be 
not  his  deed;  the  third  is  solvit  post  diem — he  paid  it  after  the  day; 
a  thing  equally  unlikely  to  happen,  if  it  be  not  his  bond,  or  if  he  paid 
it  when  due;  and  a  fourth  often  is,  a  general  release.  What  can  the 
plaintiff  learn  from  a  statement  in  which  the  defendant  first  asserts 
that  he  never  executed  the  deed,  and  next  that  he  not  only  executed 
it,  but  has  moreover  paid  it  off?  Where  pleas  are  consistent  with 
each  other,  it  may  be  well  to  let  them  be  pleaded  in  unlimited  abund- 
ance: where  they  are  not  only  not  consistent,  but  absolutely  destruc- 
tive of  each  other,  it  would  be  a  good  rule  to  establish  that  such  pleas 
should  not  be  put  together  upon  the  record,  at  least  without  some  pre- 
vious discussion,  and  leave  obtained.  The  grounds  of  action  are 
often  stated  with  almost  as  great  inconsistency,  almost  always  with 
greater  multiplicity  in  the  declaration.  I  recollect  that  at  York,  many 
years  ago,  it  was  my  duty,  as  junior  counsel,  to  open  the  pleadings  in 
an  action  brought  upon  a  wager  which  had  been  laid  upon  the  life  of 
the  Krnperor  Napoleon.  I  stated  to  the  jury  in  the  usual  way,  that 
the  defendant,  in  consideration  of  one  hundred  guineas,  agreed  to  pay 
the  plaintiff  a  guinea  a-day  during  the  life  of  one  Napoleon  Buona- 
parte, and  so  forth,  alleging  the  breach.  Thus  far  all  was  well,  and 

*  These  cvild  arc  also  remedied;  and  so  of  the  evils  described  in  the  subsequent 


574  LAW  REFORM. 

the  audience  were  not  disturbed;  but  there  was  not  much  gravity 
among  them  when  I  went  on  to  state  the  second  count,  averring  ano- 
ther wager  on  the  life  of  "one  other  Napoleon  Buonaparte;"  and, 
indeed,  though  one,  in  those  days,  was  quite  enough  for  the  rest  of  the 
world,  two  did  not  satisfy  the  pleader,  who  made  mention  of  a  third 
and  a  fourth  Napoleon. 

I  know  that  it  is  frequently  said  these  allegations  deceive  nobody, 
and  their  vagueness  and  repugnancy  keep  no  one  in  the  dark,  for 
each  party  contrives  to  have  a  good  guess  of  what  his  adversary 
means.  That  this  is  not  the  case  in  many  instances  I  know;  that  it 
takes  place  more  frequently  than  might  be  expected,  I  am  ready  to 
admit.  Bat  what  vindication  is  this  of  the  system?  If  anything  like 
precise  information  is  obtained  in  such  cases  as  I  have  described,  it  is 
most  assuredly  not  from  the  record,  but  in  spite  of  the  record;  it  is  by 
travelling  out  of  it — by  seeking  elsewhere  for  what  the  record  does 
not  give,  or  for  correcting  the  false  impression  which  it  conveys;  con- 
sequently, this  defence  of  pleading  is  the  very  humble  one,  that  it  is 
useless,  and,  were  it  not  for  the  cost,  would  be  harmless. 

4.  Before  the  statute  of  the  4th  of  Anne,  no  man  was  allowed  to 
plead  double;  the  plaintiff  might  have  as  many  ways  of  stating  his 
case  as  he  pleased,  but  to  each  count  the  defendant  could  only  give 
one  answer.  By  that  statute  he  may,  with  leave  of  the  court,  plead 
two  or  more  distinct  matters.  Though  that  leave  was  formerly 
granted  or  refused  at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  it  is  now  regularly 
given  as  a  matter  of  course.  There  is,  however,  a  fee  to  be  paid  to 
the  office  for  it,  and  also  a  fee  to  counsel  for  signing  the  rule  to  obtain 
it,  which,  of  course,  implies  a  charge  by  the  attorney  also.  I  think 
every  practitioner  is  fully  aware  of  the  consequences.  Beside  the 
expense,  the  utterly  needless  expense,  the  mischief  of  it  is  great  and 
undeniable.  I  believe  in  my  conscience,  that  many  an  attorney's 
clerk,  who  afterwards  proceeds  to  still  greater  frauds,  begins  his 
career  of  crime  by  stopping  this  fee  to  counsel  on  its  way.  It  is  not 
necessary  that  the  barrister  should  sign  his  name;  and  a  knowledge 
of  that  fact  among  attorneys'  clerks  and  barristers'  clerks,  seduces  into 
a  course  of  petty  embezzlement,  which  leads  to  larger  peculations  in 
the  long  run,  and  ends  in  all  the  dishonesty  which  marks  the  life  of 
the  disreputable  practitioner.  According  to  the  principles  before  laid 
down,  such  rules  as  this,  to  plead  double,  and  all  others  of  the  kind, 
ought  at  once  to  be  abolished,  and  the  parties  allowed  to  do,  without 
any  application,  or  rather  supposed  application,  to  the  judge,  and 
without  any  expense,  what  they  thus  obtain  for  the  mere  payment  of 
money.  But  to  proceed:  though  the  defendant  may  plend,  the 
plaintiff  cannot  reply  many  matters.  For  instance,  in  indebitatus 
assumpsit,  if  the  defendant  pleads,  first,  that  he  never  made  any  pro- 
mise, and  next,  that  ho  was  an  infant  when  he  made  the  promise,  the 
plaintiff  must  either  admit  the  infancy,  and  set  up  a  subsequent  pro- 
mise, or  deny  the  infancy  altogether,  and  re-affirm  the  original  pro- 
mise; for  he  cannot  both  deny  the  infancy  and  set  up  a  subsequent 
promise.  Now,  I  will  ask  the  House,  why,  if  the  defendant  may 


LAW  REFORM.  575 

plead  several  matters,  the  plaintiff  should  not  reply  several  matters? 
There  must  be  some  limit,  I  allow,  set  to  the  replication,  otherwise, 
at  each  stage  of  the  pleading,  there  would  be  a  multiplication  of 
issues,  like  the  puzzle  of  the  nails  in  a  horse-shoe;  but,  surely,  there 
can  be  no  harm  in  allowing  each  separate  ground  of  defence  to  be 
met  both  by  a  denial  and  an  answer;  giving  the  plaintiff  a  general 
replication  to  make  the  defendant  prove  his  plea,  and  one  special  re- 
plication: I  mean,  as  long  as  you  allow  the  defendant  to  multiply, 
without  restraint,  his  grounds  of  defence;  for  the  power  of  pleading 
repugnant  pleas  being  restricted,  there  will  be  the  less  prolixity  occa- 
sioned by  enlarging  the  power  of  replying. 

5.  The  restriction  upon  demurrer,  or  pleading  to  raise  an  issue  in 
law,  appears  still  less  founded  in  principle.  By  demurring,  a  party  is 
obliged  to  confess  the  facts  to  be  true  as  stated  by  the  opposite  party, 
and  confine  himself  to  a  denial  that,  by  law,  those  facts  warrant  the 
inference  against  him  to  raise  which  they  are  stated.  If  I  am  alleged 
to  have  made  a  particular  promise,  I  may  deny  that  I  made  it,  which 
would  raise  a  direct  issue  on  the  fact:  or  I  may  say  that,  though  I  did 
make  it,  such  a  promise  is  not  binding  in  law,  which  raises  an  issue 
on  the  law.  These  two  denials,  however,  cannot  both  be  given;  I 
must  take  my  choice,  either  to  admit  the  law  or  the  fact.  How  is 
this  in  common  life?  If  I  am  charged  with  anything  wrong,  as  using 
certain  blameable  expressions,  I  may  deny  the  words  altogether,  but 
may  add,  "admit,  for  argument  sake,  I  did  utter  them,  they  were 
wholly  harmless— wholly  free  from  the  meaning  affixed  to  them." 
In  truth,  men  are  demurring  all  day  long,  when  they  are  conflicting 
or  disputing  with  one  another,  and  no  one  ever  dreamt  of  tying  down 
his  antagonist  to  the  admission  of  the  fact,  because  he  had  argued 
against  the  inference.  If  anything  can  make  the  rule  more  objection- 
able, it  is  the  gross  inconsistency  which  it  exhibits  to  the  last  rule  I 
mentioned,  the  permission  given  to  a  defendant  to  raise  as  many  re- 
pugnant issues  of  fact  as  he  pleases.  Why  should  a  party  be  allowed 
to  say,  "  In  point  of  fact,  I  deny  the  promise — but  if  I  made  it,  six 
years  have  elapsed — or  I  made  it  under  age,"  and  be  prohibited  from 
saying — "  In  point  of  fact,  I  deny  the  promise;  but,  if  I  made  it,  there 
was  nothing  binding  in  point  of  law?"  The  two  defences,  as  far  as 
their  duplicity  goes,  are  precisely  similar;  and  as  it  must  be  allowed 
that,  before  double  pleading  was  introduced,  the  restriction  upon  de- 
murring was  consistent  with  the  general  principles  of  the  system,  so, 
if  repugnant  pleas  were  forbidden,  the  objection,  in  respect  of  con- 
sistency, to  a  demurrer  admitting  the  facts  pleaded,  would  be  removed. 
On  other  grounds,  however,  it  would  be  still  quite  wrong.  I  admit 
that  part  of  the  mischief  occasioned  by  the  rule  may  be  remedied 
after  verdict,  the  objection  being  on  the  record.  But  beside  that  this 
remedy  cannot,  in  every  case,  be  applied,  there  lias  been  the  delay 
and  expense,  to  say  nothing  of  the  absurdity  of  a  trial  of  facts,  which, 
if  proved,  amount  to  nothing.  Why  should  not  the  court  first  deter- 
mine the  disputed  law,  and  then,  only  if  it  becomes  necessary,  try  the 


576  LAW  REFORM. 

truth  of  the  facts?     In  equity  pleading  it  is  so.     Why  not  in  law 
pleading  too? 

6.  A  very  great  amendment  of  the  law  would  be,  to  permit  all 
formal  errors  to  be  amended,  even  at  the  very  last  stage  of  the  cause. 
No  one  should  be  turned  round  on  a  mere  variance;  no  one  should 
be  defeated  on  a  mere  verbal  mistake,  as  it  was  my  lot  to  be  lately, in 
an  indictment,  the  history  of  which  will  aptly  enough  introduce  this 
head  of  remark.  It  was  a  prosecution  for  perjury:  the  jury  was 
sworn,  the  case  was  opened,  witnesses  were  examined,  and  docu- 
ments read,  when  a  variance  was  discovered  between  the  affidavit,  on 
which  the  perjury  was  assigned,  and  the  copy  of  it  which  formed  part 
of  the  record:  in  the  one  the  word  "grandmother"  was  used:  in  the 
record  the  syllable  "  grand"  was  omitted,  and  only  the  two  last  sylla- 
bles "  mother"  were  inserted.  This  was,  of  course,  fatal  to  the  in- 
dictment. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  perjury,  which  consisted 
in  the  denial  of  a  payment,  was  equally  committed,  whether  that  sup- 
posed payment  was  made  to  the  mother  or  the  grandmother;  yet, 
owing  to  this  utterly  unimportant  error,  all  the  trouble  of  the  court,  and 
all  the  expense  of  the  prosecutor,  were  rendered  perfectly  useless,  and 
the  ends  of  public  justice  frustrated.  In  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  every 
hundred — indeed,  I  might  say,  in  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  cases 
out  of  every  thousand — in  which  parties  are  turned  round  upon  vari- 
ances, the  materiality  is  not  greater  than  in  that  which  I  have  just 
mentioned  to  the  House.  The  improvement  which  I  would  suggest 
is  to  allow  nobody  to  be  turned  round  upon  a  variance,  except  at  the 
discretion  of  the  judge.  Where  it  is  clear  that  the  record  by  its  vari- 
ance from  the  evidence  has  deceived  the  party,  then  the  discrepancy 
ought  to  be  fatal;  but  because  this  may  happen  once  in  a  thousand 
times,  ought  we  to  legislate  upon  the  exception,  and  introduce  a  gene- 
ral system  of  quirks  and  niceties  upon  sorry  trifles — the  greatest  op- 
probrium of  the  law?  Furthermore,  I  would  allow  no  failure  of  a 
case  from  the  want  of  a  sufficient  stamp  being  affixed  to  any  instru- 
ment used  in  evidence.  In  a  case  which  occurred  not  long  since,  my 
Lord  Dudley  was  turned  round,  because  it  was  said  there  were  a  few 
words  more  in  the  instrument  than  we  had  counted,  and  the  stamp 
was  some  half-crown  below  the  amount  required.  At  the  trial  of  the 
cause,  it  was  not  disputed  by  us,  that  the  words  were  more  in  number 
than  the  stamp  covered;  we  took  for  granted  that  our  adversary  had 
reckoned  right,  and  we  did  not  require  the  process  of  addition  to  be 
gone  through  in  court;  it  was  afterwards  found  out  that  the  defend- 
ant had  counted  the  words  wrong,  and  that  they  fell  short  of  the 
number  mentioned  in  the  Stamp  Act.  The  plaintiff,  in  consequence, 
got  a  rule  for  a  new  trial,  and  soon  after  he  had  a  verdict.  But  sup- 
pose we  had  been  wrong  and  our  adversary  right,  what  difference 
would  that  have  made  in  the  justice  of  the  cause,  which  was  truly  an 
undefended  one?  I  would  allow  the  judge  to  inflict  a  penalty  of  £20 
of  £50  if  necessary,  to  protect  the  revenue,  instead  of  £10  for  the 
want  of  a  stamp;  but  I  would  not  allow  the  party  to  be  turned  round, 


LAW  REFORM.  577 

and  to  lose  his  trial,  because  he  had  got  a  wrong  stamp,  or  no  stamp 
at  all,  affixed  to  his  agreement  or  deed. 

Let  not  the  House  suppose  that  grievances  such  as  I  have  been  de- 
scribing to  flow  naturally  from  the  present  system,  are  imaginary  and 
theoretical;  I  can  assure  the  House,  from  my  own  daily  experience, 
that  they  are  not:  they  produce  constantly  a  cost  or  a  delay,  or  both, 
amounting  to  the  positive  denial  of  justice.  To  give  an  illustration  of 
some  of  the  parts  of  the  system  in  its  workings,  I  shall  read  the  letter 
which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  from  an  eminent  practitioner  in  the  law. 
The  widow  of  a  Welsh  clergyman  was  obliged  to  bring  an  action  upon 
a  mortgage-deed  for  the  payment  of  the  mortgage-money  and  inte- 
rest, and  for  performance  of  the  covenants  in  the  deed.  She  might 
have  foreclosed  by  a  proceeding  in  equity;  but  preferring  the  delays 
of  the  King's  Bench  to  those  of  the  Chancery,  she  brought  an  action 
of  debt  of  the  simplest  possible  kind,  both  in  its  nature,  and  in  the 
form  of  the  proceedings;  and  the  House  shall  now  hear  from  her  re- 
spectable solicitor  himself,  what  was  the  progress  and  termination  of 
that  action: — "  The  defendant  was  a  member  of  Parliament, and  some 
delay,  as  is  usual  with  such  defendants"  — (I  beg  pardon,  sir, — of 
course,  I  am  not  answerable  for  the  terms  of  the  letter) — "  took  place 
in  enforcing  an  appearance.  When  the  declaration  was  delivered,  tho 
defendant  demanded  oyer  of  the  bond,  and  that  obtained,  made  as 
many  applications  as  the  judge  would  allow  for  further  time  to  plead. 
At  the  expiration  of  this  period,  he  pleaded — 1st,  Non  est  fact  inn — 
2d,  Solvit  ad  diem — 3d,  Solvit  ante  diem* — 4th,  Solvit  post  diem — 
5th,  Performances.  It  is  needless  to  add,  all  these  pleas  were  pure 
legal  fictions.  The  plaintiffs,  in  their  replication,  took  issue  on  such 
pleas  as  concluded  to  the  contrary,  and  assigned  breaches  of  the  con- 
dition, according  to  the  statute.  The  breaches  assigned  were,  non- 
payment of  the  principal — non-payment  of  the  interest — and  non-per- 
formance of  the  covenants  of  the  mortgage-deed.  The  defendant,  for 
the  purpose  of  splitting  the  second  into  two  issues,  and  thereby  creating 
the  delay  of  an  issue  in  law,  to  be  tried  before  the  court  in  banco,  and 
an  issue  in  fact,  to  be  afterwards  tried  at  Nisi  Prius  before  a  jury, 
demurred  to  the  last  assignment  of  breaches — a  sham  demurrer  for 
delay.  The  plaintiffs  joined  in  demurrer,  and  made  up  and  delivered 
the  paper-book  and  demurrer-book.  The  defendant,  in  order  to  entitle 

*  Had  the  plaintiff's  pleader  chose,  the  law  enahled  him  to  demur  to  this  plea, 
(but  it  would  have  increased  the  delay  and  served  the  defendant's  purpose.)  The 
ground  of  the  doctrine,  that  paying  before  the  debt  falls  due  is  no  answer  to  the 
action  seems  not  very  intelligible,  hut  it  is  now  settled  law.  The  reason  assigned 
(in  Cass  v.  Tryon — though  there  are  cases  co»/ro,  see  Cro.  Eliz.  143,  Dyer,  22'J, 
and  also  11  Anne,  c.  lf>,  §  12)  is,  that  if  the  verdict  on  that  issue  goes  for  the  plain- 
tiff, it  by  no  means  follows  that  he  has  a  right  to  recover,  for  he  may  have  been 
paid  at  or  after  the  day.  Hut  so  it  may  he  said  of  a  plea  of  infancy — or,  indeed,  of 
siilvit  nd  diem  itself — (or  though  the  verdict  negative  that  plea,  nun  coruitnt  thai  there 
may  not  have  been  duress  or  a  release.  The  true  test  of  a  plea  (or  an  affirmative 
issue  tendered  at  any  stage  of  the  pleadings)  plainly  is  this — if  its  being  found  for 
him  who  pleads  it  decides  the  matter  in  his  favour,  no  new  fact  being  averred  on 
the  other  side,  it  is  good — if  not,  bad. 
VOL.  I. — 49 


578  LAW  REFORM. 

himself  to  bring  a  writ  of  error  for  delay,  without  giving  bail,  then 
suffered  judgment  to  go  by  default,  for  not  returning  the  paper  and 
demurrer-book.  The  consequence  of  this  was,  that  all  the  pleas,  re- 
plications, rejoinders,  and  demurrer,  became  useless,  and  were  struck 
out  of  the  record;  and  the  plaintiffs  had  to  execute  a  writ  of  inquiry 
before  the  Chief  Justice,  under  the  statute  of  William  III,  to  assess 
damages  on  the  breaches  suggested.  But  these  proceedings  had  an- 
swered the  purpose  of  harassing  the  poor  defendant  with  useless  and 
expensive  litigation,  swelling  the  pleadings  from  five  folios  to  one 
hundred  and  eighteen;  and  they  had  already  accomplished  much  de- 
lay, having  occupied  four  terms:  the  bill  was  filed  in  Trinity  Term, 
the  pleas  and  replication  in  Michaelmas  Term,  the  demurrer  and 
joinder  in  Hilary  Terra,  and  the  final  judgment  was  obtained  in  Easter 
Term.  The  defendant  then  brought  a  writ  of  error,  without  the  slight- 
est pretence  of  actual  error;  and  that  proceeding,  of  course,  delayed 
the  plaintiffs  four  terms  longer.  All  this  was  necessarily  attended 
with  expense,  grievous  to  a  poor  person,  as  the  party  in  this  case  was. 
The  costs  of  the  judgment  were  taxed  at  £SO,  4s.,  and  the  costs  in 
error  at  £19,  10s.,  making  together  £9.9  14s.  for  the  costs,  and  two 
years  for  the  delay  in  an  undefended  action,  in  which  the  length  of 
the  declaration  was  five  folios!  Comment  on  such  a  case  would  be 
a  waste  of  words."  It  would  indeed!  But  if  it  be  wanted,  Black- 
stone  shall  be  the  commentator.  "  So  tender  and  circumspect,"  saith 
he,  "  is  the  law  of  England  in  providing  that  no  man's  right  shall  be 
affected  by  any  legal  proceeding;  in  requiring  that  every  complaint 
be  accurately  and  precisely  ascertained  in  writing,  and  be  as  pointedly 
and  exactly  answered;  in  clearly  stating  the  law  and  the  fact;  in  de- 
liberately resolving  the  former  and  indisputably  fixing  the  latter  by  a 
diligent  trial;  in  correcting  such  errors  as  may  have  arisen  in  either 
decision,  and  in  finally  enforcing  the  judgment,  when  nothing  can  be 
alleged  to  impeach  it!  So  anxious  it  is  to  maintain  and  restore  to 
every  individual  the  enjoyment  of  his  civil  rights,  without  intrenching 
upon  these  of  any  other  individual  in  the  nation, — so  parentally  soli- 
citous is  our  whole  legal  constitution  to  preserve  that  spirit  of  equal 
liberty,  which  is  the  singular  felicity  of  the  British  nation."* 

I  must  now  tell  the  House,  that  besides  the  £99,  145.  taxed  costs, 
this  poor  widow  had  to  pay  £30  for  extra  costs,  which  she  never 
received  a  shilling  of  from  the  defendant,  and  which  she  had  to 
defray  after  he  had  handed  his  share  of  the  costs  over  to  the  plain- 
tiff's attorney.  In  prosecuting  an  undefended  cause  she  paid  this 
sum,  and  if  it  had  so  chanced  that  the  defendant,  instead  of  being 
merely  a  distressed  man  (for  I  happen  to  know  the  gentleman  in 
question,  and  that  though  a  distressed,  lie  is  not  an  oppressive  man); 
if  he  had  been  such  a  character  as  was  once  known  in  the  northern 
provinces,  and  as  we  have  had  represented  on  the  scene — pertina- 
cious, litigious,  grasping,  oppressive,  with  a  long  purse  to  back  him 
in  defending  acts  of  injustice  and  cruelty — he  would  have  resisted  at 

*  See  page  572,  supra,  where  the  same  passage  is  cited. 


LAW  REFORM.  579 

every  stage  of  the  action  by  counsel  and  witnesses;  he  would  have 
had  the  demurrer  argued  before  the  court;  he  would  have  tried  the 
issue  at  Nisi  Prius;  he  would  have  carried  his  writ  of  error  through 
the  Exchequer  Chamber  into  the  House  of  Lords;  and  then  the 
extra  costs,  instead  of  thirty  pounds,  would  have  amounted  to  I  dare 
not  say  what  sum,  knowing  that  costs  to  the  amount  of  hundreds 
have  been  incurred- to  recover  a  debt  of  twenty  pounds.  "So  tender 
is  the  law  of  England  in  providing  that  no  man's  right  should  be 
affected  by  any  legal  proceeding — so  parental  its  solicitude  to  main- 
tain and  restore  to  every  individual  the  enjoyment  of  his  civil  rights, 
without  intrenching  upon  those  of  any  other  person  whatsoever!" 

Sir,  after  Mr.  Justice  Blackstone  had  written  his  beautiful,  and, 
in  part,  profound  Commentaries,  there  occurred  a  case,  which  he 
published  himself  in  his  Reports,  and  which  must,  I  conclude,  have 
happened  after  the  panegyrics  were  composed.  I  marvel  much, 
however,  that  when  a  subsequent  edition  of  his  Commentaries  ap- 
peared, he  did  not  correct  the  error  into  which  he  must  then  have 
been  convinced  that  he  had  been  betrayed,  by  his  excessive  admira- 
tion for  the  forms  and  technicalities  of  our  common  law.  The  case, 
as  reported  by  himself,  was,  in  substance,  this: — A  gentleman  of  the 
name  of  Robinson,  in  Yorkshire,  was  minded  to  try  the  resources  of 
the  law  in  an  action  of  trespass  against  some  poor  men,  who  lived 
near  him.  In  the  course  of  it,  reference  was  made  to  the  Master,  to 
report  by  whose  fault  the  pleadings  in  the  action  had  extended  to  a 
most  enormous  and  unprecedented  length.  The  Master  reported, 
that  in  the  declaration  there  were  five  counts;  that  twenty-seven 
several  pleas  of  justification  were  pleaded  by  the  defendants,  which, 
with  replications,  traverses,  new  assignments,  and  other  monuments 
of  pleading,  amounted  at  length  to  a  paper  book  of  near  two  thou- 
sand sheets.  He  was  of  opinion  that  the  fault  lay  principally  in  the 
length  and  intricacy  of  the  declaration,  the  action  being  only  brought 
to  try  whether  the  freeholders  and  copyholders  of  the  manor,  whereof 
Robinson  was  lord,  were  entitled  to  common  in  a  ground  called  the 
Inclosnre.  He  likewise  reported  that  the  declaration  was  so  catching, 
by  ringing  changes  upon  the  several  defendants,  and  the  several 
names  of  the  ground,  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  defendants  to 
guard  every  loophole;  which  made  their  pleas  so  various  and  so  long, 
especially  as  Mr.  Robinson  had  declared  that  he  had  drawn  the 
declaration  in  this  manner  "on  purpose  to  catch  the  defendants,  and 
that  ho  would  scourge  them  with  a  rod  of  iron."  The  court  was 
very  indignant  at  this  abuse  of  the  technicalities  of  the  law,  and  the 
book  says  that  Mr.  Robinson  appeared  in  propria  persona,  to  show 
cause  against  this  report,  "  no  other  counsel  caring  to  be  employed 
for  him."  The  court  ordered  Mr.  Sergeant  Hewitt  and  Mr.  \Vinn  to 
settle  an  issue,  which  they  did  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  in  tho 
space  of  a  quarter  sheet  of  paper,  instead  of  two  thousand  folios. 
Talk  of  scourging  with  a  rod  of  iron!  Why  should  he  think  of  it? 
The  lash  of  parchment,  which  is  applied  to  all  suitors  in  our  courts 


580  LAW  REFORM. 

of  law — that  flapper,  which  keeps  them  awake  to  the  course  of  jus- 
tice by  the  expense  and  anxiety  it  inflicts — that  truly  parental  cor- 
rector of  human  errors,  manufactured  in  the  engines  of  practice  and 
pleading,  which,  pretending  to  enlighten,  serve  only  to  keep  the 
court  and  the  suitors  in  the  dark  as  to  what  they  are  conflicting 
about,  and  oftentimes  teach  them  nothing  certain,  but  that  they  are 
ruined,  and  cannot  tell  how:  this  parchment  lash  was  a  far  more 
safe  as  well  as  powerful  scourge  for  the  rich  and  crafty  lawyer,  and 
a  far  more  deadly  one  for  his  poor  and  simple  antagonists,  than  any 
rod  of  iron  which  he  could  have  had  forged  for  his  own  use  in  all 
Colebrookdale! 

v.  The  parties  being  now  supposed  at  issue  by  the  result  of  their 
pleadings,  the  facts  in  dispute  are  to  be  tried  by  a  jury  through  the 
medium  of  evidence,  and  the  comments  of  the  counsel  and  judge. 
Before  I  enter,  therefore,  on  the  head  of  Evidence  or  Proceedings,  or 
Trial  generally,  the  House  will  permit  me  to  say  a  few  words  upon 
the  subject  of  Juries,  the  rather  because  this  venerable  institution  has, 
I  lament  to  say,  been  of  late  years  attacked  by  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  legal  reformers.  Speaking  from  experience,  and  ex- 
perience alone,  as  a  practical  lawyer,  I  must  aver  that  I  consider  the 
method  of  juries  a  most  wholesome,  wise,  and  almost  perfect  inven- 
tion, for  the  purposes  of  judicial  inquiry.  In  the  first  place,  it  controls 
the  judge,  who  might,  not  only  in  political  cases,  have  a  prejudice 
against  one  party,  or  a  leaning  towards  another,  but  might  also,  in 
cases  not  avowedly  political,  where  some  cord  of  political  feeling  is 
unexpectedly  struck,  if  left  supreme,  show  a  bias  respecting  suitors, 
or  what  is  as  detrimental  to  justice,  their  counsel  or  attorneys.  In 
the  second  place,  it  supplies  that  knowlege  of  the  world,  and  that 
sympathy  with  its  tastes  and  feelings,  which  judges  seldom  possess, 
and  which,  from  their  habits  and  station  in  society,  it  is  not  decent 
that  they  should  possess,  in  a  large  measure,  upon  all  subjects.  In 
the  third  place,  what  individual  can  so  well  weigh  conflicting  evi- 
dence, as  twelve  men  indifferently  chosen  from  the  middle  classes  of 
the  community,  of  various  habits,  characters,  prejudices,  and  ability? 
The  number  and  variety  of  the  persons  are  eminently  calculated  to 
secure  a  sound  conclusion  upon  the  opposing  evidence  of  witnesses 
or  of  circumstances.  Lastly,  what  individual  can  so  well  assess  the 
amount  of  damages  which  a  plaintiff  ought  to  recover  for  an  injury 
he  has  received?  How  can  a  judge  decide  half  so  well  as  an  intelli- 
gent jury,  whether  he  should  recover  as  a  compensation  for  an 
assault,  fifty  pounds,  or  a  hundred  pounds  damages? — or  for  the 
seduction  of  his  wife  or  daughter,  fifteen  hundred,  or  two  thousand, 
or  five  thousand  pounds  damages?  The  system  is  above  all  praise — 
it  looks  well  in  theory,  and  works  well  in  practice;  it  wants  only  one 
thing  to  render  it  perfect — namely,  that  it  should  be  applied  to  those 
cases  from  which  the  practice  in  equity  has  excluded  it;  and  that 
improvement  would  be  best  effected  by  drawing  back  to  it  the  cases 
which  the  courts  of  equity  have  taken  from  the  common  law,  and 


LAW  REFORM.  581 

which  they  constantly  evince  their  incapicity  to  deal  with,  by  sending 
issues  to  be  tried  whenever  any  difficulty  occurs.* 

I  shall  not  press  this  subject  further,  for  I  begin  to  feel  that  I  shall 
be  exhausted  with  the  labour  1  have  undertaken,  and  I  fear  that  your 
patience  may  be  exhausted  wilh  my  strength.  I  will  therefore  pro- 
ceed to  the  great  subject  of  Evidence;  and,  first  of  all,  we  are  met  by 
the  question — Ought  the  testimony  of  the  parties  to  be  excluded? 
The  strong  opinion  expressed  by  some  great  authorities  on  this  head 
requires  that,  before  entering  on  the  Law  of  Evidence,  we  should 
touch  the  fundamental  rule  which  draws  so  broad  a  line  between 
parties  and  witnesses.  It  is  clear  that  the  law  on  this  head  re- 
quires revising;  it  is  not  so  clear  that  the  reform  will  be  best  accom- 
plished by  receiving  every  one's  testimony  in  his  own  cause.  The 
friend  of  exclusion  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  that  the  situation  of 
a  party  differs  wholly  from  that  of  another  person;  whereas  it  only 
differs  in  the  degree  of  the  bias  arising  out  of  interest,  from  the  situa- 
tion of  many  who  are  every  day  allowed  to  depose.  He  also  main- 
tains that  it  is  dangerous  to  receive  the  party's  evidence,  because  of 
the  temptation  afforded  to  perjury.  That  there  is  much  in  this  argu- 
ment, I  admit;  but,  speaking  from  my  own  observation,  I  should  say 
that  there  is  more  risk  of  rash  swearing,  than  of  actual  perjury — of 
the  party  becoming  zealous  and  obstinate,  and  seeing  things  in  false 
colours,  or  shutting  his  eyes  to  the  truth,  and  recollecting  imperfectly, 
or  not  at  all,  when  his  passions  are  roused  by  litigation.  I  shall  not 
easily  forget  a  case  in  which  a  gentleman  of  large  fortune  appeared 
before  an  able  arbitrator,  now  filling  an  eminent  judicial  place,  on 
some  dispute  of  his  own,  arising  out  of  an  election.  It  was  my  lot  to 
cross-examine  him.  I  had  got  a  great  number  of  letters  in  a  pile 
under  my  hand,  but  concealed  from  him  by  a  desk.  lie  was  very 
eager  to  be  heard  in  his  own  cause.  I  put  the  question  to  him — 
"  Did  you  never  say  so  and  so?"  His  answer  was  distinct  and  ready 
— "Never."  I  repeated  the  question  in  various  forms, and  with  more 
particularity,  and  he  repeated  his  answer,  till  he  had  denied  most 
pointedly  all  he  had  ever  written  on  the  matter  in  controversy.  This 
passed  before  the  rule  of  evidence  laid  down  by  the  judges  in  the 
Queen's  case;  consequently  I  could  examine  him  without  putting  the 
letters  into  his  hand.  I  then  removed  the  desk,  and  said — "Do  you 
see  what  is  now  under  my  hand?"  pointing  to  about  fifty  of  his  letters. 
•'  I  advise  you  to  pause  before  you  repeat  your  answer  to  the  general 
question,  whether  or  not  all  you  have  sworn  is  correct."  He  rejected 
my  advice,  and  not  without  indignation.  Now,  thoso  letters  of  his 
contained  matter  in  direct  contradiction  to  all  he  had  sworn.  I  do 
not  say  that  he  perjured  himself — far  from  it.  I  do  not  believe  that 
he  intentionally  swore  what  was  false;  he  only  forgot  what  he  had 

*  It  is  fitting  that  we  speak  with  reverence  even  of  the  unfounded  doubts  of  so 
preat  a  man  and  profound  a  jurisconsult  as  Mr.  Hentham.  Ho  was,  Ix-yond  all 
dispute,  the  first  who  taught  men  to  examine  the  foundations  of  our  I.ejj.il  Institu- 
tions, and  the  ahuscs  that  have  grown  up  with  them.  Sir  S.  Homilly  wus  the  first 
to  question  them  in  Parliament. 

49" 


582  LAW  REFORM. 

written  some  time  before.  Nevertheless,  he  had  committed  himself, 
and  was  in  my  client's  power.  I  said — "  My  advice  is,  that  you  pay 
the  whole  demand  before  to-morrow."  This  only  increased  his 
anger.  He  "  scorned  the  offer  and  the  imputation."  Turning  to  his 
solicitor,  1  asked  if  he  concurred  in  his  client's  view  of  my  proposi- 
tion?— "  Very  far  from  it,"  was  the  answer.  The  meeting  broke  up, 
the  arbitration  terminated,  and  the  money  was  paid  the  next  morning. 
Now,  had  this  trial  occurred  in  an  open  court,  the  gentleman  would 
have  been  ruined  for  ever;  he  would  have  had  no  opportunity  of  ex- 
plaining, nay,  all  explanation  would  have  been  useless;  if  he  had 
escaped  prosecution,  he  would  have  been  suspected  of  perjury  ever 
after,  when  all  that  he  was  guilty  of  was  too  much  eagerness,  too 
much  impetuosity,  and  a  little  wrong-headedness,  arising  from  confi- 
dence in  his  own  cause,  and  a  desire  to  defeat  his  adversary.  But 
this  anecdote  is  fruitful  in  matter  of  reflection.  On  the  one  hand,  we 
see  the  risks  of  admitting  impure  or  uncertain  evidence,  and  the  pro- 
bability of  receiving  wrong  impressions  respecting  a  witness's  bias 
while  undergoing  the  question;  on  the  other  hand,  we  perceive  that, 
to  a  certain  degree,  the  same  consequences  flow  from  our  present 
practice  of  allowing  such  evidence  in  some  cases,  and  not  in  all.  Our 
system  is  clearly  inconsistent  in  this  particular.  At  least  we  ought  to 
be  uniform  in  our  practice.  Why  refuse  to  allow  a  party  in  a  cause 
to  be  examined  before  a  jury,  when  you  allow  him  to  swear  in  his 
own  behalf  in  your  Courts  of  Equity,  in  your  Ecclesiastical  Courts, 
and  even  in  the  mass  of  business  decided  by  Common  Law  Judges 
on  affidavit?  Why  is  the  rule  reversed  on  passing  from  one  side  of 
Westminster-hall  to  the  other,  as  if  the  laws  of  our  nature  had  been 
changed  during  the  transit,  so  that  no  party  being  ever  allowed  before 
a  jury  to  utter  a  syllable  in  his  own  cause,  in  all  cases  before  an 
Equity  Judge,  parties  are  fully  sworn  to  the  merits  of  their  own  cause? 
If  it  be  said  that  there  is  no  cross-examination  here,  I  answer,  that 
this  is  a  very  good  argument  to  show  the  inefficacy  of  equity  pro- 
ceedings for  extracting  truth  from  defendants,  but  no  reason  for  fol- 
lowing a  different  rule  in  the  two  jurisdictions.  Indeed,  the  incon- 
sistencies of  our  system  in  this  respect  almost  pass  comprehension. 
All  pleas  at  law  are  pleaded  without  any  restriction  upon  their  false- 
hood; in  equity  the  defendant  answers  under  the  sanction  of  an  oath. 
But  equity  is  as  inconsistent  with  itself  as  it  is  different  from  common 
law;  for  the  plaintiff  may  aver  as  freely  as  he  pleases,  without  any 
oath  or  any  risk  at  all.  When  an  inquiry  is  instituted  into  these 
things,  I  do  venture  to  hope  that  something  will  be  done  to  diminish 
the  number  of  matters  decided  on  affidavit.  This  is,  indeed,  a  fruitful 
parent  of  fraud  and  perjury,  and  not  only  a  great  departure  from  the 
principle  which  excludes  the  testimonies  of  parties,  but  an  abuse  of 
all  principle;  for  he  who  would  allow  such  testimony,  under  due  re- 
straints, may  very  naturally  argue  that  suffering  men  to  swear  for 
themselves,  without  being  exposed  to  cross-examination,  must  lead  to 
endless  equivocation,  suppression  of  truth,  and  all  the  moral  guilt, 
without  the  danger,  of  actual  perjury.  If  it  be  right  to  exclude  the 


LAW  REFORM.  583 

parties  from  giving  evidence  in  their  own  belialf  in  one  case,  it  is  not 
right  to  admit  them  to  give  evidence  in  others;  and  more  especially  it 
is  absurd  to  admit  them  where  they  have  the  power  of  deceiving  with 
impunity,  and  exclude  them  where  they  would  swear  under  checks 
and  restraints.* 

1.  The  first  matter  that  presents  itself  to  my  attention,  when  I  come 
to  the  subject  of  Evidence,  is  the  great  question  (intimately  connected 
with  what  I  have  been  discussing,)  how  far  interest  should  disqualify 
a  witness.  The  ancient  doctrine  upon  this  point  has,  of  late  years, 
been  so  much  restricted  by  our  courts  of  law,  so  little  is  left  of  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  this  objection  to  competency  rested,  that,  for  my  own 
part,  I  will  confess  I  cannot  see  any  adequate  reason  why  all  witnesses 
of  good  fame,  that  is,  all  not  convicted  of  an  infamous  offence,  should 
not  be  admitted,  leaving  the  question  of  their  credibility,  and  the 
weight  of  their  testimony,  to  the  consideration  of  the  jury.  In  the 
case  of  "  Bent  v.  Baker,"  an  action  against  one  underwriter  of  a  policy, 
the  court  held  that  another  underwriter  of  the  same  policy  was  a  com- 
petent witness  for  the  defendant,  because  the  verdict  could  not  be 
evidence  in  an  action  against  himself,  although  it  was  clear  that  the 
first  action  must,  in  fact,  decide  both  claims.  After  that  decision,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  there  is  any  rational  ground  for  exclusion  on  account 
of  interest  in  the  event,  any  more  than  interest  in  the  question.  The 
rule  thus  established  has  ever  since  been  followed;  and  now,  in  all 
cases,  a  person  is  competent,  whatever  bias  he  may  have  from  interest, 
provided  the  verdict  cannot  be  given  for  or  against  him  in  another 
cause;  the  bias  under  which  he  swears  being  only  a  circumstance  that 
goes  to  his  credit.  After  this  it  is  in  vain  to  exclude  any  evidence  upon 
the  ground  of  interest  in  the  event,  and  the  principle  should  be  ex- 
tended to  all  interest,  direct  or  indirect.  For  let  the  House  look  at 
the  inconsistency  of  the  present  system.  If  I  have  the  most  distant 
interest,  even  the  interest  of  a  shilling,  in  reversion  on  an  estate  of 
£50,000  a-year,  I  am  incompetent  to  give  evidence  on  any  point  affect- 
ing that  estate;  but  suppose  I  have  a  father  ninety  years  of  age,  lunatic, 
bedridden,  at  the  point  of  death,  and  quite  incapable  of  doing  any  legal 
act  whatever — that  he  is  in  possession  of  an  estate  in  fee-simple — that 
I  expect  to  be  his  heir— or  that  he  had  formerly  made  a  valid  will  in 
my  favour,  so  that  nothing  can  prevent  me  from  succeeding  the  moment 
he  dies,  I  may  be  a  witness  to  give  him  the  estate:  I  am  competent  to 
swear  into  the  possession  of  my  father  a  property  of  £50,000  a-year, 
to  which,  in  the  common  course  of  events,  I  must  myself  succeed  in  a 
few  weeks.  But  pecuniary  interest  is  not  the  only  feeling  that  biases 
the  mind  of  a  witness;  and  yet  any  one  may  swear  for  a  parent,  a 
brother,  a  sister,  a  child,  on  questions  most  nearly  affecting  the  peace, 
and  honour,  and  happiness  of  the  whole  family.  I  therefore  think 
that  a  line  ought  to  be  drawn,  not  between  one  sort  of  interest  and 
another,  but  between  competency  and  credit;  and  that  all  should  be 
admitted  to  give  evidence,  leaving  it  to  the  jury  to  determine  what 

*  This  defect  remains  as  before. 


584  LAW  REFORM. 

dependence  may  be  placed  upon  their  testimony.  This  is  rendered  the 
more  fit  by  the  nature  of  the  shifts  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
storing the  competency  of  interested  witnesses;  I  allude,  of  course,  to 
that  notable  expedient,  a  release  of  all  actions  or  causes  of  action. 
When  a  witness  has  an  interest,  if  he  is  deprived  of  it  by  a  release, 
there  is  no  objection  to  his  competency.  Evidence  is  thus  often  cooked 
up  for  the  court,  nay,  in  the  court,  while  the  witness  is  in  the  box, 
which,  according  to  the  existing  rules,  is  not  admissible,  without  such 
a  process.  Now,  what  is  the  real  effect  of  the  release  on  the  mind  of 
the  witness?  Just  nothing — for  if  he  be  an  honourable  man,  he  gives 
it  up  the  moment  he  leaves  the  box,  and  while  swearing  he  knows  that 
he  is  to  do  so;  so  that  the  operation  which  has  been  performed  upon 
him  adds  a  pound  to  the  year's  revenue,  nothing  to  the  credit  of  his 
testimony.* 

2.  With  regard  to  written  evidence,  I  must  say  that  it  appears  to 
be  no  less  capriciously  required  than  dispensed  with.     I  think  as  highly 
as  any  lawyer  ever  did  of  the  Statute  of  Frauds;  I  would  go  the  full 
length  of  the  learned  judge  who  said  that  every  line  in  it  was  worthy 
a  subsidy;  and  it  is,  therefore,  that  I  could  wish  a  few  lines  might  be 
added,  so  as  to  increase  the  number  of  subsidies  at  which  I  may  value 
it.    First,  I  would  extend  the  number  of  cases  in  which  written  evi- 
dence is  exacted.     The  French  law  requires  that  all  contracts  for  sums 
above  150  francs  should  be  reduced  into  writing,  and  even  authen- 
ticated by  notarial  forms.     I  would  adopt  some  such  extension  of  our 
statute;  and  as  almost  all  men  are  able  to  write  at  the  present  day,  I 
do  not  think  this  would  occasion  any  inconvenience.     But  then  the 
outlets  should  be  stopped  up,  by  which  the  exigency  of  the  statute  is 
escaped.     I  think,  as  far  as  I  can  discern  from  reading  the  French 
Code  Civile,  and  the  Conferences  upon  it  (a  wonderful  monument  of 
Napoleon's  genius,  as  well  as  of  the  talents  of  his  counsellors),  that  no 
part  performance  takes  a  case  out  of  the  French  enactment.     With  us, 
the  things  are  so  numerous  which  take  transactions  out  of  the  Statute 
of  Frauds,  that  the  memorandum  in  writing  is  only  in  a  small  propor- 
tion of  cases  required.     Hence,  among  other  consequences,  much  sub- 
tlety of  construction — often  needlessly  extended  by  jurisconsult  exer- 
citations,  as  the  distinction  between  crops  growing  and  severed,  or  a 
right  and  an  easement,  in  determining  what  is  an  interest  in  land.t     A 
judicious  enactment,  restoring  the  force  of  the  statute  in  these,  particu- 
lars, as  well  as  extending  it  to  other  cases,  would  be  highly  beneficial 
in  preventing  fraud,  perjury,  and  litigation:  and  could  offer  no  impedi- 
ment to  commerce,  further  than  the  beneficial  one  of  narrowing  the 
credit  given  by  small  tradesmen. 

3.  The  rule  by  which  a  man's  books  are  let  in,  or  excluded,  after 
his  decease,  is  also,  in  my  mind,  extremely  defective.     They  are  evi- 

*  This  is  still  unaltered. 

f  Thus  a  license  for  any  number  of  years  to  stack  coals  on  a  close  is  not  within 
the  statute;  such  n  complete  occupation  of  every  inch  of  the  surface,  and  exclusive 
of  all  other  use  of  it,  even  by  way  of  easement,  is  not  held  to  be  an  interest  in  land. 
There  is  a  case  to  this  effect  in  Sayer's  Reports. 


LAW  REFORM.  5S5 

dencc,  if  he  has  entered  the  receipt  of  sums  by  which  he  makes  him- 
self chargeable  to  any  amount.  If  he  only  debits  himself  with  the 
receipt  of  £5,  which  very  likely  he  may  have  received,  he  makes  his 
books  evidence  for  his  representatives,  who  may  gain  £500  to  which 
he  never  was  entitled.  The  ground  on  which  they  ought  to  be  ex- 
cluded is,  the  general  probability  of  their  having  been  made  for  the 
purpose  of  creating  evidence;  but  that  probability  is  never  weighed  at 
all  in  the  particular  instance.  We  had  much  discussion  of  this  mat- 
ter in  the  case  of  Barker  v.  Wray,  before  Lord  Eldon,  who  appeared 
exceedingly  to  question  the  soundness  of  the  received  rule;  this  at 
least  was  certainly  the  impression  of  the  bar.  Would  it  not  be  better 
to  abolish  the  legal  presumption,  exceedingly  ill-founded  in  fact,  which 
lets  in  all  such  documents  generally,  and  as  generally  excludes  all 
others,  and  to  substitute  in  its  place  the  rule,  that  any  deceased  per- 
son's books  or  memorandums  may  be  received,  provided  it  appear 
that  they  were  not  prepared  with  a  view  of  making  evidence  for  his 
successors,  but  plainly  alio  intuitu?  Observe,  too,  that  in  one  case 
we  admit,  without  any  qualification,  the  books  of  a  predecessor,  in  his 
successor's  behalf.  I  mean  entries  made  by  a  deceased  rector  or  vicar 
of  the  receipt  of  tithes,  which  are  always  admitted  as  evidence  for 
succeeding  incumbents,  because  he  is  supposed  to  have  had  no  inte- 
rest in  misstating  the  fact — as  if  the  clergy  were  always  entirely  free 
from  the  influence  of  a  corporation  spirit. 

4.  Than  the  rules  for  the  examination  of  witnesses,  I  am  of  opinion 
that  nothing  can  be  better,  generally  speaking.  Every  facility  is 
afforded  to  counsel  for  extracting  the  truth.  Upon  this  important 
head,  therefore,  my  remarks  will  be  few.  There  is  a  want  of  uni- 
formity in  the  practice  of  the  judges  towards  counsel  engaged  in  ex- 
amination. Some  will  not  allow  them  to  cross-examine  a  witness 
they  have  called  themselves,  even  though  he  is  stated  when  produced 
to  be  a  hostile  one;  and  others  will  not  allow  them  to  put  a  leading 
question  to  an  adversary's  witness,  in  cross-examination,  if  he  be  really 
friendly  to  them.  The  sound  rule  seems  to  be  that  it  depends  on  the 
connections  and  demeanour  of  the  witness,  whether  he  shall  be  re- 
garded as  the  witness  of  the  party  producing  him  or  no.  Again,  cer- 
tain tests  are  excluded,  by  which  the  capacity  and  the  credit  of  a 
witness  may  best  be  tried.  If  I  wish  to  put  a  witness's  memory  to 
the  test,  I  am  not  allowed  to  examine  him  as  to  the  contents  of  a 
letter  or  other  paper  which  he  has  written.  I  must  put  the  document 
into  his  hands  before  I  ask  him  any  questions  upon  it;  though  by  so 
doing  he  at  once  becomes  acquainted  with  its  contents,  and  so  defeats 
the  object  of  my  inquiry.  That  question  was  raised  and  decided  in 
the  Queen's  case,  after  solemn  argument,  and  I  humbly  venture  to 
think,  upon  a  wrong  ground,  namely,  that  the  writing  is  the  best  evi- 
dence and  ought  to  be  produced,  though  it  is  plain  that  the  object  hero 
is  by  no  means  to  prove  its  contents.  Neither  am  I,  in  like  manner, 
allowed  to  apply  the  test  to  his  veracity;  and  yet  how  can  a  hotter 
means  be  found  of  sifting  a  person's  credit,  supposing  his  memory  to 


586  LAW  REFORM. 

be  good,  than  examining  him  to  the  contents  of  a  letter,  written  by 
him,  and  which  he  believes  to  be  lost? 

There  is  a  test,  excluded  in  cases  of  libel,  of  which  I  shall  say  the 
less,  that  I  brought  in  a  bill  some  years  ago  to  remedy  this  defect. 
The  main  question  in  any  prosecution  for  libel  being  the  innocence  or 
guilt  of  the  publication,  is  it  not  preposterous  to  keep  the  proof  of  its 
truth  or  falsehood  from  the  view  of  the  court?  Almost  everything 
else  is  admitted  which  can  throw  any  light  upon  the  motives  of  the 
party;  but  that  is  carefully  shut  out  which  is  the  best  test  by  far  of 
their  nature,  though  certainly  only  an  unilateral  test,  inasmuch  as 
there  must  always  be  guilt,  if  there  is  falsehood,  though  truth  does 
not  of  necessity  prove  innocence.  Nay,  the  defendant  cannot  even 
be  allowed  to  urge  the  truth  in  mitigation  of  punishment  after  convic- 
tion; as  if  there  were  the  same  criminality  in  publishing  that  a  man 
had  been  tried  and  sentenced  to  the  galleys  for  forgery,  who  was  sen- 
tenced, and  that  an  innocent  individual  had  been  sent  thither,  who 
never  had  been  tried  or  even  suspected  of  the  offence — a  case  which 
lately  occurred  within  my  own  experience. 

Another  test,  of  a  still  more  important  kind,  is  excluded  by  a  very 
injudicious  refinement  of  our  law,  its  repugnance  to  try  collateral 
issues.  A  foul  charge  is  brouaht  against  a  man,  of  rape,  or  some  yet 
more  horrid  offence,  and  the  liberty  of  cross-examining  the  prosecutor 
or  his  witness,  whom  I  may  assume  to  be  his  fellow  conspirator,  is, 
in  a  most  important  particular,  restrained.  The  defendant's  counsel 
may  address  the  witness  thus — "  Were  you  not  examined  on  different 
occasions,  at  four  or  five  several  sessions,  when  you  sought,  by  your 
testimony,  to  convict  as  many  different  individuals  of  an  offence 
similar  to  that  which  you  now  accuse  this  prisoner  of  committing; 
and  were  not  all  those  persons  whom  you  so  persecuted  acquitted? 
Did  not  the  court  reprimand  you  for  prevarication,  nay,  order  a  bill 
for  perjury  to  be  preferred  against  you?"  True,  the  counsel  is  at 
liberty  to  put  questions  like  these;  but  what,  if  the  witness  answers, 
as  in  all  probability  he  will,  be  the  fact  how  it  may — "  No?"  The 
prisoner  cannot  give  evidence  in  contradiction  of  the  wretch's  asser- 
tion, at  least  the  practice  goes  the  full  length  of  this.  But  at  any  rate 
it  is  quite  clear  law  that,  if  the  witness  is  asked,  "  Mave  you  not  your- 
self been  guilty,  repeatedly,  of  this  very  crime  which  you  now  wish 
to  fasten  on  the  prisoner?"  and  he  should  reply,  as  doubtless  he  will, 
"  No," — the  prisoner  is  not  allowed  to  adduce  evidence  of  the  fact, 
because,  forsooth,  the  court  cannot  try  "collateral  issues,"  unless  the 
record  of  a  conviction  is  produced.  Nay,  I  have  known  judges, 
though  on  this  they  differ,  who  would  not  suffer  the  prosecutrix,  in  a 
case  of  rape,  to  be  asked  if  she  had  not  led  an  unchaste  life  before, 
because  a  common  whore  may  be  ravished, — as  if  the  probability  of 
the  event  were  the  same  in  all  cases,  and  were  nothing  to  the  ques- 
tion under  consideration. 

5.  Furthermore,  I  ask,  why  should  any  class  of  persons  be  ex- 
cluded from  giving  evidence  in  criminal  cases  on  account  of  their 


LAW  REFORM.  587 

religious  opinions,  notwithstanding  their  testimony  is  admissible  in 
cases  of  a  civil  nature?  A  Quaker  is  precluded  by  his  religion  from 
taking  an  oath;  his  affirmation  is  received  in  civil,  but  rejected  in 
criminal  cases.  I  was  once  employed,  with  two  of  my  learned  friends, 
to  defend  a  man,  prosecuted  by  the  Attorney-General,  for  a  mis- 
demeanour. We  had  a  very  worthy  and  learned  physician,  by 
whose  testimony  we  expected  to  rebut  the  charge;  but  it  turned  out, 
when  he  came  to  the  witness-box,  that  he  was  a  Quaker;  of  course 
he  would  not  swear,  and  equally  of  course  he  could  not  affirm.  Our 
client,  also  of  course,  was  convicted.  This  is  bad  every  way;  it  is 
bad,  for  that  it  suffers  guilt  to  escape;  it  is  bad,  for  that  it  suffers  inno- 
cence to  be  destroyed.  The  Quakers,  it  is  true,  desire  not  to  see  a 
change,  because,  being  averse  to  capital  punishments,  they  do  not 
wish  their  testimony  to  be  used  in  capital  cases;  but  they  forget  that 
their  evidence  may  be  the  only  means  of  saving  an  innocent  person 
from  the  very  punishment  of  death  to  which  they  object,  and  that, 
rather  than  help  to  hang  the  guilty,  because  they  dislike  the  punish- 
ment, they  are  allowing  the  innocent  to  suffer  by  the  self-same  punish- 
ment. There  is,  in  my  opinion,  no  reason  for  excluding  any  indivi- 
dual, be  he  of  what  religion,  sect,  or  persuasion  he  may,  from  giving 
testimony  in  cases  of  every  kind,  provided  he  believes  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  God,  and  a  state  of  future  rewards  and  punishments;  and  is 
not  openly  infamous  by  sentence  of  a  court.* 

6.  I  have  already,  in  speaking  of  competence  of  evidence,  said 
somewhat  of  presumptions;  but  there  is  a  class  of  presumptions 
which  has  found  its  way  into  the  practice  of  all  courts,  and  ought,  in 
my  opinion,  to  be  carefully  excluded;  I  mean  presumptions  affecting 
the  weight  of  evidence,  tending  to  withdraw  the  attention  of  the  court 
from  the  facts  of  the  particular  case,  and  to  produce  a  decision  founded 
upon  some  kind  of  average  taken  from  other  cases,  and  because  taken 
at  a  former  period,  of  course  excluding  the  case  in  hand.  It  has  thus 
become  almost  a  rule  of  law,  that  perjury  can  only  be  proved  by  two 
witnesses,  or,  perhaps,  by  one  witness  and  the  defendant's  handwri- 
ting. Why  may  not  other  circumstances  exist,  quite  as  sufficient  to 
cast  the  balance  against  the  oath  of  the  accused, and  give  credit  to  his 
accuser?  This  presumption  goes  in  favour  of  the  defendant;  but  there 
is  another,  by  which  he  is  often,  I  am  convinced,  improperly  con- 
victed; I  mean  the  rule  that  an  accomplice  is  entitled  to  credit  in  all 
particulars,  provided  he  be  confirmed  in  some.  I  once,  many  years 
ago,  endeavoured  to  contend  for  a  limitation  of  this  rule,  when  the  late 
Chief  Baron  Thompson  presided  in  the  Special  Commission  at  York. 
I  maintained  that  it  was  necessary  to  give  the  confirmation  upon  some 
fact  which  could  not  be  true  consistently  with  the  defendant's  guilt- 
lessness. It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  law  knows  no  such  qualifi- 
cation, and  the  judge  whom  I  have  named,  than  whom  no  greater 
criminal  lawyer,  or  more  humane  and  upright  man  ever  existed, 

*  This  disability  of  Quakers  and  other  sectaries  has  since  been   removed  by 
statute. 


588  LAW  REFORM. 

ruled,  with  his  reverend  brethren,  against  me;  and  seventeen  men 
suffered  death,  some  of  whom  were  convicted  on  the  testimony  of  ac- 
complices. I  do  not  exactly  recollect,  whether  the  confirmation  was 
as  slight  as  would  barely  satisfy  the  exigency  of  the  rule;  but  I  am 
very  sure,  that  instances  frequently  occur  in  which  the  story  of  an  ac- 
complice leads  to  conviction,  while  all  the  witnesses  of  credit  swear 
only  to  slight  or  wholly  equivocal  circumstances. 

7.  It  is  a  somewhat  similar  anomaly  in  the  rules  of  evidence,  that 
the  court  always  takes  upon  itself  to  construe  written  instruments,  of 
whatever  kind,  as  if  their  sense  must  be  matter  of  law,  while  the 
weight  of  all  parol  evidence  is  as  invariably  left  to  the  jury.  Why 
should  the  assistance  of  the  jury  be  wholly  rejected  in  this  province? 
It  is  another  and  a  kindred  rule,  that  where,  on  the  face  of  a  writing, 
there  is  an  apparent,  or  as  the  lawyers  term  it,  a  patent  ambiguity,  no 
other  evidence  can  be  allowed  to  explain  it;  where  the  ambiguity  is 
latent,  or  raised  by  extrinsic  evidence,  there,  other  evidence  may  be 
adduced  to  remove  it.  This  principle  has  been  laid  down  by  high  legal 
authority;  for  it  is  first  clearly  stated  by  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon — but 
I  am  much  disposed  to  question  its  correctness.  Coupled  with  the 
other  rule,  which  precludes  the  jury  from  construing  written  evidence, 
it  tends  greatly  to  narrow  and  darken  the  path  to  correct  decision. 

This  naturally  leads  us  to  examine  a  little  how  the  courts  have 
exercised  this,  which  they  have  thus  claimed  as  their  exclusive  pro- 
vince; and  we  are  thus  conducted  to  a  variety  of  other  presumptions 
respecting  evidence,  which  have  been  received  and  acted  upon,  so  as 
now  to  have  become  rules  of  interpretation,  and  parcel  of  the  law  of 
the  land.  With  much  unfeigned  respect  for  the  authority  of  the  great 
names  whose  sanction  this  large  branch  of  our  jurisprudence  has  en- 
joyed, and  with  much  admiration  of  the  ingenuity  and  astuteness 
which  it  has  called  forth,  I  must  be  permitted  to  say,  that,  considering 
the  paramount  object  of  all  law — its  use  as  a  rule  of  life  for  the  people, 
no  part  of  our  system  is  less  entitled  to  praise. 

It  should  seem  that  one  obvious  principle  of  construction  would  be 
to  take  words  in  their  plain  ordinary  sense,  and  always  to  construe 
them  alike,  in  whatever  instrument  they  might  be  used.  Only  let 
lawyers  consider  what  a  mass  of  technical  niceties  and  real  difficulties 
this  would  get  rid  of;  only  let  them  reflect  on  the  consequences  that 
do  result  from  following  the  very  opposite  course.  Why  should  the 
same  words  be  differently  construed  in  a  will  and  in  a  deed?  Why 
do  words,  which  in  one  species  of  instrument  give  an  estate  in  fee, 
convey  only  a  life-interest  in  the  other?  Why  should  the  last  words 
employed  in  a  will  overrule  the  earlier  ones,  and  not  in  a  deed,  on  the 
vain  refinement  that  those  express  a  man's  latest  intention — as  if  the 
whole  taken  together  were  not  his  latter  will,  as  much  as  the  whole, 
taken  together,  are  his  deed?  But  even  in  wills,  where  we  affect  most 
to  follow  the  intent,  so  nice  is  the  construction,  so  technical  has  it  be- 
come through  many  decisions  of  the  courts,  and  so  imperfect  conse- 
quently is  the  knowledge  generally  possessed  by  people  on  the  sub- 
ject, that  a  man  cannot  well  be  more  in  the  dark  on  the  subject  of  the 


LAW  REFORM.  5S9 

distribution  of  his  property  after  his  will  has  taken  effect,  by  his  being 
naturally  dead,  than  he  is  at  the  very  moment  of  making  it.  In  fact, 
most  men,  while  disposing,  or  fancying  they  dispose  of  their  property, 
do  not,  in  the  least,  know  what  they  are  doing.  An  unlearned  indi- 
vidual thinks  he  is  giving  a  life-estate  when  he  is  giving  an  estate  in 
fee,  or  in  tail,  and  vice  versa.  The  testator,  J.  Williams,  whose  will 
gave  rise  to  the  case  of  Perrin  v.  Jl/ake,  where  the  rule  in  Shelley's 
case  was  extended,  little  dreamt  that  the  first  taker  was  to  have  the 
absolute  control  over  the  property,  when  he  directed  him  to  take  an 
estate  for  his  life  and  no  longer.  Observe,!  am  far  from  complaining 
of  that  any  more  than  of  Shelley's  case.  The  refinement  which  unites 
the  particular  estate  with  the  remainder,  in  the  issue  of  the  first  taker, 
is  little  more  than  an  application  of  the  simplest  rule  in  law,  that  an 
estate  to  a  man  and  his  heirs  (or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  to  a  man  for 
life,  with  remainder  to  his  heirs)  is  a  fee  simple.  But  the  law  should 
prevent  the  niceties,  occasioned  by  following  out  its  principles,  from 
misleading  those  who  are  ignorant  of  those  principles.  By  freeing  it 
from  such  technicalities  you  would,  I  think,  rather  elevate  the  study 
of  jurisprudence  and  raise  its  professors;  I  am  certain  you  would 
benefit  all  the  rest  of  the  King's  subjects.* 

It  is  hardly  to  be  conceived  how  much,  as  matters  at  present  stand, 
a  man  who  makes  his  will  is  in  the  dark  as  to  its  final  operation. 
Thus  the  creditor  who  appoints  his  debtor  executor  of  his  will,  is 
considered  as  having  granted  a  release  of  the  debt:  what  ordinary 
person  would  think  he  had  done  so?  The  very  same  reasons  that 
induced  him  to  lend  the  money,  and  to  count  up  its  faithful  repay- 
ment, friendship,  blood,  confidence,  naturally  lead  him  to  appoint  the 
borrower  his  executor.  I  have  known  it  happen  in  this  way  fifty 
times  in  the  country;  yet  the  debt  is  gone  at  law;  and  equity  will 
only  relieve  by  holding  the  executor  a  trustee,  where  there  are  other 
debts  and  no  free  fund  to  pay  them,  or  some  words  showing  an  in- 
tention to  revive  the  debt — words  not  very  likely  to  be  used  by  a 
person  who  never  dreamt  of  its  being  extinguished.  Then  suppose 
a  man  has  made  two  wills  of  the  same  date,  and  cancels  one  of  them; 
it  is  held  that,  in  certain  circumstances,  lie  cancels  the  other.  If  one 
of  the  wills  is  at  his  banker's,  the  law  raises  a  strong  presumption 
that  by  cancelling  his  own  copy  he  intended  to  cancel  that,  when  the 
probability  is  that  he  cancels  because  he  is  aware  there  is  a  duplicate, 
and  doc ,  not  wish  to  have  the  first  lying  about  his  house.  When 
both  copies  are  in  his  own  possession,  the  law  does  not  entertain  so 
strong  a  suspicion  of  the  intention  to  annul  the  will,  by  cancelling 
one;  still,  however,  the  presumption  is  raised.  An  individual  may 
be  thus  held  to  have  died  intestate,  who  never  entertained  any  in- 
tention of  the  kind;  and  his  property  may  pass  away  from  those  near 
relatives  or  favoured  friends  to  whom  he  destined  it,  and  be  given  to 
his  hundred  and  fiftieth  cousin,  or,  for  default  of  legitimate  relatives, 
may  be  vested  in  the  crown.  But  it  is  not  in  this  way  only  that  a 

*  Some  remedy  has  been  afforded  for  this  evil  by  the  \Vills  Act. 
VOL.  I. — 50 


590  LAW  REFORM. 

person  may  revoke  his  will  without  knowing  it,  and  die  intestate 
while  he  thinks  he  is  disposing  of  his  property.  He  may  happen  to 
do  so  by  the  very  act  he  performed  with  a  view  of  confirming  his 
testament  and  establishing  his  purpose.  A  recovery  suffered,  unless 
the  will  be  republished,  destroys  it  entirely,  upon  the  nicety,  quite 
consistent,  I  admit,  with  strict  legal  principle,  that  a  new  estate  is 
taken  back,  different  from  that  which  was  in  the  testator  when  he 
devised.*  This  happens  frequently  to  frustrate  the  plain  intent  of 
parties.  Lately  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  we  had  an  instance 
of  large  property  in  this  immediate  neighbourhood,  going  anywhere 
rather  than  according  to  its  owner's  intention,  because  a  recovery  had 
been  suffered;  and  a  recovery,  suffered  for  the  express  purpose  of 
confirming  the  will,  deprived  Lord  Erskine  of  a  considerable  estate 
in  Derbyshire.  So  a  conveyance,  which  divests  an  estate  though  but 
for  an  instant,  to  serve  a  use,  with  the  intention  of  immediately  taking 
back  the  former  uses,  which  are  accordingly  taken  back,  totally 
revokes  the  will  made  before. t  Nay,  no  less  a  judge  than  Lord 
Hardwicke  has  expressly  laid  it  down,  that  where  a  man,  supposing 
he  had  only  an  estate  tail  on  which  a  devise  could  not  operate,  suffers 
a  recovery  for  the  express  purpose  of  taking  back  a  fee  in  order  that 
his  will  may  be  good,  it  is  thereby  revoked.!  The  most  notable  part 
of  these  excessive  refinements  is,  that  they  all  proceed  upon  the  act 
being  evidence  of  a  presumed  intention,  when  no  man  can  doubt 
that  either  there  was  no  such  intention,  or  one  of  the  very  opposite 
description.  Thus,  if  I  devise  lands  to  a  person,  and  afterwards  for 
the  same  reason  of  favour  towards  him,  by  way  of  making  him  more 
secure,  give  him  a  lease  in  the  same,  to  commence  after  my  death, 
he  being  perhaps  tenant  for  years  under  me  at  the  time,  the  will  is 
gone.§  It  thus  happens  that,  in  the  very  act  of  his  life,  in  which  it 
is  most  important  that  a  man  should  see  clearly  what  he  is  about, 
and  most  likely  that  he  should  have  no  professional  assistance,  he  is 
often  wholly  in  the  dark  as  to  the  effect  of  what  he  is  doing. 

Were  I  in  want  of  further  illustration  for  this  matter,  I  might  go  at 
once  to  the  doctrine  of  powers,  and  show  how  the  thing  intended  to 
be  permitted  is  often  prevented,  and  vice  versa,  by  the  view  which 
courts  have  taken  of  what  is  and  what  is  not  a  good  execution,  and 
which  renders  it  unsafe  to  give  an  opinion  upon  any  power,  the  very 
words  of  which  have  not  received  a  judicial  construction.  I  might 
go  to  the  still  greater  niceties  in  the  rules  respecting  the  construction 
of  contingent  and  executory  uses,  a  chapter  of  our  law,  signalized  by 
the  utmost  learning  and  ingenuity  of  those  who  have  treated  it.  I 
might  indeed  at  once  ask  what  foundation  in  reason  or  even  in  analogy, 

*  These  things  are  now  altered  by  the  Wills  Act. 

f  Goodtitle  v.  Otway,  7  T.  R.  399. 

^  Sparrow  v.  Hardcastle,  ib.  in  note.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  change  the  estate, 
in  order  to  operate  a  revocation,  e.  g.  a  feoffment  by  tenant  in  fee  to  another  to  his 
use  and  that  of  his  heirs,  3  Ves.  G,  and  an  ineffectual  recovery  by  tenant  for^life 
(reversion  in  fee,  disposed  of  by  will).  2  Ves.  jun.  430. 

§  Cro.  Jac.  40,  5  Yes.  jun.  650. 


LAW  REFORM.  591 

there  is  for  holding  that  a  purpose  should  be  accomplished,  by  way  of 
executory  devise,  which  cannot  be  effected  by  way  of  contingent  re- 
mainder; as  the  mounting  a  fee  upon  a  fee,  or  directing  a  contingent 
use  to  spring  and  enure  without  any  particular  estate  to  support  it; 
if,  indeed,  I  ought  not  rather  to  ask  why  there  should  be  any  neces- 
sity in  either  case  for  a  freehold  interest  to  support  an  after-taken  con- 
tingent estate,  and  why  there  should  be  any  horror  of  mounting  a  fee 
upon  a  fee,  an  idea  so  familiar  to  the  feodists  in  the  sister  kingdom, 
that  their  strict  settlements  (always  made  by  deed,  for  they,  having 
their  niceties  like  ourselves,  though  of  another  sort,  allow  no  devise  of 
real  property  at  all)  consist  of  a  succession  of  fees,  under  restraints 
specifically  prescribed  as  to  alienation  and  incumbrances.  But  I  will 
satisfy  myself  with  what  has  been  said  on  this  head,  and  suggest,  as 
the  obvious  corollary,  for  remedy  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  mischief  I 
complain  of,  the  laying  down  by  the  legislature  of  certain  formulas, 
couched  in  plain  language,  and  of  an  import  recognized  by  written 
law.  You  give  this  help  to  justices,  to  prevent  convictions  and  orders 
being  set  aside  for  technical  error.  Why  not  give  it  to  men  often  less 
learned  than  they,  for  disposing  of  their  property  necessarily  without 
professional  assistance?  Why  not  say,  that  whoever  would  give  a 
fee,  should  use  these  words; — an  estate  for  life  these; — that  whoever 
would  clothe  the  takers  of  that  estate  with  certain  powers,  may  do 
it  thus — and  so  forth — not  stating  that  such  are  the  only  words  which 
shall  effect  the  same  purpose,  but  that,  at  any  rate,  those  shall* 

By  such  a  plan,  and  by  retrenching  some  refinements  which  the 
fund  is  ample  enough  to  spare,  in  rules  of  construction,  I  know  that 
much  curious  learning  will  be  brushed  away;  but  I  also  know  that 
the  law  will  be  rendered  accessible  to  those  whose  rights  it  is  to 
govern,  and  that  the  lay  people  will  gain  far  more  than  the  learned 
lose.  Thus  much  for  amending  the  rules  of  construction.  But  for 
the  general  establishment  of  sound  rules  of  evidence,  I  should  recom- 
mend, first  of  all,  an  introduction  of  one  rule  as  to  the  manner  of 
examining  witnesses,  instead  of  trying  issues  of  fact  in  one  court  by 
written  depositions,  and  in  another  by  viva  vocc  examination  (whereby 
the  same  will  may  be,  and  sometimes  has  been,  supported  in  Doctors' 
Commons,  upon  personalty,  which  a  Court  of  Nisi  Prius  afterwards 
set  aside  altogether), — in  one  court  by  affidavit,  by  sworn  answers  to 
unsworn  bills,  by  yet  more  clumsy  and  ineffectual  examination,  on 
written  interrogatories  previously  drawn;  in  another  only  by  parole 
examination.  I  would  have  all  matter  of  fact,  wheresoever  disputed, 
tried  by  a  jury.  For  sifting  the  truth  by  such  a  trial,  I  would  admit 
all  records  between  the  parties  or  their  privies,  and  all  instruments 
and  writings  of  every  kind  of  the  parties  against  whom  they  are  used; 
so  much  the  law  now  permits;  but  I  would  let  in  whatever  docu- 
ments, written  by  persons  deceased,  appear  plainly  to  have  been 
made  without  any  view  to  manufacturing  evidence.  In  a  word,  cx- 

*  Thn  Wills  Art  haa  removed  some  of  tlio  defects  here  stated.  It  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  formula*  were  not  added  to  it. 


592  LAW  REFORM. 

eluding  inferior  evidence  where  better  cnn  be  obtained,  and,  there- 
fore, all  hearsay  absolutely,  I  would  admit  whatever  could  not  be 
deemed  to  have  been  done  with  a  view  to  the  fabrication  of  proof,  by 
the  knowledge  that  such  would  be  receivable.  Allowing  objections 
from  interest  in  the  event,  as  well  as  from  interest  in  the  question,  to 
weigh  only  in  estimating  a  witness's  credit,  I  would  make  no  man 
incompetent  to  give  evidence  in  any  cause,  civil  or  criminal,  who  was 
Hot  either  an  unbeliever  in  God  and  a  future  state,  or  convicted  of 
some  infamous  offence.  In  examining  the  witnesses,  I  would  suffer 
a  person  to  be  contradicted  as  to  matters  directly  affecting  his  credit, 
and  on  which  he  had  been  questioned;*  and  in  the  event  of  a  witness 
turning  out  hostile  to  the  party  calling  him,  there  can  be  no  sound 
reason  why,  subject  to  the  judge's  discretion,  he  should  not  be  treated 
as  adverse,  and  even  contradicted,  without  which  the  latitude  at  pre- 
sent given  by  some  judges,  only  amounts  to  a  power  of  putting  lead- 
ing questions.  Of  nonsuits  for  variance,  and  other  technical  defects,  I 
have  already  spoken. 

The  law  respecting  Limitations  comes  as  an  appendix  to  the  chapter 
of  evidence.  No  branch  of  our  jurisprudence  is  more  important,  and 
hardly  any  more  demands  revision.  Why  should  there  be  no  statu- 
tory limitation  of  a  bond  or  other  specialty?!  For  want  of  it  the 
courts  have  adopted  a  sort  of  rule,  founded  upon  presumption  of  pay- 
ment, that  where  the  instrument  is  twenty,  or  even  eighteen  years 
old,  sometimes  less  (so  accurate  is  the  rule),  and  no  interest  has  been 
paid,  or  other  acknowledgment  made  of  the  subsistence  of  the  debt, 
it  may  be  assumed  to  be  satisfied;  that  the  instrument  is  cancelled 
they  cannot  presume,  for  there  it  is,  seal  and  all,  staring  them  in  the 
face;  but  there  being  no  receipt  or  discharge,  and  the  bond  being  in 
the  obligee's  hand,  is  surely  quite  enough  to  rebut  any  presumption  of 
payment — so  that  the  courts  have  really  made  a  law,  though  a  bad 
and  uncertain  one,  to  meet  the  case.  It  would  be  far  better  to  fix  at 
once  a  period  often  years,  after  which  no  action  should  be  maintain- 
able upon  specialties. 

But  even  in  cases  where  we  have  a  statute  of  limitation,  there  is 
hardly  any  vestige  left  of  the  relief  which  it  was  intended  to  afford, 
owing  to  the  labours  of  the  courts  in  finding  means  of  evading  its 
beneficial  operation.  It  was  plainly  meant  as  an  act  of  peace  and 
quiet.  My  noble  friend  J  who  presides  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
of  the  sister  kingdom,  once  said,  with  his  usual  felicity  of  expression, 
that  time  is  armed  with  his  scythe  to  destroy  the  evidence  on  which 
titles  rest,  but  the  lawgiver  makes  him  move  with  healing  on  his 
wings  to  stay  the  ravages  of  his  weapon.  To  thwart  the  designs  of 
the  legislature,  the  courts  have  been  setting  up  their  rules  of  presump- 
tion. At  one  time  they  seemed  really  to  hold  that  anything,  even  the 
simplest  expression,  would  take  a  debt  out  of  the  statute  of  limitations; 

*  This  is  really  only  a  nominal  relaxation  of  the  rule  in  Spencely  v.  de  Willd; 
the  spirit  of  that  rule  is  preserved,  for  the  credit  of  the  witness  is  not  a  collateral 
issue.  7  East,  108. 

|  This  is  now  provided  by  the  late  acts  of  1833.         \  Lord  Plunkett. 


LAW  REFORM.  593 

for  instance,  if  a  defendant  had  said — "  I  have  paid  the  debt,"  he  was 
taken  as  admitting  it,  unless  he  could  prove  payment.  Again,  if  he 
said,  "  I  owe  you  nothing,"  the  assertion  was  taken  as  an  acknowledg- 
ment; and  he  was  also  required  to  prove  an  acquittance  of  the  plain- 
tiff's claim.  The  reply — "  Six  years  have  expired"  was  equally  dan- 
gerous, though  it  was  only  saying  out  of  court  what  the  statute  itself 
allowed  him  to  say  in  pleading.  In  fact,  so  deeply  did  Lord  Erskine 
feel  the  difficulties  which  encompassed  the  defendant  under  these 
efforts  of  judicial  acuteness,  that  he  said  the  only  safe  course  a  defend- 
ant could  take  when  his  adversary  sent  a  fishing  witness,  was  to 
knock  him  down;  for  though  he  might  be  proceeded  against  for  the 
assault,  he  retained  the  benefit  of  the  statute,  as  regarded  the  debt. 
Although  of  late  the  current  of  decisions  (as  it  is  pleasantly  termed) 
has  set  in  more  in  an  opposite  direction,  there  is  still  abundant  room 
for  a  provision  to  give  this  wholesome  law  effect.  The  means  are 
obvious;  let  nothing  but  an  acknowledgment  in  writing  take  any  debt 
out  of  the  statute.  In  a  word,  prop  the  main  pillar  of  security  against 
stale  and  unjust  demands,  the  statute  of  limitations,  by  a  beam  from 
that  other  bulwark  against  perjury,  the  statute  of  frauds.* 

The  law  of  Limitation  seems  to  require  alteration,  not  additional 
enforcement,  in  the  case  of  Real  Actions.  The  period  for  a  Writ  of 
Right  is  thirty  or  sixty  years,  according  as  the  demandant  counts  on 
his  own  or  his  ancestor's  seisin.  But  in  a  Formedon,  which  is  often 
termed,  as  in  truth  it  is,  the  tenant  in  tail's  writ  of  right,  it  is  no  more 
than  twenty  years.  The  difference  surely  is  founded  on  no  sound 
reason,  and  ought  to  be  done  away,  by  a  law  fixing  thirty  years  as 
the  period  of  limitation  in  all  real  actions,  and  removing  tho  important 
difference  in  construction  which  Sir  T.  Plorncr's  late  decision  has 
raised  from  the  different  expressions  used  in  the  statue  of  Henry  VIII 
and  James  I,  so  as,  in  many  cases  of  property  under  lease,  to  deprive 
the  defendant  of  his  remedy  altogether.! 

lint  in  one  case  there  is  no  limitation  at  all;  I  mean  that  of  church 
rights.  Why  should  there  not  lie?  I  admit  that  the  same  period  ought 
not  to  be  adopted  respecting  the  church  as  the  nit  Hum  tcmpiix  act 
prescribes  for  the  Crown;  but  I  confess  I  do  not  see  the  necessity  of 
leaving  the  law  as  it  now  stands,  and  exempting  ecclesiastical  claims 
from  all  restriction  whatever.  What  is  the  consequence?  It  was 
admirably  pointed  out  by  a  most  learned  judge, \  in  one  of  the  ablest 
tracts  ever  written,  no  less  distinguished  by  closeness  of  legal  argu- 
ment, than  by  that  pure  and  concise  diction  peculiar  to  him.  A 
composition  real  may  have  been  made  between  a  clergyman  and  bis 
parishioners,  at  any  time  since  the  restraining  statute  of  Elizabeth;  for 
iiOO  years  the  land  may  have  been  possessed  by  the  parson,  and  yet 
if  the  original  agreement  should  have  been  lost,  as  it  is  almost  sure  to 

*  This  salutary  alteration  was  effected  liy  Lord  Tenterden's  Act,  passed  in  ls-J!>. 

|  Tlit;  whole  law  of  Heal  Actions  has  been  changed  and  simplified  by  the  labours 
of  tin?  Keal  1'roperty  Commissioners,  and  the  Acts  of  lH.'J.r>;  and  the  changes  hero 
proposed  as  to  limitation  of  such  actions  luivu  been  introduced. 

i  Mr.  Baron  Wood. 

50* 


594  LAW  REFORM. 

be  amongst  farmers,  though  no  tithe  has  been  taken  during  all  that 
time,  there  would  be  no  bar  by  limitation,  in  the  event  of  the  clergy- 
man claiming  the  tithes;  so  that  it  could  not  be  ascertained  by  whom 
the  land  had  been  given,  and  the  land  could  not  be  restored  for  want 
of  claimants;  indeed  there  are  cases  in  which  the  clergyman  has  thus 
retained  the  land  originally  given  for  the  composition,  and  has  his 
tithes  paid  to  boot.  I  would  say,  then,  with  Mr.  Burke,  take  not 
away  from  the  church  its  power  of  being  useful,  but  deprive  her  only 
of  that  which  makes  her  odious.  The  reign  of  Richard  I  is  the  period 
up  to  which  all  rights  as  against  churchmen  must  be  carried;  nay  even 
as  against  lay  impropriators,  to  whose  case  none  of  the  reasons  for 
favouring  ecclesiastical  claims  apply.  Yet  that  period  becomes  daily 
more  remote  and  more  inapproachable  by  evidence.  Does  not  every 
principle  of  justice  require,  that  lay  titl-'S  to  tithes  should  be  put  on 
the  footing  of  other  property;  and  that  for  church  rights,  properly  so 
called,  a  period  of  limitation  should  be  affixed,  longer  than  for  other 
rights,  to  prevent  collusion  between  incumbents  and  tithe  payers,  and 
combined,  if  necessary,  with  the  number  of  two  or  three  vacancies?* 
vi.  The  course  of  my  observations  has  now  brought  me  to  the 
Trial  of  the  Issues,  raised  by  the  Pleadings,  on  the  Process,  and 
investigated  by  means  of  the  Evidence.  On  this  branch  of  the  subject 
I  have  little  to  offer.  The  principles  are  plain  which  should  guide 
us,  and  they  are  not  so  widely  departed  from  in  practice  as  to  require 
any  great  change.  Each  party  should  be  allowed  fully  to  propound 
his  case  in  the  way  most  advantageous  to  himself.  All  new  matter 
advanced  by  the  one  should  receive  an  answer  from  the  other;  each 
should  be  encouraged  and  not  hindered  to  bring  forward  whatever 
evidence  may  tend  to  throw  light  upon  the  matter  in  question.  Our 
practice,  at  least  in  modem  times,  departs  a  good  deal  from  these 
principles,  but  is  very  easily  restored  to  them.  We  compel  the  plain- 
tiff to  explain  his  case,  and  comment  upon  it  before  his  witnesses  are 
examined:  unless  his  adversary  produces  evidence,  he  has  no  means 
of  observing,  even  upon  his  own  case,  after  he  has  proved,  or  at- 
tempted to  prove  it.  Hence  his  opening  must  be  often  very  general, 
for  fear  of  his  evidence  falling  short;  and  hence  he  often  labours 
under  a  prejudice  from  that  cautions  and  imperfect  opening,  which  a 
little  explanation  might  remove.  Counsel  are  every  day  obliged  to 
state  their  cases  in  the  dark;  experience  teaches  us  in  some  degree 
the  difference  between  what  is  set  down  and  what  will  be  actually 
sworn;  so  that  a  young  advocate  will  give  a  very  different  statement 
on  the  same  brief  from  a  practised  one, — no  great  compliment  to  our 
method  of  trying  causes,  in  which  as  little  as  possible  should  depend 
on  the  forensic  skill  of  practitioners;  but  even  the  most  experienced 
are  constantly  deceived  by  their  instructions;  the  cause  may  change 
its  aspect,  especially  in  the  cross-examination  of  our  witnesses;  and 
they  have  no  opportunity  of  correcting  the  error  and  preventing  the 

*  This  important  reform  has  also  been  made  by  Lord  Tenterden's  second  Act  of 
1832. 


LAW  REFORM.  595 

result  from  turning  on  a  matter  wholly  foreign  to  its  merits, — the 
discretion  of  those  who  prepared  the  brief— unless  the  other  party 
gives  evidence.  Now,  for  this  very  reason,  and  to  gain  by  his 
adversary's  failure  (a  failure  not  necessarily  connected  with  merits,) 
he  will  avoid  doing  so;  he  will  also  avoid  it  generally,  to  prevent  his 
own  remarks  from  being  answered.  Hence  much  important  evidence 
is  every  day  shut  out,  by  this  play  of  counsel  to  avoid  giving  a  reply, 
which  the  plaintiff  should  have,  whether  the  defendant  calls  witnesses 
or  no.  Here,  as  in  other  things,  the  system  is  far  from  uniform:  in 
Appeal  cases,  both  before  the  Mouse  of  Lords  and  (he  Privy  Council, 
there  is  a  reply,  as  of  course;  and  in  the  committees  of  this  House, 
as  well  as  in  trials  for  high  treason,  there  is  an  opportunity  given  to 
each  party  of  commenting  on  his  case,  after  it  has  been  presented  in 
evidence,  by  a  summing  up.  The  practice  is  the  same  in  the  Eccle- 
siastical Courts,  and  the  Delegates.  I  understand  that  a  summing 
up,  or  speaking  to  evidence,  as  they  call  it,  is  allowed  in  Ireland;  in 
Scotland  both  prosecutor  and  prisoner  are  heard  on  the  evidence 
after  it  has  been  adduced,  the  want  of  an  explanatory  opening  being 
in  part  supplied  by  the  debate  upon  the  relevancy  of  the  indictment. 
I  believe  in  civil  cases  they  have  adopted  our  modern  practice,  in- 
stead of  the  older  method  to  which  the  Irish  adhere. 

Before  leaving  this  head  I  may  be  allowed  to  suggest  an  amend- 
ment of  a  minor  kind,  but  of  very  considerable  importance.  It  would 
be  advantageous  to  have  a  sworn  short-hand  writer  in  every  Nisi 
Prius  case.  Those  who  attend  our  courts  of  Nisi  Prius  are  aware  how 
sorely  the  Judge  is  hampered,  and  his  attention  diverted  from  more 
important  considerations,  by  being  obliged  to  take  such  full  notes  of  the 
evidence.  This  practice  is  necessary,  because  the  only  record  of  the 
facts  of  the  case  is  to  be  found  in  his  notes.  Now,  the  judge  is  often 
a  slow  writer,  and,  in  this  respect,  men  differ  so  much,  that  one  judge 
will  try  three  or  four  causes  while  another  will  dispose  of  only  one, 
and  one  will  impede  a  cross-examination  so  as  to  render  it  quite  in- 
effectual, while  another  will  never  interrupt  it  at  all.  It  happens  like- 
wise that  a  judge  mny  be  an  incorrect  taker  of  notes,  wliirh  not  un fre- 
quently leads  him  to  an  incorrect  decision,  at  least  to  an  incorrect  report 
of  the  case  when  a  new  trial  is  moved  for.  No  judges  ever  write 
shorthand,  and  for  no  other  reason,  than  that  their  notes  may  have  to 
be  read  by  another,  if  the  record  comes  not  out  of  their  own  court. 
My  honourable  friend,  the  member  for  Durham,*  whose  suggestions 
have  ever  been  found  most  beneficial  to  judicial  proceedings,  introduced, 
the  great  improvement  of  shorthand  writers  in  our  committees,  and 
abridged  the  delay  and  expense  of  those  inquiries  incalculably.  I 
would  h;ive  them,  if  introduced  into  our  courts,  take  full  notes  of  the 
proceedings;  at  the  same  time  I  would  not  hold  their  notes  as  conclu- 
sive; they  might  be  subject  to  the  correction  of  the  judge  on  any  impor- 
tant matter  misapprehended;  for  he,  of  course,  would  take  his  own 
note,  but  only  of  the  principal  and  the  more  delicate  things,  likely  to 

*  Mr.  Michael  Angrlo  Taylor. 


596  LAW  REFORM. 

be  misunderstood  by  one  ignorant  of  law.  He  would  soon  find  where 
he  could  trust  the  shorthand  writer  and  where  not;  he  would  be  relieved 
from  much  labour  merely  mechanical,  and  left  free  to  regard  all  the 
bearings  of  the  case,  and  to  take  a  commanding  view  of  it,  so  as  to 
bring  on  a  more  speedy  decision  of  its  merits. 

But,  sir,  I  cannot  leave  the  subject  of  trial  without  saying  somewhat 
of  the  general  principles  regulating  Real  Actions,  sinning  as  they  do 
against  all  sense  and  justice.  In  other  cases  the  plaintiff  begins  the 
attack,  and  on  him  it  rests  to  prove  his  case,  to  stand  or  fall  by  his 
proof;  but,  in  a  Writ  of  Right,  the  person  in  possession  fifty-nine 
years  and  three-quarters  must,  according  to  the  existing  law,  expose 
his  title,  pedigree,  and  all,  to  his  opponent,  who  can  lie  by  and  pick 
holes  to  his  own  advantage,  without  being  even  asked  on  what  ground 
he  relies,  until  his  adversary  has  proved  his  case; — a  great  benefit, 
whatever  be  his  ground;  for  the  jury  must  give  the  property  to  some- 
body, and  it  is  likely  that  the  party  in  possession  having  failed,  the 
claimant  may  get  in.  In  ejectment,  though  the  plaintiff  may  have 
held  possession  for  almost  twenty  years  previous  to  the  cause  of  action 
rising,  yet,  if  he  has  been  out  of  possession  for  one  single  day,  it  is 
incumbent  on  him  to  prove  his  title,  and  the  defendant  is  not  bound 
to  budge  if  he  fail.  In  this  case,  too,  the  plaintiff  must  pay  costs  if 
defeated,  even  though  the  person  he  attacks  has  been  but  a  day  in 
possession,  and  cannot  have  been  in  above  twenty  years.  In  the  real 
action,  where  the  possession  may  have  been  near  sixty  years,  the 
claimant  pays  not  one  shilling  of  costs,  for  making  you  prove  your 
title,  though  he  fail  entirely  in  impeaching  it.* 

Nor  let  it  be  imagined  that  these  evils  never  occur;  I  have  seen  them 
fully  exemplified  twice  within  the  last  eighteen  months.  We  had  a 
writ  of  right  at  York  in  the  spring  of  1S26,  to  try  the  title  to  many 
thousands  a-year.  On  the  eve  of  the  trial  we,  for  the  demandant,  dis- 
covered a  defect  in  the  proof  of  taking  the  esplees,  and  were  forced  to 
withdraw  the  record.  It  came  down  for  trial  at  the  next  assizes,  when 
we  were  astonished  to  find  the  defect  we  had  reckoned  upon  in  the 
tenant's  title  removed,  and  on  asking  where  the  document  produced 
had  been  discovered,  we  were  told  that  it  had  come  to  light  on  search- 
ing the  Bishop's  chancery,  at  Salisbury,  some  weeks  after  the  spring 
assizes,  in  which  he  would  have  been  defeated  had  we  gone  to  trial. 
Only  see  by  what  an  accident  the  possession  of  this  large  estate  was 
saved !  Our  client  was  defeated  on  the  freehold,  as  not  being  the  eldest 
son;  he  afterwards  brought  a  plaint,  in  the  nature  of  a  real  action,  in 
the  court  of  Lambeth,  as  youngest  son,  for  the  copyhold,  which  was 
descendible  by  Borough  English.  He  again  failed;  but,  of  course,  he 
paid  costs  in  neither  suit. 

vii.  The  trial  being  had  and  the  judgment  pronounced,  there  fol- 
lows the  execution;  and  in  this  most  important  branch  of  the  law, 
which  may  be  emphatically  called  the  law  of  debtor  and  creditor,  I 
feel  perfectly  justified  in  declaring  our  system  to  be  the  very  worst  in 

*  All  Real  Actions,  except  Quare  Impcdit,  are  now  abolished,  by  the  Act  of  1833. 


LAW  REFORM.  597 

Europe,  departing  the  most  widely  from  (lie  principles  which  ought  to 
regulate  a  creditor's  recourse  against  his  debtor.  Those  principles  are 
abundantly  plain.  In  proportion  as,  before  the  debt  has  been  proved, 
the  person  and  property  of  the  party  charged  should  be  free  from  all 
process  not  necessary  to  prevent  evasion;  so,  after  judgment,  ought  the 
utmost  latitude  be  given  to  obtain  satisfaction  from  all  the  defendant's 
property  whatever — laud,  goods,  money,  and  debts — for  to  himself 
they  no  longer  belong.  To  allow  any  distinction  between  one  kind 
of  property  and  another  seems  the  height  of  injustice.  No  consistent 
reasoner  can  maintain  the  propriety  of  exempting  land  more  than  chat- 
tels; no  honest  debtor  can  claim  the  privilege  which  he  waived  when 
he  contracted  the  debt.  In  the  case  of  a  person  deceased,  all  kinds  of 
debts  and  all  creditors  should  come  in  equally  upon  an  insolvent  estate; 
and  preference  only  be  given  to  a  mortgage  or  other  lien.  The  chattel 
itself  sued  for  should  be  returned,  and  damages  only  given  where  it 
has  been  lost.  The  person  of  the  debtor  should  not  be  taken  in  execu- 
tion, unless  there  is  either  a  wilful  concealment  of  property,  or  there 
has  been  criminal  or  grossly  imprudent  conduct  in  contracting  the  debt; 
for  the  two  objects  should  be  kept  carefully  distinct,  of  what  is  done 
to  satisfy  the  creditor,  and  what  is  done  to  punish  the  debtor.  Lastly, 
the  former  should  obtain  his  satisfaction  as  speedily  as  may  be,  and  as 
conveniently  for  the  latter  as  is  consistent  with  the  creditor's  security. 
How  widely  does  our  law  depart  from  these  obvious  and  natural  prin- 
ciples, by  dint  of  refinements,  blunders,  and  openly-avowed  injustice!* 
First  of  all,  there  are  only  two  actions  for  recovery  of  chattels,  in 
which  we  are  expected  to  give  the  thing  specifically  sued  for,  Reple- 
vin and  Detinue;  yet  in  neither  can  the  party  compel  a  delivery  in 
kind;  and  detinue  is  besides  useless,  because  the  defendant  may  wage 
Ins  law.  In  all  others  the  claim  is  avowedly  for  damages  only.  A 
horse  is  taken  from  me,  and  I  sue  for  it;  yet  I  only  obtain  damages 
for  its  detention:  but  suppose  I  want  the  horse,  and  not  the  money, 
the  law  will  not  aid  me;  nay,  it  will  give  me  not  a  farthing  in  consi- 
deration of  being  thus  compelled  to  part  with  it;  I  only  receive  what 
it  would  fetch  in  the  market  if  I  chose  to  sell  it.  Equity  and  common 
law  differ  widely  here;  the  former  always  performs  in  specie;  the 
latter  looks  to  damages  only,  unless  indeed  where  it  is  inconsistent 
with  itself,  as  in  the  summary  process  to  make  parties  perform  awards, 
and  attorneys  and  other  officers  of  the  courts  deliver  up  deeds,  and 
pay  moneys  by  means  of  attachment.  But  all  these  defects  are  com- 
paratively trifling,  and  rather  absurd  in  principle,  than  of  extensive 
injury  in  practice.  Wlnt  is  quite  substantial,  and  of  hourly  occur- 
rence, is  the  frustration  of  a  creditor  after  he  has  obtained  judgment, 
and  t;ikon  out  execution.  His  debtor  has  a  landed  estate;  if  it  be 
copyhold,  the  creditor  cannot  touch  it  in  any  way  whatever;  if  it  ho 
freehold,  he  may  take  half  by  ek'git,  and  receive  the  rents  and  profits, 

*  Tim  now  Hill  proceeds  wholly  upon  thesp  principles,  pivrs  the  creditor  the  full 
remedy,  and  only  restrains  or  routines  the  debtor  whoa  ho  either  refuses  to  do  what 
is  in  his  power,  lias  been  guilty  of  fraud,  or  is  ahout  to  abscond. 


598  LAW  REFORM. 

but  no  more,  in  the  lifetime  of  his  debtor.  The  debt  for  which  he  has 
received  judgment  may  be  such  that  the  rent  of  the  land  will  not  even 
keep  down  the  interest;  still  he  can  take  nothing  more;  he  cannot  turn 
the  land  into  money; — so  that,  when  a  man  sues  for  a  thing  detained 
unlawfully,  you  give  him  money  which  he  does  not  ask;  and  when 
he  asks  for  money  by  suing  for  a  debt,  you  give  him  land  which  he 
does  not  want.  But  if  his  debtor  dies  before  judgment  can  be  ob- 
tained, unless  the  debt  is  on  bond,  he  has  no  remedy  at  all  against  any 
kind  of  real  property  of  any  tenure;  nay,  though  his  money,  borrowed 
on  note  or  bill,  has  been  laid  out  in  buying  land,  the  debtor's  heir  takes 
that  land  wholly  discharged  of  the  debt. 

But  not  only  is  land  thus  sacred  from  all  effectual  process  of  credit- 
ors, unless  the  debtor  be  a  trader;  the  great  bulk  of  most  men's  per- 
sonal property  is  equally  beyond  reach  of  (he  law.  Stock  in  the  public 
funds — debts  due  in  any  manner  of  way — nay,  bank  notes,  and  even 
money,  are  alike  protected.  I  may  owe  a  hundred  thousand  pounds 
in  any  way,  and  judgment  may  have  passed  against  me  over  and  over 
again;  if  I  have  privilege  of  Parliament,  live  in  a  furnished  house  or 
hotel,  and  use  hired  carriages  and  horses,  I  may  have  an  income 
from  stock  or  money  lent,  of  twenty  thousand  a-year,  and  defy  the 
utmost  efforts  of  the  law;  or  if  I  have  not  privilege,  I  may  live  abroad, 
or  within  the  rules,  (as  some  actually  do),  and  laugh  at  all  the  courts 
and  all  the  creditors  in  the  country.  So  absurd  are  our  rules  in  this 
respect,  that  if  I  have  borrowed  a  thousand  pounds,  and  the  creditor 
has  obtained  judgment,  the  sheriff's  officer  appointed  to  levy  upon  my 
personalty,  may  come  into  my  room  and  take  a  table  or  a  desk;  but 
if  he  sees  the  identical  thousand  pounds  lying  there,  he  must  leave  it 
— he  touches  it  at  his  peril: — "For  this  quaint  reason,"  says  Lord 
Mansfield,  "because  money  cannot  be  sold,  and  you  are  required  by 
the  writ  to  take  your  debt  out  of  the  produce  of  goods  sold."  It  is 
true  that  great  judge,  whose  merits  as  a  lawyer  were  never  underrated, 
except  by  persons  jealous  of  his  superior  fame,  or  ignorant  of  the  law, 
(among  whom  was  a  writer  much  admired  in  his  day,  but  of  very 
questionable  purity,  and  certainly  no  lawyer),  leaned  to  a  contrary 
construction  of  the  creditor's  powers,  and  might  have  somewhat  irre- 
gularly introduced  it.  But  Lord  Ellcnborough  afterwards  denounced 
such  attempts  as  perilous  innovations  on  the  fundamental  principles  of 
our  jurisprudence;*  and  the  law  is  now  settled  on  this  point. t 

And  here,  sir,  let  me  step  aside  to  ask  who  is  the  innovator — he 
who  would  adhere  to  such  rules,  in  violation  of  the  manifest  intent 
and  spirit  of  our  old  law,  or  he  who  would  readjust  them  so  as  to 
give  it  effect?  In  ancient  times  there  were  none  of  those  masses  of 
property  in  existence,  which  are  exempt  from  legal  process.  When 
the  law,  therefore,  said — "  Let  a  man's  goods  and  chattels  be  answer- 
able for  his  debts,"  it  meant  to  include  his  whole  personalty  at  the 
least.  Things  have  now  changed  in  the  progress  of  society;  trade 
has  grown  up;  credit  has  followed  in  its  train;  money,  formerly  used 

*  Knight  v.  Criddle,  9  East,  48.  |  All  these  anomalies  are  removed. 


LAW  REFORM.  599 

as  counters,  has  become  abundant;  paper  currency  and  the  funds 
have  been  created.  Three-fourths  of  the  debtor's  personalty,  perhaps 
nine-tenths,  now  consist  of  stock,  money,  and  credit;  and  the  rule  of 
law  which  leaves  those  out  of  all  execution,  no  longer  can  mean  as 
before — "  Let  all  his  personalty  be  liable" — but  "  Let  a  tenth-part  of 
it  only  be  taken."  Can  there  be  a  greater  change  made  upon,  or 
greater  violence  done  to,  the  old  law  itself,  than  you  thus  do  by  aflect- 
ing  to  preserve  its  letter?  The  great  stream  of  time  is  perpetually 
flowing  on;  all  things  around  us  are  in  ceaseless  motion;  and  we 
vainly  imagine  to  preserve  our  relative  position  among  them  by  get- 
ting out  of  the  current  and  standing  stock  still  on  the  margin.  The 
stately  vessel  we  belong  to  glides  down;  our  bark  is  attached  to  it; 
we  might  "pursue  the  triumph  and  partake  the  gale;"  but,  worse 
than  the  fool  who  stares  expecting  the  current  to  flow  down  and  run 
out,  we  exclaim — Stop  the  boat! — and  would  tear  it  away  to  strand 
it,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  its  connection  with  the  vessel.  All  the 
changes  that  are  hourly  and  gently  going  on  in  spite  of  us,  and  all 
those  which  we  ought  to  make,  that  violent  severances  of  settled  rela- 
tions may  not  be  effected,  far  from  exciting  murmurs  of  discontent, 
ought  to  be  gladly  hailed  as  dispensations  of  a  bountiful  Providence, 
instead  of  rilling  us  with  a  thoughtless  and  preposterous  alarm. 

But  the  imperfect  recourse  against  the  debtor's  estate,  although  the 
grand  opprobrium  of  our  law,  is  by  no  means  its  only  vice;  the  une- 
qual distribution,  in  case  of  insolvency,  is  scarcely  a  less  notable  defect. 
Only  traders,  or  those  who  voluntarily  take  the  benefit  of  the  act,  are 
compelled,  when  insolvent,  to  make  an  impartial  division  of  their  pro- 
perty. All  others  may  easily,  and  with  impunity,  pay  one  creditor 
twenty  shillings  in  the  pound,  and  the  others  sixpence,  or  nothing. 
So  when  a  man  dies  insolvent,  his  representatives  may,  by  acknow- 
ledging judgments,  secure  one  creditor  his  full  payment  at  the  ex- 
pense of  all  the  rest.  Then,  lax  and  impotent  as  the  law  is  against 
property,  wide  as  are  its  loopholes  for  fraud  and  extravagance  to 
escape  by,  utterly  powerless  as  is  its  grasp  to  seize  the  great  bulk  of 
the  debtor's  possessions,  against  his  useless  person  it  is  equally  power- 
ful and  unrelenting.  The  argument  used  is,  that  the  concealed  pro- 
perty may  thus  be  wrung  from  him;  the  principle,  however,  of  the 
law,  and  on  which  all  its  provisions  are  built,  is,  that  the  seizure  of  the 
body  works  a  satisfaction  of  the  claim;  and  this  satisfaction  is  given 
alike  in  all  cases — alike  where  there  is  innocent  misfortune,  culpable 
extravagance,  and  guilty  embezzlement.  Surely,  for  all  these  evils 
the  remedy  is  easy;  it  flows  at  once  from  the  principles  I  set  out  with 
stating  under  this  head.  Let  the  whole  of  every  man's  property,  real 
and  personal — his  real,  of  what  kind  soever,  copyhold,  leasehold, 
freehold;  his  personal,  of  whatever  nature,  debts,  money,  stock,  chat- 
tels— be  taken  for  the  payment  of  all  his  debts  equally,  and,  in  case 
of  insolvency,  let  all  be  distributed  rateably;  let  all  he  possesses  be 
sifted,  bolted  from  him  unsparingly,  until  all  his  creditors  are  satisfied 
by  payment  or  composition;  but  let  his  person  only  be  taken  when  ho 
conceals  his  goods,  or  has  merited  punishment  by  extravagance  or 


600  LAW  REFORM. 

fraud.  This  line  of  distinction  is  already  recognised  by  the  practice 
of  the  insolvent  courts;  but  the  privilege  of  the  rules  is  inconsistent 
with  every  principle,  and  ought  at  once  to  be  abrogated  as  soon  as 
arrest  on  mesne  process  is  abolished.* 

viii.  The  last  subject  which  presents  itself  to  our  notice,  is  the  Appeal 
from  judgments  recovered.  Here,  as  in  every  other  branch  of  our 
jurisprudence,  the  courts  of  law  and  of  equity  proceed  on  opposite 
principles,  though  dealing  with  the  same  matter.  In  the  former,  you 
can  only  appeal  on  matter  of  law  appearing  upon  the  face  of  the  re- 
cord, or  added  to  it  by  bill  of  exceptions,  and  never  in  any  case  before 
final  judgment.  In  the  latter,  you  can  appeal  from  any  interlocutory 
order  as  well  as  from  the  final  decree,  and  upon  all  matter  of  fact  as 
well  as  of  law.  So  it  is  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  where  a  grievance 
(or  complaint  upon  interlocutory  matter)  is  as  much  the  subject  of  ap- 
pellative jurisdiction  as  the  appeal  from  the  final  sentence;  and  the 
court  above  sits  on  all  the  facts  as  well  as  on  the  law.  But  the  courts 
of  common  law  are  as  much  at  variance  with  themselves;  for  it  de- 
pends on  the  court  you  sue  in,  and  the  process  you  sue  by  (bill  or 
original)  how  many  stages  of  review  you  have. 

The  principal  evil  of  courts  of  error,  is  the  stay  of  execution  which 
they  affect,  thereby  giving  the  losing  party  in  possession  an  interest 
in  prosecuting  groundless  appeals.  The  bill  of  the  right  honourable 
gentleman,!  being  a  partial  measure,  while  it  intended  to  remedy  this 
evil,  has  rather  increased  it;  because  another  more  costly  mode  of  ob- 
taining the  same  delay  being  left  open,  the  parties  by  defending 
actions  in  themselves  without  defence  avail  themselves  of  it,  to  the 
enormous  multiplication  of  frivolous  trials.  The  true  remedy  I  take 
to  be  this.  Let  the  party  who  obtains  a  judgment  be  so  far  presumed 
right  as  to  get  instant  possession  or  execution,  upon  giving  ample  se- 
curity for  restitution  should  the  sentence  be  reversed.  This  is  the  rule 
in  the  Cape  and  other  of  our  colonies;  in  the  Cape,  two  sureties  each 
in  double  the  amount,  are  required.  It  would  also  be  an  excellent 
modification  of  this  principle,  to  vest  in  judges  the  discretion  of  order- 
ing the  execution  to  be  levied  by  instalments,  upon  reasonable  secu- 
rity being  given.  Hurried  seizures,  and  sales  for  next  to  nothing, 
would  thus  be  avoided;  as  would  the  destruction  of  many  valuable 
concerns,  to  the  ruin  of  the  debtor,  and  the  loss  of  the  creditor  also. 
The  reasonable  delay  thus  safely  granted  would  further  tend  to  pre- 
vent groundless  appeals  and  frivolous  defences,  for  mere  dilatory  pur- 
poses. The  details  of  this  measure  would  be  easily  arranged;  I  am 
sure  that  it  well  merits  inquiry,  if  I  shall  obtain  a  commission.^ 

I  have  now  followed  the  proceedings  in  our  courts  through  their 

*  This  arrest,  the  end  of  which  it  is  hoped  fast  approaches,  was  not  generally 
given  by  the  common  law.  The  capias  ad  respondendum  is  given  in  debt  and  detinue 
by  the  Statute  of  West,  v.  2,  (13  Ed.  I,)  cap.  11;  in  case  only  so  late  as  19  H.  7, 
c.  9.  All  this  is  remedied  by  the  bill. 

t  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

\.  There  has  been  material  improvement  since  the  late  rules  as  to  process  in  exe- 
cution under  the  act  of  1633. 


LAW  REFORM.  601 

whole  course;  and  it  will  be  observed,  that  I  have  said  little  or  nothing 
of  Costs — an  important  subject;  perhaps,  taken  in  all  its  bearings,  the 
most  important  of  any;  but  which  has  so  far  been  disposed  of,  in  its 
principal  relation,  by  the  discussion  of  whatever  tends  to  shorten  liti- 
gation. A  great,  perhaps  the  greatest,  evil  of  our  system,  as  at  pre- 
sent constituted,  is  the  excess  of  the  costs  which  a  party  succeeding 
is  obliged  to  pay,  over  and  above  what  he  can  recover  from  his  an- 
tagonist. This  is  so  certain -and  so  considerable,  that  a  man  shall  in 
vain  expect  me  to  recommend  him  either  to  bring  forward  a  rightful 
claim,  or  to  resist  an  unjust  demand  for  any  such  sum  as  twenty  or 
even  thirty  pounds — at  least,  upon  a  calculation  of  his  interest,  I 
should  presently  declare  to  him,  he  had  much  better  say  nothing  in 
the  one  case,  and  pay  the  money  a  second  time  in  the  other,  even  if 
he  had  a  stamped  receipt  in  his  pocket,  provided  his  adversary  were 
a  rich  and  oppressive  man,  resolved  to  take  all  the  advantages  the  law 
gives  him.  I  have  here  before  me  some  samples  of  taxed  bills  of 
costs,  taken  quite  at  random,  and  far  from  being  peculiar  cases  in  any 
one  respect.  There  is  one  of  £428,  made  out  by  a  very  respectable 
attorney,  and  from  which  the  Master  deducted  £202-,  of  this  sum, 
£147  were  taken  off;  which  had  been  paid  for  bringing  witnesses. 
In  this  other,  amounting  to  £217,  £76  were  taxed  off;  and  in  a  third 
of  £63,  there  were  nearly  £15  disallowed;  it  was  an  undefended  cause, 
to  recover  £50:  had  the  defendant  been  obstinate  and  oppressively 
inclined,  he  would  have  made  the  extra  costs  a  good  deal  more  than 
the  whole  debt,  although  the  suit  was  in  the  Exchequer,  where  the 
taxation  is  known  to  be  more  liberal.  We  had  lately,  in  the  King's 
Bench,  a  bill  of  above  £100,  to  recover  £19,  and,  probably,  of  that 
j6lOO  not  above  £60  would  be  allowed.  As  things  now  stand,  a  part 
of  this  master  evil  is  inevitable;  for  if  practitioners  were  sure  of  re- 
ceiving all  their  bills,  they  would  run  up  a  heavy  charge  wherever 
they  knew  the  case  to  be  a  clear  one.  But  as  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple for  which  I  contend  is,  to  alter  no  part  of  the  law  by  itself,  or 
without  considering  all  the  other  parts,  there  can  be  no  difficulty, 
consistently  with  this  doctrine,  to  enlarge  the  allowance  of  costs  as 
soon  as  other  amendments  have  prevented  the  abuse  of  litigation  by 
professional  men. 

Some  erroneous  rules  of  taxation  may,  even  in  a  partial  or  insu- 
lated reform,  be  altered.  Whatever  is  fairly  allowed  as  between  attor- 
ney and  client,  should  be  allowed  between  party  and  party,  except 
only  such  needless  charges  as  have  been  ordered  expressly  by  the 
client  himself.  There  can  surely  be  no  reason  for  disallowing,  as  a 
general  rule,  all  consultations,  often  absolutely  necessary  for  (he  con- 
duct of  a  cause,  generally  more  beneficial  than  much  that  is  allowed; 
nor  can  it  be  right,  that  so  little  of  the  expense  of  bringing  evidence 
should  be  given,  and  that  the  cost  of  preparing  the  case  by  inquiries', 
journeys,  &c.,  should  be  refused  altogether.  The  necessary  conse- 
quence of  not  suffering  an  attorney  to  charge  what  lie  ought  to  receive 
for  certain  things,  is  that  he  is  driven  to  do  a  number  of  needless 
things,  which  he  knows  are  always  allowed  as  a  mailer  of  course, 
VOL.  i. — 51 


602  LAW  REFORM. 

and  the  expense  is  thus  increased  to  the  client  far  beyond  the  mere 
gain  which  the  attorney  derives  from  it.  I  have  a  great  doubt  whether 
benefit  would  not  result  from  leaving  the  costs  more  in  the  discretion 
of  the  court  which  tries  a  cause  than  they  now  are:  in  equity,  they 
are  always  so  in  the  fullest  extent;  at  law,  almost  all  is  fixed  by 
statute. 

Sir,  in  casting  an  eye  over  the  wide  field  which  we  have  been  sur- 
veying, I  trust  the  House  will  perceive  that,  although  1  have  for  the 
most  part  arranged  my  observations  under  the  different  stages  through 
which  causes  are  carried  in  our  superior  courts,  I  have  yet  been  ena- 
bled to  discuss  the  greater  and  by  much  the  more  important  parts  of 
our  municipal  jurisprudence.  Indeed,  with  the  exception  of  commer- 
cial law,  I  am  not  aware  of  having  left  any  branch  untouched  that 
seemed  to  require  amendment.  I  stated,  in  the  outset,  the  reason 
why  that  formed  no  immediate  part  of  my  plan.  A  great  portion  of 
it  is  common  to  all  trading  countries,  the  Law-merchant,  and  is  ex- 
tremely well  adapted  to  its  purpose,  being  of  comparatively  modern 
growth,  and  framed  according  to  the  exigencies  of  commerce.  Some 
other  parts,  however,  are  exceedingly  defective.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  point  out  greater  uncertainty,  or  more  caprice,  in  any  branch  of  the 
system,  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  law  of  Partnership.*  A  man 
can  hardly  tell  whether  he  is  a  partner  or  not:  being  a  partner,  the 
extent  of  his  liability  is  scarcely  less  difficult  to  ascertain;  and  he  will 
often  find  it  in  vain  to  consult  his  lawyer  on  these  important  matters.! 
The  distribution  of  estates  under  the  bankrupt  law  is  likewise  capa- 
ble of  very  great  improvement.  After  all  that  was  lately  done  in 
arranging  and  simplifying  this  code,  it  remains  full  of  contradictions, 
and  the  source  of  innumerable  frauds  arid  endless  litigation.  But  into 
these  things  I  abstain  from  entering.  I  must,  however,  once  more 
press  upon  the  attention  of  the  House,  the  necessity  of  taking  a  gene- 
ral view  of  the  whole  system  in  whatever  inquiries  may  be  instituted. 
Partial  legislation  on  such  a  subject  is  pregnant  with  mischief.  Timid 
men,  but  still  more  blind  than  they  are  timid,  recommend  taking  a 
single  branch  at  a  time,  and  imagine  that  they  are  consulting  the 
safety  of  the  mass.  It  is  the  very  reverse  of  safe.  In  the  body  of 
the  law,  all  the  members  are  closely  connected;  you  cannot  touch  one 
without  affecting  the  rest;  and  if  your  eye  is  confined  to  the  one  you 
deal,  with,  you  cannot  tell  what  others  may  be  injured,  and  how. 
Even  a  manifest  imperfection  may  not  be  removed  without  great 
risk,  when  it  is  not  in  some  wholly  insulated  part;  for  it  oftentimes 

*  Inquiries  have  lately  been  carried  on  by  the  Law  Commissioners  as  to  the 
Law  of  Partnership,  and  an  able  report  drawn  up  by  Mr.  B.  Ker. 

•J-  The  execution  of  judgments  on  partnership  property  is  a  remarkable  example. 
The  Sheriff  must  sell  an  undivided  share,  say  a  moiety  of  the  whole;  and  the  pur- 
chaser becomes  tenant  in  common  with  the  solvent  partner,  who  may  find  the  East 
India  Company  or  government  his  co-tenant,  and  be  still  liable  to  account  to  the 
other  partner  for  his  share  of  the  profits;  because  the  very  effect  of  the  execution 
•which  has  let  in  so  disagreeable  a  co-tenant  of  the  stock,  will  naturally  be,  to  save 
the  necessity  of  going  to  prison  (the  only  involuntary  act  of  bankruptcy,)  and  thus 
prevent  a  dissolution  of  the  partnership. 


LAW  REFORM.  603 

happens  that,  by  long  use,  a  defect  has  given  rise  to  some  new  ar- 
rangement extending  far  beyond  itself,  and  not  to  be  disturbed  with 
impunity.  The  topical  reformer,  vrho  confines  his  care  to  one  flaw, 
may  thus  do  as  much  injury  as  a  surgeon  who  should  set  himself 
about  violently  reducing  a  luxation  of  long  standing,  where  nature 
had  partially  remedied  the  evil  by  forming  a  false  joint,  or  should  cut 
away  some  visceral  excrescence  in  which  a  new  system  of  circula- 
tion and  other  action  was  going  on.  Depend  upon  it,  the  general  re- 
formation of  such  a  mechanism  as  our  law,  is  not  only  the  most  effec- 
tual, but  the  only  safe  course.  This,  in  truth,  alone  deserves  the 
name  of  either  a  rational  or  a  temperate  reform.* 

Then,  what  ground  can  there  be  for  taking  alarm  at  the  course  I 
recommend  of  amendment,  and  proceeding  by  careful,  but  general 
inquiry?  It  is,  indeed,  nothing  new,  even  of  late  years,  in  this  coun- 
try. We  appointed  a  commission  to  investigate  the  whole  adminis- 
tration of  justice  in  Scotland;  and  it  ended  in  altering  the  constitution 
of  the  courts,  and  introducing  a  new  mode  of  trying  causes.  Yet 
Scotland,  to  say  nothing  of  the  treaty  of  Union,  so  often  set  up  as  a 
bulwark  against  all  change,  might  urge  some  very  powerful  reasons 
for  upholding  her  ancient  system,  which  we  in  England  should  vainly 
seek  to  parallel.  She  might  hold  up  her  statute  book  in  three  small 
pocket  volumes,  the  whole  fruit  of  as  many  centuries  of  legislation, 
while  your  table  bends  beneath  the  laws  of  a  single  reign — and  of 
your  whole  jurisprudence,  it  maybe  said,  as  of  the  Roman  before 
Justinian,  that  it  would  overload  many  camels.  But  I  do  not  merely 
cite,  against  alarms  and  scruples,  that  bold  and  wise  and  safe  measure 
of  Lord  Grenville;  older  authorities,  and  in  the  courts  of  Westminster, 
are  with  me.  I  will  rely  on  Lord  Hale,  whose  celebrated  Treatise  Of 
the.  Amendment  of  the  Law  (far  less  studied,  I  fear,  by  our  juriscon- 
sults, than  that  of  Fortescue)t  well  exposes  the  folly  of  such  fears, 
with  their  origin.  "  By  long  use  and  custom  (says  he),  men,  espe- 
cially that  are  aged,  and  have  been  long  educated  to  the  profession  and 
practice  of  the  law,  contract  a  kind  of  superstitious  veneration  of  it 
beyond  what  is  just  and  reasonable.  They  tenaciously  and  rigorously 
maintain  these  very  forms  and  proceedings  and  practices,  which, 
though  possibly  at  first  they  were  seasonable  and  useful,  yet  by  the 
very  change  of  matters  they  become  not  only  useless  and  impertinent, 
but  burthensome  and  inconvenient,  and  prejudicial  to  the  common 
justice  and  the  common  good  of  mankind;  not  considering  the  forms 
and  prescripts  of  laws  were  not  introduced  for  their  own  sukes,  but 
for  the  use  of  public  justice;  and  therefore,  when  they  became  insipid, 
useless,  impertinent,  and  possibly  derogatory  to  the  end,  they  may 
and  must  be  removed."  Such  is  the  language  of  Sir  M.  Hale.  After 
Lord  Coke  and  Littleton  himself,  there  is  no  higher  authority  in  the 
law  than  Shepherd,  the  author  of  the  Tone -hstonc,  who,  in  another  of 

*  The  labours  of  the  Law  Commissions  upon  Codification  have  been  most  mi 
portant;  their  reports  are  of  preat  value  on  this  subject. 
j  L)o  Laudibus  Legum  Anjjliu:. 


604  LAW  REFORM. 

his  works,  called  "  England's  Balm,  or  Proposals  by  way  of  Grievance 
and  Remedy,  &c.,  towards  the  Regulation  of  the  Law  arid  better  Admin- 
istration of  Justice,"  reminds  his  legal  brethren,  that  "  taking  away  the 
abuse  of  the  law  will  establish  the  use  of  the  law — stabilit  iisum  qui 
tollit  abusum — and  that  rooting  up  the  tares  will  not  destroy  the 
wheat."*  If  the  House  require  further  authorities  upon  this  point,  I 
can  refer  them  to  one  of  the  most  instructive  books  published  of  late 
years  upon  this  matter,  that  of  Mr.  Parkes,  a  respectable  solicitor  in 
Warwickshire,  who,  in  giving  a  history  of  the  Court  of  Chancery,  has 
collected  most  of  the  authorities  upon  the  subject  of  legal  reform. 

But  our  predecessors,  members  of  this  House  in  the  17th  century, 
an  age  fruitful  of  great  improvements,  most  of  which  were  retained  in 
more  quiet  times,  undertook  the  amendment  of  the  law  systematically, 
and  with  a  spirit  and  a  wisdom  every  way  worthy  of  so  great  a  work. 
In  1654,  a  Commission  was  formed  partly  of  the  House,  partly  of 
learned  strangers.  At  the  head  of  the  former,  I  find  my  honourable 
friend  the  Solicitor  General's  less  learned  and  more  martial  predeces- 
sor, called  in  the  Journals  "Lord  General  Cromwell. "t  But  in  front 
of  the  latter  stands  "Mr.  Mathew  Hale,"  afterwards  the  great  Chief 
Justice,  whose  name  is  ever  cited  amongst  the  most  venerable  sup- 
porters of  our  civil  and  our  religious  establishment.  With  them  were 
joined  all  the  great  jurisconsults  and  statesmen  of  that  illustrious  age. 
They  sat  for  five  years,  and  proposed  a  number  of  the  most  important 
and  general  reforms.  I  will  read  the  titles  of  a  few  Acts,  the  draughts 
of  which  the  Commissioners  prepared. 

1.  For  taking  away  fines  upon   bills,  declarations,  and  original 
writs. 

2.  For  taking   away   common    recoveries,  and    the   unnecessary 
charges  of  fines,  and  to  pass  and  charge  lands  entailed  as  lands  in 
fee-simple. 

3.  For  ascertaining  of  arbitrary  fines  upon  descent  and  alienation 
of  copyholds  of  inheritance. 

4.  For  the  more  speedy  recovery  of  Rents 

5.  For  the  better  regulating  of  Pleaders  and  their  Fees. 

6.  For  the  more  speedy  and  easy  recovery  of  Debts  and  Damages 
not  exceeding  the  sum  of  Four  Pounds. 

7.  For  the  further  declaration  and  prevention  of  Fraudulent  Con- 
tracts and  Conveyances. 

8.  Against  the  Sale  of  Offices. 

9.  For  the  recovery  of  Debts  owing  by  Corporations. 

10.  To  make  Debts  assignable. 

11.  To  prevent  solicitation  of  Judges,  Bribery,  Extortion,  Charge 
of  Motions,  and  for  restriction  of  Pleaders. 

12.  An  Act  for  all  County  Registers,  Will,  and  Administrators;  and 

*  There  is  certainly  a  notion  of  Mr.  Justice  Doddridge  being  the  author  of  this 
excellent  book,  or  at  least  standing  in  the  same  relation  to  it  that  C.  B.  Gilbert  does 
to  Bacon's  Ab.;  for  the  dates  of  some  works  cited  in  it  make  it  impossible  he  should 
have  written  it  all. 

|  O.  Cromwell  was  member  for  Cambridge  town;  Mr.  Tindal  for  the  university. 


LAW  REFORM.  605 

for  preventing  Inconvenience,  Delay,  Charge,  and  Irregularity,  in 
Chancery  and  Common  Law,  (as  well  in  common  pleas  as  criminal 
causes.) 

13.  Acts  for  settling  County  Judicatures,  Guardians  of  Orphans, 
Courts  of  Appeal,  County  Treasurers,  and  Workhouses,  with  Tables 
of  Fees  and  Short  Forms  of  Declaration. 

14.  An  Act  to  allow  Witnesses  to  be  Sworn  for  Prisoners. 

The  House  is  aware  that,  till  much  later  in  our  history,  by  the 
great  wisdom,  justice,  and  humanity  of  our  ancestors,  it  was  provided 
that  the  witnesses  for  a  defendant  should  not  deliver  their  testimony 
upon  oath;  until  the  time  of  Queen  Anne,  the  prosecutor  only  was 
allowed  to  prove  his  case  by  sworn  evidence;  and  the  communication 
of  the  same  right  to  the  defendant,  may  be  looked  upon  by  some  as 
a  rude  invasion  of  the  ancient  system,  and  a  cruel  departure  from  the 
perfections  of  the  olden  time. 

This  is  not  the  only  measure  prepared  by  that  celebrated  Commis- 
sion which  has  since  been  adopted,  as  the  House  will  see  by  the 
enumeration  I  have  given.*  But  steps  were  taken  immediately  after 
the  restoration,  for  prosecuting  its  plans  more  systematically.  A 
committee  was  appointed  by  this  House  to  examine  the  state  of 
the  law  and  its  practice;  Sergeant  Maynard  arid  other  eminent  law- 
yers were  members  of  it.  From  their  numbers,  fifty-one,  I  presume 
they  subdivided  themselves  for  the  convenience  of  inquiring  sepa- 
rately into  different  branches  of  the  subject.  Upon  their  reports 
several  bills  were  brought  in  for  the  general  reform  of  the  law;  but 
in  tracing  their  progress  through  the  House,  the  prorogation  appears 
to  have  come  before  any  of  them  was  passed.  After  a  long  interval 
of  various  fortune,  and  filled  with  vast  events,  but  marked  from  age 
to  age  by  a  steady  course  of  improvement,  we  are  again  called  to  the 
grand  labour  of  surveying  and  amending  our  laws.  For  this  task  it 
well  becomes  us  to  begird  ourselves,  as  the  honest  representatives  of 
the  people.  Dispatch  and  vigour  are  imperiously  demanded;  but 
that  deliberation,  too,  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  which  so  mighty  an 
enterprise  requires.  When  we  shall  have  do«e  the  work,  we  may 
fairly  challenge  the  utmost  approval  of  our  co-nstituents,  for  in  none 
other  have  they  so  deep  a  stake. 

In  pursuing  the  course  which  I  now  invite  you  to  enter  upon,  I 
avow  that  I  look  for  the  co-operation  of  the  King's  government;  and 
on  what  are  my  hopes  founded?  Men  gather  not  grapes  from  thorns, 
nor  figs  from  thistles.  Hut  that  the  vine  should  no  longer  yield  its 
wonted  fruit — that  the  fig-tree  should  refuse  its  natural  increase — 
required  a  miracle  to  strike  it  with  barn:nness.  There  are  those  in 
the  present  ministry,  whose  known  liberal  opinions  have  lately  boon 
proclaimed  anew  to  the  world,  and  pledges  have  been  avouched  for 

*  Sir  S.  Kornilly's  valuable  MSS.,  as  has  been  already  stated,  contain  tlio 
exposition  and  discussion  of  many  reforms  in  the  law,  written  forty  or  fifty  years 
ago.  More  than  one-half  of  the  measures  there  propounded,  have,  of  late  years, 
and  most  of  them  since  his  lamented  decease,  been  adopted  by  the  legislature;  a 
strong  presumption  in  favour  of  his  plans  generally. 

51* 


606  LAW  REFORM. 

their  influence  upon  the  policy  of  the  state.     With  them,  others  may 
not,  upon  all  subjects,  agree;  upon  this,  I  would  fain  hope  there  will 
be  found  little  difference.     But,  be  that  as  it  may,  whether  I  have 
the  support  of  the  ministers  or  no — to  the  House  I  look  with  con- 
fident expectation,  that  it  will  control  them,  and  assist  me;  if  I  go  too 
far,  checking  my  progress,  if  too  fast  abating  my  speed;  but  heartily 
and  honestly  helping  me  in  the  best  and  greatest  work  which  the 
hands  of  the  lawgiver  can  undertake.     The  course  is  clear  before  us; 
the  race  is  glorious  to  run.     You  have  the  power  of  sending  your 
name  down  through  all  times,  illustrated  by  deeds  of  higher  fame, 
and  more  useful  import,  than  ever  were  done  within  these  walls. 
You  saw  the  greatest  warrior  of  the  age — conqueror  of  Italy — hum- 
bler of  Germany — terror  of  the  North — saw  him  account  all   his 
matchless  victories  poor,  compared  with  the  triumph  you  are  now  in 
a  condition  to  win — saw  him  contemn  the  fickleness  of  fortune,  while, 
in  despite  of  her,  he  could  pronounce  his  memorable  boast,  "  I  shall  go 
down  to  posterity  with  the  Code  in  my  hand!"    You  have  vanquished 
him  in  the  field;  strive  now  to  rival  him  in  the  sacred  arts  of  peace! 
Outstrip  him  as  a  lawgiver,  whom  in  arms  you  overcame!    The  lustre 
of  the  Regency  will  be  eclipsed  by  the  more  solid  and  enduring  splen- 
dour of  the  Reign.     The  praise  which  false  courtiers  feigned  for  our 
Edwards  and  Harrys,  the  Justinians  of  their  day,  will  be  the  just 
tribute  of  the  wise  and  the  good  to  that  monarch  under  whose  sway 
so  mighty  an  undertaking  shall  be  accomplished.     Of  a  truth,  the 
holders  of  sceptres  are  most  chiefly  to  be  envied  for  that  they  bestow 
the  power  of  thus  conquering,  and  ruling  thus.     It  was  the  boast  of 
Augustus — it  formed  part  of  the  glare  in  which  the  perfidies  of  his 
earlier  years  were  lost — that  he  found  Rome  of  brick,  and  left  it  of 
marble;  a  praise  not  unworthy  a  great  prince,  and  to  which  the  pre- 
sent reign  also  has  its  claims.    But  how  much  nobler  will  be  the  sove- 
reign's boast,  when  he  shall  have  it  to  say,  that  he  found  law  dear, 
and  left  it  cheap;  found  it  a  sealed  book — left  it  a  living  letter;  found 
it  the  patrimony  of  the  rich — left  it  the  inheritance  of  the  poor;  found 
it  the  two-edged  sword  of  craft  and  oppression — left  it  the  staff  of 
honesty  and  the  shield  of  innocence!     To  me,  much  reflecting  on 
these  things,  it  has  always  seemed  a  worthier  honour  to  be  the  in- 
strument of  making  you  bestir  yourselves  in  this  high  matter,  than  to 
enjoy  all   that   office  can   bestow — office,  of  which   the   patronage 
would  be  an  irksome  incumbrance,  the  emoluments  superfluous  to 
one  content  with  the  rest  of  his  industrious  fellow-citizens,  that  his 
own  hands  minister  to  his  wants:  And  as  for  the  power  supposed  to 
follow  it — I  have  lived  near  half  a  century,  and  I  have  learned  that 
power  and  place  may  be  severed.     But  one  power  I  do  prize;  that 
of  being   the  advocate  of  my  countrymen    here,  and  their  fellow- 
labourer  elsewhere,  in  those  things  which  concern  the  best  interests  of 
mankind.     That  power,  I  know  full  well,  no  government  can  give — 
no  change  take  away! 

I  move  you,  sir,  -'That  an  humble  Address  be  presented  to  his 
Majesty,  praying  that  he  will  be  graciously  pleased  to  issue  a  Com- 


LAW  REFORM.  607 

mission  for  inquiring  into  the  defects,  occasioned  by  time  and  other- 
wise, in  the  Laws  of  this  realm,  and  in  the  measures  necessary  for 
removing  the  same." 

[Upon  the  adjourned  debate  on  Mr.  Brougham's  motion,  on  Fri- 
day, February  29,  the  following  resolution,  substituted  by  him  with, 
the  assent  of  the  government,  was  unanimously  carried: — 

"That  an  humble  Address  be  presented  to  his  Majesty,  respectfully 
requesting  that  his  Majesty  may  be  pleased  to  take  such  measures  as 
may  seem  most  expedient  for  the  purpose  of  causing  due  inquiry  to 
be  made  into  the  origin,  progress,  and  termination  of  actions  in  the 
Superior  Courts  of  Common  La  win  this  country,  and  matters  connected 
therewith;  and  into  the  state  of  the  Law  regarding  the  Transfer  of 
Real  Property."] 


SPEECH 


LOCAL    COURTS. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE   OF  COMMONS, 
APRIL  29,  1830. 


I  RISE,  sir,  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to  a  subject  which 
I  had  the  honour,  some  two  years  and  a  half  ago,  to  bring  under  its 
consideration;  and,  in  the  first  place,  I  will  state  the  reason  which 
has  prevented  me  from  again  bringing  it  forward  at  an  earlier  period. 
The  motion  which  I  formerly  made  led  to  the  appointment  of  two 
commissions,  and  both  of  them  have  reported  on  the  subject  matters 
submitted  to  them  for  inquiry.  One  report  has  been  made  on  the 
Law  of  Real  Property;  and  I  am  in  great  hopes  that  a  second  report 
will  soon  be  made.  The  other  commission  has  drawn  up  two  reports, 
with  respect  to  proceedings  at  common  law.  Now  if  I  had  renewed 
the  subject  after  the  first  report  had  been  made,  I  must  have  intro- 
duced it  at  a  very  great  disadvantage,  because  the  commissioners 
had  disclosed  their  intention  to  follow  up  that  report,  with  suggestions 
upon  many  of  those  questions  to  which  I  had  turned  my  attention. 
I  have,  therefore,  waited  till  the  second  report  was  before  the  House, 
that  I  might  perfectly  know  what  the  commissioners  propose.  Let 
it  not,  sir,  for  one  moment  be  supposed,  that  in  again  calling  the  at- 
tention of  the  House  to  this  most  important  subject,  I  have  any  ground 
of  complaint  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  commissioners  have  con- 
ducted these  inquiries;  for,  in  every  part  of  them,  those  learned  persons 
seem  to  me  to  have  proceeded  with  great  zeal  as  well  as  discretion. 

Tne  commissioners  appear  to  have  proceeded  with  the  greatest 
possible  caution, — with  the  utmost  degree  of  deliberation.  That  evils 
exist  in  the  system  of  our  administration  of  the  law  is  not  attributable 
to  them;  and,  although  much  remains  to  be  performed,  the  portion 
of  the  subject  which  they  have  investigated  is,  unquestionably,  of 
paramount  importance.  They  have  acted  faithfully  and  merito- 
riously; and  I  do  not  complain  of  their  powers  either  as  being  too 


LOCAL  COURTS.  609 

limited  or  inadequately  exercised.  Their  inquiries  have  been  con- 
ducted in  a  proper  spirit;  they  have  held  tht;ir  course  in  a  becoming 
and  exact  mean,  between  inconsiderate  rashness  and  undue  subser- 
viency,—keeping  a  middle  line,  and  neither  setting  at  naught  the 
long  pondered  decisions  of  authority,  nor  evincing  that  over-strained 
respect  for  existing  institutions  which  too  often  degenerates  into  a 
veneration  of  existing  abuses.  The  great  learning  and  experience 
of  the  commissioners,  and  the  knowledge  which,  as  practical  men  well 
acquainted  with  the  law,  they  have  brought  to  the  consideration  of 
the  subject,  are  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  every  body  admits  the 
ability  with  which  they  have  applied  their  resources  to  the  subject 
matter  of  their  investigations.  The  vast  body  of  evidence  of  other 
practical  men  which  they  hare  collected, — their  own  suggestions  and 
recommendations,  which,  more  especially  in  the  second  report,  contain 
matter  worthy  of  the  greatest  attention, — a  report  that  is  full  of  pro- 
found thought,  and,  if  I  may  be  allowed  so  to  speak,  of  most  ingenious 
invention  on  the  science  and  the  practice  of  the  law— all  these  merits 
entitled  the  commissioners  to  receive,  and  no  doubt  they  have  re- 
ceived, the  unqualified  approbation,  not  only  of  professional  men, 
but  of  all  persons  interested  in,  and  who  are  capable  of  understanding, 
the  subject.  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  within  the  last  century  and 
a  half  there  has  not  been  produced  in  this  country  anything  like  the 
quantity  of  important  matter  which  the  commissioners,  partly  in  the 
fruit  of  their  own  suggestions,  and  partly  in  the  evidence  and  facts 
adduced  by  others,  have  laid  before  the  House  on  this  subject. 

Having  said  thus  much,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  I  have  brought 
forward  the  subject  which  I  am  about  to  open  in  a  spirit  of  hostility 
or  censure  towards  the  commissioners,  with  whom,  on  the  contrary, 
I  am  prepared  to  go  hand  in  hand  to  further  the  Reform  of  the  Law: 
my  object  being  simply  to  take  up  a  part  of  the  question  which  they 
have  left  untouched.  If  I  saw  any  prospect  of  the  commissioners 
directing  their  labours  to  this  part  of  the  subject  within  any  reason- 
able time,  I  should  be  disposed  to  leave  it  entirely  untouched;  or  if  I 
thought  the  matter  intimately  and  inseparably  connected  with  the 
residue  of  the  subject — the  matter  of  their  present  and  unfinished  in- 
quiries— I  should  then  think,  that  for  the  general  convenience,  and  in 
order  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  a  double  discussion,  it  would  be  better 
to  postpone  my  motion.  But  I  find,  after  the  best  consideration,  that 
neither  is  there  a  prospect,  within  a  reasonable  time,  of  the  com- 
missioners being  able  to  turn  their  attention  to  that  part  of  the  question 
which  I  have  in  view,  nor  is  it  so  mixed  up  with  what  is  already 
before  them,  that  I  ought  to  decline  directing  the  attention  of  the 
House  to  the  subject. 

If,  sir,  it  were  asserted  by  some  traveller,  that  he  had  visited  a 
country  in  which  a  man,  to  recover  a  debt  of  jCG  or  £7,  must  begin 
by  expending  JLGQ  or  .£70, — where,  at  the  outset,  to  use  a  common 
expression,  he  had  to  run  the  risk  of  throwing  so  much  good  money 
after  bad,  and  to  p:iy  almost  as  much  even  if  he  succeeded. — it  would 
at  once  be  said,  that  whatever  other  advantages  that  country  enjoyed, 


610  LAW  REFORM. 

at  least  it  was  not  fortunate  in  its  system  of  law.  But  if  it  were 
further  related,  that  in  addition  to  spending  £60  or  £70,  a  man  must 
endure  great  difficulties,  anxiety,  and  vexation,  infinite  bandying  to 
and  fro,  and  moving  about  from  province  to  province,  and  from  court 
to  court,  before  he  could  obtain  judgment, — then  our  envy  of  the 
country  where  such  administration  of  the  law  and  legal  institutions 
existed,  would  be  still  further  diminished.  If  to  this  information,  it 
were  added,  that  in  the  same  country,  after  having  spent  £60  or  £70, 
the  adversary  of  the  creditor  had  the  power  of  keeping  all  his  property 
out  of  his  way,  so  that  after  all  the  suitor's  expense,  all  his  delay,  and 
all  his  anxiety,  it  must  still  be  doubtful  whether  he  could  obtain  a 
single  farthing  of  his  debt;  if,  furthermore,  it  were  stated,  that  in  the 
same  country,  although  the  debtor  were  solvent  and  willing  to  pay 
what  the  law  required  at  his  hands,  the  creditor  would  receive,  it  is 
true,  his  original  claim  of  £6  or  £1,  but  not  the  whole  £60  or  £70 
which  he  had  expended  in  costs  to  recover  it,  by  about  £20, — so 
that  on  the  balance  he  would  be  some  £13  or  £14  out  of  pocket  by  suc- 
cess, over  and  above  the  amount  of  the  debt  which  he  recovered,  after 
being  exposed  to  a  variety  of  needless  plagues,  beside  the  unavoid- 
able annoyance  of  these  proceedings; — if  we  were  told  of  such  a  case, 
would  not  the  natural  inquiry  be,  "  Whether  it  was  possible  that  such 
a  country  existed?"  Sir,  the  individual  to  whom  this  strange  infor- 
mation was  given,  if  he  supposed  it  possible  that  such  a  country  ex- 
isted, would  at  least  pronounce  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  barbarous 
and  unenlightened  in  the  world.  That  it  must  be  a  poor  country,  he 
would  think  quite  obvious — and  equally  obvious  that  it  must  be  of 
no  commercial  power — of  no  extent  of  capital — of  no  density  of  pop- 
ulation, because  those  circumstances  most  necessarily  produce  from 
hour  to  hour  transactions  involving  important  and  valuable  interests. 
Nevertheless,  I  need  not  remind  the  House, — for  every  man  who 
hears  me  must  be  aware  (many  are  aware  to  their  cost)  of  the  fact — 
that  such  a  country,  so  unfortunately  circumstanced  is  no  other  than 
that  in  which  I  now  speak — England.  Then  arises  the  question, 
how  is  this  admitted  evil  to  be  remedied?  and  in  order  to  know  how 
the  remedy  may  be  applied,  the  first  point  is  to  ascertain  whence 
proceeds  the  evil?  To  give  examples  of  the  evil,  and  its  origin,  may 
be  the  best  mode  of  proceeding. 

I  am  thus  entering  at  once  into  the  middle  of  my  subject,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  such  is  the  most  convenient  and  expedient  course, 
because  it  enables  me  at  once  to  see  and  grapple  with  the  real  diffi- 
culties of  the  inquiry,  to  which,  far  be  it  from  me  for  one  moment  to 
shut  my  eyes.  That  part  of  the  mischief  which  can  be  got  rid  of,  I 
call  upon  you  to  remove.  I  formerly  took  the  opportunity  of  stating 
a  kind  of  experiment  I  made  at  one  of  the  Lancaster  assizes,  when 
my  honourable  and  learned  friend,*  was  present.  I  requested  the 
prothonotary  to  furnish  me  with  a  list  of  all  the  verdicts  recorded: 
they  were  fifty  in  number,  during  that  assize,  and  the  average  amount 

*  Sir  James  Scarlett. 


LOCAL  COURTS.  611 

of  those  verdicts  I  found  to  be  for  sums  under  fourteen  pounds — thir- 
teen pounds  odd  shillings  each.  I  do  not  mean  to  represent  that  there 
were  not  three  or  four  actions  in  which  the  damages  were  nominal; 
some  of  them  actions  of  ejectment,  and  other  suits  to  decide  rights; 
hut  the  bulk  of  the  verdicts  were  on  actions  of  debt,  or  in  the  nature 
of  debt,  and  the  average  was  less  than  the  sum  for  which,  by  law,  a 
creditor  may  hold  his  debtor  to  bail.  I  am  far  from  saying  that  such 
is  the  general  result  of  actions,  either  at  the  assizes  or  in  London;  but 
still  it  is  not  much  out  of  the  general  course.  Taking  the  average  of 
the  five  years  ending  in  1827,  the  number  of  actions  brought  in  all 
the  courts  of  Westminster  was  something  under  80,000.  I  believe 
that  the  precise  amount  was  79,000.  The  number  of  these  actions 
that  were  brought  to  trial  amounted  to  little  more  than  7000,  being 
one  case  brought  to  trial  only  out  of  eleven  actions  commenced.  No 
doubt  many  of  those  actions  were  not  proceeded  with,  on  account  of 
the  heavy  costs,  delay,  and  vexation  that  must  be  incurred  in  doing  so. 
But,  passing  by  that  topic  for  the  present,  (having  stated  the  fact  with 
a  different  view,)  if  we  would  form  some  estimate  of  the  kind  of  sums 
for  the  recovery  of  which  the  generality  of  actions  are  brought,  we 
are  enabled  by  some  documents  that  have  been  laid  upon  the  table, 
to  approximate  to  a  conclusion  on  the  subject.  This  I  shall  endea- 
vour to  do  without  going  too  minutely  into  details. 

In  1827  there  was  a  return  of  the  number  of  affidavits  of  debt  in 
the  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas  for  two  years  and  a-half. 
During  that  period  the  number  of  affidavits  for  sums  above  £10  was 
93,000  odd  hundreds,  but  in  round  numbers  we  will  call  it  93,000. 
Of  them,  of  course,  a  great  number  were  the  foundations  of  the 
79,000  actions  before  spoken  of;  for  an  affidavit  of  debt,  as  every  body 
knows,  is  the  earliest  proceeding  in  the  commencement  of  an  action. 
Let  us  see,  then,  in  what  proportion  the  affidavits  were  for  small 
sums,  moderate  sums,  and  large  sums: — 29,800  were  for  sums  be- 
tween £10  and  £20,  and  no  more;  34,200  were  for  sums  between 
£20  and  £50,  making  together  64,000  out  of  93,000  for  sums  not 
exceeding  £50.  For  sums  not  exceeding  £100,  and  of  course  in- 
cluding the  64,000,  the  number  of  actions  was  no  less  than  78,000  odd 
hundreds.  Thus  the  House  will  observe,  that  of  the  whole  number 
of  93,000  affidavits,  there  were  no  less  than  one-third  for  sums  not 
exceeding  £20;  no  less  than  two-thirds  for  sums  not  exceeding  £50; 
and  again,  that  there  were  no  less  than  five-sixths  for  sums  not  ex- 
ceeding £100.  The  House  will  pardon  me  for  not  going  more  into 
details — what  I  have  stated  is  the  result  of  recollection,  but  I  think  I 
may  pledge  myself  for  its  accuracy,  and  it  will  be  perceived  at  once 
that  it  leads  to  a  most  important  practical  conclusion — that  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  litigation  of  the  country  resolves  itself,  as  far  as  actions  of 
debt  and  in  the  nature  of  debt  go,  into  actions  where  the  sum  in  dis- 
pute is  not  more  than  £100. 

I  now  beg  to  draw  the  notice  of  the  House  with  greater  particularity 
to  the  costs  of  these  proceedings,  and  what  a  creditor  is  exposed  to 
who  undertakes  to  prosecute  an  action.  1  have  hitherto  dealt  only 


612  LAW  REFORM. 

in  general  descriptions  of  his  expenses  and  sufferings.  In  their  first 
report,  towards  the  close  of  their  appendix,  the  commissioners  have 
inserted  some  valuable  table  of  costs,  and  to  three  or  four  of  them, 
applicable  to  actions  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  I  beg  leave  to  re- 
quest especial  attention.  First,  I  should  state,  that  these  are  real  bills 
of  costs;  and  next,  that  they  are  reduced  to  the  very  lowest  scale,  the 
words  of  the  commissioners  being,  "  they  are  framed  on  the  lowest 
possible  scale  of  expenditure."  One  of  these  bills  is  in  an  action  that 
was  tried  in  London  by  parties  residing  in  the  county  of  Lancaster. 
The  particulars  of  the  bill  itself  show,  that  not  only  was  it  framed  on 
the  lowest  possible  scale,  but  also  that  neither  the  length  of  the  pro- 
ceedings, nor  any  other  incident,  had  tended  to  increase  the  expense. 
There  was  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary  course;  in  fact,  the  circum- 
stances were  the  most  favourable  that  could  exist,  under  the  present 
system,  for  cheap  arid  expeditious  justice.  The  costs,  up  to  the  ver- 
dict, amounted  to  £86,  and,  including  some  further  proceedings  (it 
being  a  special  case)  necessary  to  be  had  before  the  verdict  could  be 
rendered  available,  the  expense  was  £110.  Out  of  that  is  to  be  de- 
ducted for  delay,  only  £10  odd  shillings.  There  was  the  delay  of  a 
term  in  taking  the  argument  in  the  second  stage  of  the  proceeding,  and 
the  delay  of  one  sittings  in  bringing  the  cause  to  trial.  On  these  ac- 
counts, from  the  sum  of  £86  costs,  there  is  to  be  deducted  .£6.  and 
£10  from  the  entire  amount  of  £110.  I  will  suppose  the  fact  to  be, 
however,  that  there  was  no  delay  in  the  administration  of  the  law, — 
that  all  the  recommendations  of  the  commissioners  for  preventing  it 
had  been  carried  into  effect — that  we  had  derived  all  the  good  from 
them  which  might  be  anticipated;  I  will  assume  that,  under  the  new 
system  of  law,  the  expected  saving  of  time  and  expense  has  been 
brought  about;  and  what  is  the  consequence  as  respects  this  case? 
Why,  that  we  shall  have  to  deduct  £6  from  the  expense  of  the  first 
stage,  and  £4  from  the  expense  of  the  second,  leaving  £SO  as  the  ex- 
pense of  the  verdict,  and  £100  as  the  indispensable  costs  of  the  entire 
case.  I  admit  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  expense  here  was 
owing  to  the  attendance  of  witnesses.  I  do  not  merely  mean  to  say  I 
admit,  but  I  assert  and  maintain  this;  it  is  one  of  the  principal  grounds 
of  the  proposition  which  I  intend  to  submit  to  the  House.  It  is  true, 
this  cause  was  brought  from  the  county  of  Lancaster  to  London  to  be 
tried;  but  if  tried  in  Lancaster,  there  would  have  been  the  very  same 
expense,  according  to  all  ordinary  calculation  of  chances.  The  wit- 
nesses in  this  case  were,  an  architect,  master  carpenter,  and  labourers; 
and,  in  taxing  costs,  two  guineas  a-day  are  allowed  for  an  architect, 
or  surgeon,  physician,  or  any  person  of  skill  and  science.  Fifteen 
shillings  a-day  are  allowed  for  a  master  carpenter,  and  five  shillings 
a-day  for  a  labourer;  to  which  are  to  be  added  an  allowance  for 
mileage,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  witnesses  on  the  road,  which,  I 
perceive,  is  at  the  rate  of  eight  pence  per  mile.  Then,  as  to  delay,  let 
me  remark,  that  the  delay  in  trying  a  cause  at  the  assizes  is  often  much 
greater  than  in  trying  a  cause  in  London;  and  there  can  be  no  man- 
ner of  doubt  that  this  very  circumstance  was  one  of  the  causes  ope- 


LOCAL  COURTS.  613 

rating  upon  the  plaintiff  in  inducing  him  to  prefer  London  to  the 
country,  in  this  case.  Either  he  got  the  cause  tried  early  in  London, 
or  by  making  the  case  a  special  jury  case,  he  had  to  keep  his  attor- 
ney and  witnesses  only  one  day,  or  at  most,  two  days  in  town;  while, 
at  York  or  Lancaster,  they  might  be  detained  for  four,  five,  six — ay, 
and  I  have  known  it  to  fall  out,  for  ten,  twelve,  or  fourteen  days,  be- 
fore the  trial  was  brought  on.  Attorneys  are  allowed  iwo  guineas  a- 
day,  if  they  have  only  one  cause  at  the  assizes,  and  one  guii;ja  a-day 
for  each  case,  if  they  have  several:  and  a  plaintiff  is  not  answerable, 
if  it  should  happen  that  his  attorney  has  only  one  cause;  all  his  wit- 
nesses are  to  be  paid,  not  only  going  and  returning,  but  while  they 
are  in  the  assize  town, — at  least  at  the  rate  already  mentioned;  aud 
as  long  as  the  present  system  continues,  I  look  upon  this  as  essential  to 
and  inseparable  from  it — it  may  be  as  necessary  a  part  of  the  expendi- 
ture as  the  retaining  of  counsel  or  the  employment  of  an  attorney; 
indeed,  1  am  not  sure  if  it  be  not  even  more  necessary.  Now,  how 
much  must  be  added  to  this,  on  account  of  the  difference  between  the 
costs  incurred  and  the  costs  taxed?  This  is  to  say,  after  obtaining  the 
costs  recovered  from  an  adversary  as  the  consequence  of  the  verdict, 
how  much  is  a  plaintiff  out  of  pocket? 

It  may  be  remembered  that  I  formerly  produced  to  the  House  four 
bills  of  costs,  all  from  the  offices  of  most  respectable  attorneys;  in  one 
of  £400,  about  £200  (or  half)  was  deducted  on  taxation;  so  that  the 
client  who  had  obtained  judgment  was  £200  out  of  pocket,  unless  the 
debt  which  lie  recovered  was  greater  than  that  sum.  Another  was  a 
bill  from  which  one-third  had  been  taxed  off:  £70  was  deducted  out 
of  £210.  In  a  third  case,  which  was  the  lowest  of  the  whole,  because 
it  was  an  undefended  cause,  £15  out  of  £00,  or  one-fourth,  was  taxed 
off.  The  successful  suitor  received  £15  less  than  he  had  expended. 
This  was  a  £50  cause;  and  if  the  plaintiff's  adversary  had  had  a  long 
purse,  and  a  litigious  temper,  he  could,  if  he  chose,  have  put  his 
creditor  to  an  expense  of  £80  before  the  latter  got  a  verdict,  or  to 
£100  costs  before  final  judgment.  In  point  of  fact,  I  might  take  it 
higher:  the  plaintiff  might  have  had  to  pay  £120  before  he  obtained 
a  verdict,  and  £150  before  judgment.  He  would  be  allowed  out  of 
this  £150  only  £100: — £50  being  struck  off  for  extra  costs;  of  course 
he  would  also  be  allowed  his  debt  of  £50,  making  precisely  the 
amount  expended  £150;  and  so  the  man  is  a  gainer  in  money  of  not 
one  farthing  (saying  nothing  about  his  debt),  and  has  been  exposed  to 
all  the  delay,  harassing  vexation,  embarrassment,  and  anxiety,  of  a 
year  and  a  half  or  two  years'  legal  proceedings,  together  with  the  risk 
of  losing  his  suit,  and  having  to  pay  £100  instead  of  receiving  any- 
thing. I  say,  sir,  in  addition  to  that,  he  would  have  been  exposoj  to 
all  the  vexation  of  delay,  and  to  the  distress  of  uncertainty;  and  if  he 
be  a  man  who,  for  the  first  lime,  has  brought  an  action  into  a  court  oi 
justice,  it  is  most  likely  to  be  his  last  experiment  of  the  kind.  I  am 
here  taking  an  instance  most  favourable  to  the  other  side  <>!'  the  ques- 
tion,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  it  is  anything  rather  than  an  ave.rago 
case;  in  general,  those  who  succeed  have  to  pay  more  than  they  re- 
VOL.  i. — 52 


614  LAW  REFORM. 

ceive,  and  are  often  considerably  out  of  pocket.  What  is  the  practical 
result?  Simply  this — that  any  man  acquainted  with  the  proceedings 
of  courts  of  justice,  and  exercising  a  sound  discretion  upon  the  mere 
pecuniary  question,  would  never  think  of  suing  for  a  debt  of  less  than 
£20  or  £30.  I  should  rather  say,  hardly  for  a  sum  under  £40  or  £50. 
Upon  the  same  principle,  a  man  would  hardly  think  of  resisting  an 
unjust  claim  for  such  an  amount,  even  if  he  had  a  receipt  on  a  stamp 
in  his  pocket.  He  would  pay  the  demand  rather  than  enter  a  court 
of  justice,  and  endure  the  annoyance  and  expense  of  a  trial,  with  a 
certainty  of  being  out  of  pocket  if  he  gained  the  cause,  and  a  chance 
of  being  still  more  out  of  pocket  if  he  failed. 

I  had  very  lately  occasion  to  speak  with  an  attorney  of  extensive 
practice,  residing  only  twenty-two  miles  from  an  assize  town,  upon 
this  point,  and  he  said,  that  if  he  himself  were  a  party  in  a  cause,  he 
should  never  think  of  going  into  court  there  for  a  less  sum  than  .£40 
or  £50.  This  was  the  solicitor's  private  opinion  about  the  matter; 
but  whether  he  recommended  a  similar  course  to  his  clients,  I  do  not 
undertake  to  say.  To  be  sure  a  man  would,  in  many  cases,  be  justi- 
fied in  bringing  actions  for  small  sums,  or  resisting  flagrant  and  extor- 
tionate demands,  on  other  grounds  than  those  of  mere  pecuniary 
interest;  but  with  reference  to  his  pecuniary  interest  alone,  and  if  he 
merely  consulted  that,  there  would  be  every  inducement  not  to  sue. 
I  am  well  aware  that  it  is  not  only  always  easier  to  point  out  defects 
than  to  apply  remedies;  but  also,  that  he  who  propounds  a  cure  for 
mischief  of  the  widest  extent,  the  most  intolerable,  and  recognised  as 
such  by  the  unanimous  admission  of  all  persons  of  all  ranks,  who  have 
observed  others  suffering  from  its  effects,  or  experienced  it  themselves, 
somewhat  exposes  himself,  and  gives  an  opponent  a  decided  advan- 
tage; he  is  always  more  or  less  in  the  predicament  of  an  inventor;  he 
always  seems  to  be  a  person  who  sets  his  wits  above  other  men,  and 
affects  to  be  wiser  than  those  who  have  gone  before  him;  and  I  there- 
fore unfeignedly  avow,  that  I  feel  much  distrust  of  myself,  in  bringing 
forward  that  which  appears  to  me  a  remedy.  In  doing  so,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  examine  into  the  causes  of  the  evil.  Here  I  may  say,  I  am 
perfectly  sensible  that  something  will  be  done  when  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  commissioners  are  carried  into  effect;  I  know,  and  I 
rejoice  to  know,  that  some  of  the  great  evils  will  be  removed,  as  the 
result  of  their  inquiries;  but  1  am  equally  certain  that  still  much  will 
remain  to  be  done,  and  I  trust  the  kind  of  remedy  I  propose  will  be 
one  which,  while  it  carries  further  the  design  of  the  commissioners 
themselves,  will  be  found  most  accurately  and  nicely  to  chime  in  and 
harmonize  with,  instead  of  being  repugnant  to,  their  principles. 

I  have  stated  the  principal  causes  of  the  evils  we  all  see  and  suffer; 
and  I  shall  by-and-by  proceed  to  the  remedy.  The  great  evil  arises 
out  of  the  distance  to  which  parties  are  necessarily  dragged,  in  order 
to  obtain  a  decision  upon  their  rights.  For  many,  many  ages  it  has 
been  the  system  of  English  jurisprudence,  that  justice  should  originate 
and  be  to  a  great  extent  administered  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom,  or 
what  is  politically,  though  not  geographically,  its  centre.  The  me- 


LOCAL  COURTS.  615 

tropolis  has  been  made  as  it  were  the  great  mart  of  justice,  from 
whence  all  processes  issue,  and  to  which  all  processes  are  returned. 
It  has  been  fixed,  that  all  litigants  should  more  or  less  resort  to  Lon- 
don, to  derive  from  it  the  remedies  which  they  seek  at  the  hands  of 
the  law.  This  is  not  of  itself  the  cause  of  the  expense  of  legal  pro- 
ceedings, because  the  mere  difference  between  sending  to  London 
from  Lancashire  or  Yorkshire  for  a  writ,  and  sending  for  it  to  Lan- 
caster or  York,  is  not  alone  worth  being  considered.  But  out  of  that 
arises  another  part  of  the  system  to  which  this  observation  does  not 
apply.  The  judges  come  from  the  metropolis,  as  well  as  the  writs 
and  legal  processes  which  give  rise  to  their  jurisdiction,  and  the 
country  litigant  must  wait  till  the  judge  visits  his  county,  which  is 
once  in  each  half  year.  You  must  wait,  but  that  is  not  all.  In  order 
to  have  your  cause  tried,  you  must  go  perhaps  to  the  remote  corner  of 
the  county  to  the  assize  town;  there  you  must  consult  your  law  advi- 
sers; thither  you  must  send  your  agent  and  witnesses;  they  must  be 
kept  there  perhaps  during  the  whole  assizes;  and  it  is  often  a  race  be- 
tween the  respective  agents  as  to  who  shall  enter  his  cause  latest,  in 
order  that  he  may  have  the  longest  bill.  Respectable  \vitnesses  must 
be  paid  for  loss  of  time  and  skill — witnesses  of  inferior  condition  must 
be  better  paid,  and  at  a  higher  rate  than  their  time  is  worth;  common 
day-labourers  receiving  5s.  a-day.  Then  there  is  the  expense  of  en- 
tertaining the  witnesses,  and  in  this  respect  there  is  frequently  a  good 
deal  of  competition  between  the  agents  of  opposite  parties,  it  being 
pretty  well  understood,  that  the  party  who  pays  witnesses  shabbily  is 
sure  to  pay  for  it,  in  the  course  of  the  assizes,  by  the  conduct  of  some 
of  them.  All  this  is  essential  to,  and  inseparable  from,  the  scheme  of 
requiring  parties  to  go  twice  a-year  to  the  assize  town,  and  there  have 
the  causes  tried.  Then  comes  another  stage  of  the  proceeding  equally 
attended  with  heavy  costs;  if  any  point  be  reserved  on  an  appeal  made 
from  the  decision,  it  must  be  discussed  in  London,  and  to  London  the 
agents  must  be  sent  with  great  delay,  and  a  great  and  unnecessary 
expense.  What  is  the  obvious  remedy?  To  that  I  shall  come  pre- 
sently; but,  in  doing  so,  as  I  have  before  stated,  I  wish  to  steer  clear, 
as  far  as  possible,  of  the  difficulties  and  objections  to  which  the  pre- 
scribing of  remedies  is  liable. 

In  the  propositions  of  the  law  commissioners  some  slight  remedies 
may  be  found  for  the  evil  of  which  I  complain.  For  instance,  the 
proposed  alterations  in  the  mode  of  issuing  processes  will  effect  a 
diminution  of  expense:  they  will  save  a  few  shillings  out  of  the  jCSO. 
Another,  which  tended  *to  lessen  the  arrears  of  the  court,  would,  of 
course,  save  time,  and  thus  curtail  the  expense  arising  from  delay;  it 
would  cut  off  jCIO  from  the  larger,  and  £6  from  the  smaller  bill.  Upon 
these  follow  many  olhcr  excellent  propositions  for  the  despatch  of 
business,  for  effecting  improvements  in  the  administration  of  justice, 
for  removing  uncertainty,  and  for  the  regulation  of  costs.  I  alludo.  in 
particular,  to  that  proposition  which  regards  the  proof  of  written  docu- 
ments. There  is  not,  however,  a  single  document  in  the  case  to 
which  I  have  alluded;  and  this  proposition,  therefore,  docs  not  bear 


616  LAW  REFORM. 

upon  my  argument;  so  that,  if  it  should  prove  in  practice  as  success- 
ful as  I  unfeignedly  hope  and  believe  it  will,  still  it  would  not  cut  off 
one  farthing  from  the  expense  which  I  pointed  out  as  being  so  great 
an  evil.  In  like  manner,  the  form  and  substance  of  pleadings  will  be 
materially  improved  by  the  propositions  of  the  commissioners.  This 
part  of  the  report  contains  some  of  the  happiest  thoughts,  some  of  the 
most  ingenious,  and,  allow  me  to  call  them  also,  some  of  the  most 
profound  suggestions  for  the  improvement  and  advancement  of  the 
science  of  pleading,  which  are  well  worthy  the  attention  of  every  man, 
and  of  every  lawyer,  as  well  as  of  those  whose  skill  and  learning  are 
chiefly  employed  upon  subjects  connected  with  that  science.  These 
propositions,  however,  important  and  valuable  as  they  are,  do  not 
tend  to  remedy  the  abuse  of  which  I  complain,  and  which  arises,  first, 
from  the  distance  of  the  places  at  which  causes  are  tried;  and  next, 
from  the  fact  of  their  being  heard  at  London  in  the  last  resort. 

I  trust  the  House  will  pardon  me  if  I  remind  them  that  they  have 
now  seen  how  the  principal  mischief  and  the  chief  cause  of  complaint 
relates  to  actions  under  a  certain  amount.  I  have  shown  that  it 
relates  to  actions  which  are  confined  to  a  moderate  amount.  If,  how- 
ever, the  amount  were  large  instead  of  small,  that  would  be  no  reason 
why  the  complaint  should  not  cease.  The  abuse  would  still  call  for 
remedy;  but  the  crying  evil  of  which  I  am  now  speaking  attaches  to 
actions  for  from  £20  to  £100.  Now  I  would  fain  call  the  attention 
of  the  House  to  the  old  scheme  of  administering  justice,  which  for- 
merly prevailed  in  this  country,  with  respect  to  such  actions,  and 
which  was  evidently  intended  to  avoid  expensive  litigation.  Let  me 
not  be  misunderstood.  I  am  too  fully  sensible  of  the  great  and  mani- 
fest advantages  which  result  from  that  arrangement  which  makes  the 
capital  the  seat  of  justice,  to  attempt  to  alter  it,  even  if  I  supposed  I 
could  succeed  in  the  attempt.  With  this  explanation,  let  me  observe 
that,  long  antecedent  to  our  jurisprudence  assuming  its  present  form, 
there  existed  a  more  convenient  and  less  expensive  mode  of  trial,  in 
the  county  courts.  The  origin  of  these  courts  is  lost  in  remote  an- 
tiquity, and  learned  men  have  differed  with  respect  to  the  constitution 
and  jurisdiction  of  them;  but  all  agree  upon  one  point — namely,  that 
in  the  time  of  the  Saxons  they  were  the  great  tribunals  of  the  country, 
and  that  they  possessed  a  most  extensive  jurisdiction.  My  opinion — 
I  know  that  in  holding  it  I  differ  from  many  learned  men — my  very 
humble  opinion  is,  that  the  county  court  possessed  originally  a  crimi- 
nal as  well  as  a  civil  jurisdiction.  Be  that,  however,  as  it  may,  it  is 
certain  that,  in  the  Saxon  times,  the  county  court  had  jurisdiction  in 
mutters  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil.  We  find  a  law  in  the  time  of 
Edgar  or  Canute — Let  the  bishop  and  the  earl  meet  the  county,  the 
one  to  state  the  law  of  God,  and  the  other  the  law  of  the  land;  or,  as 
the  phrase  is,  the  one  to  teach  the  people  the  law  of  God,  the  other 
the  law  of  the  land. 

This  practice  continued  down  to  the  time  of  the  Conquest;  but  soon 
after  that  event,  the  ecclesiastical  part  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  county 
court  was  separated  from  the  civil.  Before  that,  however,  the  prin- 


LOCAL  COURTS.  617 

ciple  of  the  law  was,  that  a  man  should,  in  the  first  instance,  seek  jus- 
tice at  home;  and  that  he  should  not  seek  it  from  the  king,  until  his 
attempts  to  obtain  it  from  the  sheriff  in  the  county  court  had  failed. 
Sir  Harry  Spelman,  commenting  upon  this  law,  observes,  that  the 
reason  of  it  was,  that  the  suitors  should  not  be  obliged  to  go  far  off  to 
obtain  justice.  In  the  sixth  year  after  the  Conquest,  the  sixth  of  Wil- 
liam I.,  there  was  a  celebrated  cause  tried  in  the  county  of  Kent,  in 
which  the  archbishop,  three  bishops,  and  the  earl  presided;  Lanfranc 
was  the  archbishop,  and  one  of  the  parties  in  the  suit  was  Odo,  half- 
brother  to  the  King.  This  meeting  of  the  county  lasted  somewhat 
longer  than  some  recent  meetings  in  the  same  place,  for  it  lasted  three 
days,  and  the  court  decided  upon  the  claim  to  manors  of  very  consi- 
derable value,  which  decision  was  afterwards  confirmed  in  Parlia- 
ment. In  process  of  time  the  sheriff's  court  appears  to  have  fallen 
into  disrepute,  and,  perhaps,  an  institution  well  adapted  to  a  simple 
state  of  society,  was  not  found  to  answer  the  purposes  of  a  more  im- 
proved state.  As  early  as  the  sixth  year  of  Edward  I.,  it  was  pro- 
vided by  the  statute  of  Gloucester,  that  the  county  court  should  have 
exclusive  jurisdiction  in  pleas  of  debt  and  damages  under  the  value 
of  40,9.  That  statute  only  provided  that  the  jurisdiction  of  these 
courts  should  be  exclusive  in  such  pleas;  it  did  not  confine  their  juris- 
diction to  such  pleas.  Probably,  however,  in  the  course  of  a  century 
after,  40-?.  became  the  maximum.  Certainly  this  happened  not  long 
afterwards. 

Such,  then,  was,  at  that  period,  the  constitution  of  the  county  courts 
in  England:  and  now,  I  would  fain,  with  the  permission  of  the 
house,  call  their  attention  to  the  constitution  of  the  county  courts  of 
the  sister  kingdom — Scotland;  for  when  we  are  trying  to  apply  a 
remedy,  it  is  right,  before  we  adopt  any  change,  to  see  if,  among 
many  remedies,  there  is  one  which  has  been  adopted  elsewhere;  and 
if  so,  to  inquire  how  it  has  been  found  to  work  there.  I  need  not 
remind,  perhaps,  any  one,  but  certainly  I  need  remind  no  lawyer — 
that,  however  widely  the  general  jurisprudence  and  practice  of  the 
two  countries  may  at  this  moment  differ,  the  early  laws  of  the  two 
were  very  much  alike;  so  alike,  indeed,  that  while  in  England  it  is 
contended  that  the  book  called  Regiam  Majestatem  was  copied  from 
Glanvil's  book  on  the  laws  of  this  country — so,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
has  been  asserted  in  Scotland,  that  the  Regiam  Majestatem  was  the 
original  of  Glanvil's  work.  This  dispute  proves  at  least  the  remark- 
able similarity  which  subsisted  between  the  early  laws  of  the  two 
countries.  The  same  similarity  existed  also  in  the  administration  of 
justice;  and,  while  no  one  can  doubt  that  many  most  valuable  im- 
provements have  been  effected  in  this  country,  of  which  the  benefits 
liave  not  been  shared  by  Scotland,  still,  with  all  my  prejudices  in 
favour  of  the  English  system,  I  cannot  help  regretting  that  Scotland 
has  retained  some  parts  of  the  ancient  system  which  was  originally 
common  to  both,  but  which  have  boon  laid  aside  in  England.  In  both 
countries  the  constitution  of  the  county  court  was  originally  the  same; 
in  both  the  jurisdiction  was  unlimited. 

52* 


618  LAW  REFORM. 

The  original  county  court  was  that  at  which  the  bishop  and  earl  or 
alderman,  with  the  viscount  or  sheriff,  presided.  In  Scotland,  the 
Sheriff's  Court  took  cognizance  of  the  four  pleas  of  the  crown,  with 
the  permission  of  the  justiciary,  and,  in  all  civil  suits,  the  county  court 
was  of  unlimited  jurisdiction.  The  appointment  to  the  office  of  sheriff 
soon  took  a  different  turn;  originally  elective,  it  was  made  an  appoint- 
ment for  years,  and  afterwards  for  life;  it  then  came  in  Scotland  to  be 
conferred  in  fee.  This  led  to  what  is  called,  in  Scotland,  "heritable 
jurisdiction," — the  earl  became  hereditary,  and  the  viscount  or  sheriff 
a  privileged  individual,  well  known  to  the  laws  of  that  country.  It 
was  not  very  long  ago  that,  at  the  abolition  of  these  heritable  juris- 
dictions, the  county  court  was  put  upon  its  present  advantageous  foot- 
ing. The  number  of  forfeitures  in  the  rebellions  of  1715  and  1745 
vested  many  of  those  jurisdictions  in  the  crown.  There  are  none  of 
the  hereditary  jurisdictions  riot  open  to  serious  objection,  except  per- 
haps the  hereditary  jurisdiction  vested  in  the  peers  of  this  realm  of  Eng- 
land, to  which  no  objections  of  that  nature  apply.  In  the  year  1746, 
an  act  was  passed  abolishing  all  the  hereditary  jurisdictions,  giving 
compensation  to  some  of  the  parties,  and  vesting  all  the  shrievalties 
in  the  crown;  and  the  first  step  taken  thereupon  was  to  appoint 
sheriffs  depute  for  life  in  all  the  counties.  The  persons  appointed  to 
that  office  are,  for  the  most  part,  gentlemen  of  some  professional  stand- 
ing at  the  bar,  and  the  courts  over  which  they  preside  take  cognizance 
of  all  matters,  to  which  a  very  extensive  civil  jurisdiction  can  be 
applied.  Those  officers  are  paid  a  moderate,  reasonable  salary,  and 
their  appointment  is  attended  with  the  best  effects  to  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  in  Scotland.  I  should  be  happy  to  witness  a  still  farther 
improvement;  I  should  be  glad  to  see  a  sheriff  depute  residing  within 
his  county,  holding  his  court  himself,  and  not  leaving  it  to  be  held  by 
his  substitute;  and  I  think  the  system,  in  its  main  principle,  and  thus 
improved,  could  be  introduced  into  this  country  with  the  highest  ad- 
vantage. Those  courts  are  found  to  have  worked  well  in  Scotland, 
and  to  afford  cheap  and  convenient  justice.  The  Sheriff's  Court  there 
is  competent  to  entertain  nearly  all  ordinary  causes  of  actions — all 
actions  of  debt  to  any  amount — actions  of  damages,  for  defamation, 
assault,  false  imprisonment,  malicious  prosecution,  criminal  conversa- 
tion, trespass,  trover,  seduction,  and  almost  all  actions  of  tort.  Now, 
let  us  look  to  the  working  of  this  system  upon  an  average  of  three 
years — the  years  1821,  1822,  and  1823 — there  were  22,000  some  odd 
hundred  causes  tried  in  the  Sheriffs'  Courts  in  Scotland,  in  each  year, 
for  the  amount  of  £5  and  upwards — this  was  of  course  exclusive  of 
such  matters  as  were  tried  before  justices  of  the  peace.  Take  the 
proportion  between  England  and  Scotland,  assuming  that  the  law 
were  the  same  here,  and  we  might  say  that  we  should  have  six  times 
as  many  in  England — that  is  to  say  130,000.  That  amounts  to  many 
more  than  the  number  of  actions  brought  in  England — to  a  vast  many 
more  than  the  number  tried — for  I  have  shown  that  not  more  than 
7000,  out  of  the  80,000  commenced,  have  been  brought  to  trial.  Of 
these  22,000  in  Scotland,  somewhere  about  12,000  were  disposed  of 


LOCAL  COURTS.  619 

in  the  absence  of  the  defendant,  being  what  \ve  should  call  in  Eng- 
land undefended  causes;  and  somewhere  about  10,000  were  disposed 
ofinforo  cnnlentioso.  From  the  decision  of  these  courts  there  is  an 
appeal  to  the  Court  of  Session;  but  the  number  of  appeals  is  small.  It 
is  one  in  117  of  the  actions  brought:  one  in  53  of  the  actions  brought 
to  trial.  The  house  will  see,  then,  how  much  satisfaction  this  system 
has  given  in  Scotland;  and  from  that  I  think  I  may  draw  the  conclu- 
sion, not  a  fanciful  one,  that  the  only  cases  in  which  the  decisions  of 
the  county  courts  are  not  allowed  to  be  final,  are  actions  of  import- 
ance— actions  in  which  difficult  questions  of  law  are  raised,  or  actions 
in  which  there  is  involved  sufficient  interest  to  tempt  the  unsuccessful 
party  to  appeal.  Taking  the  number  of  cases,  and  the  value  of  property 
involved  in  them,  brought  in  the  county  court  of  Lanark,  which 
includes  Glasgow,  it  will  be  found  that  £500,000  worth  of  property  is 
adjudicated  upon  yearly  by  that  court.  Taking  the  same  proportion 
for  England,  and  multiplying  it  by  six,  we  shall  have  an  amount  of 
£3,000,000  sterling,  which  would  be  disposed  of  yearly,  if  the  same 
system  prevailed  here. 

And  now,  have  we  not,  let  us  ask,  something  to  learn  from  this 
statement?  May  we  not  put  to  ourselves  the  question,  "  Can  we  not 
amend  our  own  system?"  I  do  not  say,  do  this  because  it  has  been 
tried  and  found  to  answer  in  Scotland;  I  do  not  ask  you  to  import  the 
law  of  Scotland  into  England.  No;  I  ask  you  only  to  revert  to  your 
own  ancient  laws — to  those  laws  which  were  established  in  England 
before  they  became  the  laws  of  Scotland.  If  the  Scotch  continue 
those  laws  and  find  them,  to  answer,  all  that  I  wish  to  argue  from  this 
fact  is,  not  that  for  this  reason  the  English  should  re-adopt  them,  but 
only  that  it  might  be  advisable  to  consider  whether  to  a  mischief, 
which  it  is  admitted  does  exist,  this  remedy  is  not  the  best  we  could 
apply. 

And  here,  if  the  House  will  permit  me,  I  should  wish  to  state  what 
is  the  expense  of  proceedings  in  the  county  courts  of  Scotland.  I 
have  examined  this  matter,  and  found  that,  where  the  sum  in  ques- 
tion amounts  to  £12,  and  where  there  is  no  litigation — whore,  as  we 
should  say,  the  cause  was  undefended — the  expense  is  10s.;  where 
the  sum  amounts  to  £25,  the  expense  is  15*.;  where  the  sum  amounts 
to  £50,  the  expense  is  15.9.;  and  where  the  sum  is  as  high  as  £100, 
the  expense  is  not  more  than  20*.  This  is  in  cases  in  which  there  is 
no  litigation,  and  where  decrees  are  pronounced  in  the  absence  of  the 
defendant.  Where  the  cause  is  defended  and  the  matter  litigated,  if 
the  sum  in  dispute  amounts  to  £12,  the  expense  is  £5,  and  the  party 
who  is  successful,  is  only  5*.  out  of  pocket.  If  the  sum  in  dispute 
amounts  lo  £25  or  £50,  the  expense  is  greater;  but  still  the  successful 
party  is  only  lO.s.  out  of  pocket;  and  where  the  sum  amounts  to  .Lioo, 
the  costs  would  amount  only  to  £13,  and  on  taxation  they  would  not 
be  reduced  below  £12. 

Now,  I  cannot  help  envying  Scotland  this  cheap  justice;  tor  cheap 
I  must  call  it,  when  a  man  can  recover  £100  for  an  outlay  of  J-13 
instead  of  £1G(),  which  would  be  the  cost  of  proceedings  in  England; 


620  LAW  REFORM. 

when,  moreover,  tliis  man  would  pocket  the  whole  of  the  £100  ex- 
cept 20s.,  instead  of  throwing  away  one  half  of  the  £100,  as  a  man 
must  here,  even  though  he  should  obtain  a  verdict  and  a  judgment  in 
his  favour.  With  all  my  partiality,  and  with  all  rny  prejudices  in 
favour  of  the  English  system,  I  cannot  help  envying  Scotland  this  part 
of  her  law.  Is  it,  then,  possible  so  to  extend  the  jurisdiction,  so  to 
amend  the  constitution  of  the  county  courts  of  England,  as  to  make 
them  capable  of  bestowing  the  same  advantages?  Is  not  this  a  ques- 
tion worthy  of  our  most  serious  consideration?  I  feel  that  I  am 
talcing  up  too  much  time  of  the  House,  and  yet  the  importance  of  the 
subject  leads  me  still  further  into  detail.  It  is  the  greatest  possible 
error  to  imagine  that  inferior  suitors  ought  to  have  inferior  judges; 
that  when  questions  are  to  be  decided  respecting  persons  of  superior 
rank,  wealth,  and  intelligence,  men  of  superior  intellect  and  station 
should  be  provided  for  that  purpose;  that  when  a  matter  of  £100 
or  upwards  is  to  be  decided,  a  high  and  distinguished  judge  should  be 
employed  for  the  purpose;  but  that  in  a  matter  only  involving  two, 
three,  five,  or  six  pounds,  any  one  will  do  for  a  judge,  a  sheriff,  or  a 
sheriff's  assessor,  or  whatever  name  he  may  bear — that  any  one  will 
answer  to  preside  in  a  court  for  the  decision  of  such  petty  concerns, 
whether  he  be  a  man  qualified  or  unqualified,  a  man  of  sense  or  a 
man  of  no  sense;  for  the  poor  man,  it  seems  to  be  the  opinion,  that  it 
does  not  signify  what  sort  of  judicature  he  has  to  decide  his  causes. 
To  my  mind  no  notions  appear  to  be  more  crude  than  these.  Forty 
shillings  may  be  of  more  importance  to  the  poor  man  than  the  sum 
for  which  the  great  man  litigates;  the  poor  man  contests  not  only  for 
the  sake  of  the  sum  at  issue,  but  that  he  may  not  be  subject  to  wrong 
and  oppression;  and  he  feels  that  oppression  the  more  grievous  and 
intolerable,  seeing  that  it  is  an  evil  reserved  for  the  class  to  which  he 
himself  belongs.  It  is  not  always  for  the  sum  disputed  that  lie  goes 
to  law;  he  proceeds  in  resistance  of  wrong  and  oppression,  and  he 
sues  as  readily  for  2*.  as  for  40s.  In  this  frame  of  mind,  then,  he 
goes  away  from  court  as  much  dissatisfied  as  the  wealthier  suitor  who 
has  lost  £1000;  and,  give  me  leave  to  say,  he  has  a  right  to  be  dis- 
satisfied, and  his  is  a  dissatisfaction  which  will  not  be  appeased  other- 
wise than  by  a  full  supply  of  that  for  which  he  has  gone  before  his 
judge — justice.  I  know  these  judges  in  the  courts  of  requests  do  good 
— I  say  they  do  good  by  comparison — better  something  of  justice 
than  nothing — it  maybe  slovenly  justice,  but  so  precious  a  thing  is 
justice,  that  I  should  rather  have  even  slovenly  justice  than  the  abso- 
lute, peremptory,  and  inflexible  denial  of  all  justice.  It  happens  that 
tradesmen,  who  know  nothing  of  law,  and  who  may  not  have  much 
occupation  in  their  own  business,  preside  in  these  courts  of  requests, 
and  administer  justice  as  well  as  might  be  expected.  I  say  it  is  bet- 
ter to  have  these  than  to  have  none.  There  are  240  of  those  courts, 
with  jurisdiction  of  from  40*.  to  £5;  but  that  is  not  enough;  the  sys- 
tem of  cheap  justice  ought  to  be  more  widely  extended. 

I  shall  now  advert  to  a  prevailing  error — that  opinion  which  goes 
to  recommend  the  use  of  a  local  appellate  jurisdiction.     I  think  it  open 


LOCAL  COURTS.  621 

to  this,  among  other  objections — that  it  would  lead  to  one  system  of 
law  for  one  di>trict,  and  a  different  system  for  another.  I  may  here 
step  aside  to  observe,  that  I  wish  the  appellate  jurisdiction  received 
more  attention  in  the  quarter  which  ought  to  attend  to  it,  than  I  find 
it  does;  and  while  upon  this  subject,  I  cannot  help  expressing  a  desire, 
with  reference  to  Colonial  appeals,  that  there  should  be  upon  the  Privy 
Council  some  judges,  who,  by  their  knowledge  of,  and  residence  in,  the 
Colonies,  may  have  acquired  some  acquaintance  with  their  manners 
and  habits,  as  well  as  their  laws  and  regulations,  instead  of  that  body, 
as  it  now  does,  knowing  nothing  of  the  feelings  of  the  people  whence 
those  appeals  come.  I  have  thrown  out,  in  passing,  these  few  observa- 
tions on  the  nature  of  the  appellate  jurisdiction,  and  the  evils  which  in 
it  seem  to  me  to  require  remedy,  although  that  branch  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  is  not  immediately  connected  with  the  question  before 
me.*  While,  however,  I  am  on  that  part  of  the  subject,  I  may  as  well 
say  a  few  words  on  the  nature  of  the  appellate  jurisdiction,  as  it  ope- 
rates on  our  brethren  of  Scotland,  who  have,  in  my  opinion,  very  great 
reason  to  complain  of  the  practice  which  sends  them,  in  all  cases  of  the> 
last  resort,  to  the  House  of  Lords  in  this  country.  I  do  think  that  the 
anomaly  which  this  practice  presents  in  the  case  of  Scotland — an 
anomaly  which  has  existed  ever  since  the  Union — affords  them  very 
reasonable  ground  of  complaint;  and  the  patience  with  which  they  have 
borne  the  evil,  has  always  appeared  to  me  quite  unaccountable.  Our 
neighbours  seem  to  be  well  aware  of  the  nature  of  their  rights,  and 
to  be  by  no  means  unwilling  to  enter  into  litigation,  as,  indeed,  all  per- 
sons have  a  right,  nay  a  duty,  to  do,  who  feel  that  they  are  wronged; 
and  I  confess,  I  can  explain  their  patient  endurance  of  the  evil  I  have 
described,  and  which  must  be  so  great  an  obstacle  to  their  attaining 
cheap  and  substantial  justice,  only  by  supposing  it  to  have  been  owing 
to  a  concurrence  of  accidental  circumstances.  In  the  first  place,  there 
were  not  many  appeals  immediately  after  the  Union;  and  in  the  next 
place,  there  happened  soon  after  that  time  to  be  a  succession  of  Lord 
Chancellors  in  this  country,  who,  to  the  very  highest  fame  as  lawyers 
at  the  English  Bar — who,  to  a  reputation  paramount  above  that  of  all 
their  contemporaries,  and  which  at  once  pointed  them  out  as  the  most 
tit  for  being  raised  to  such  an  eminence — added  (hat  other — it  appears 
a  most  essential — qualification,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  the  practice  of  Scotch  appeals,  from  having  been  during  many  years 
of  their  lives,  employed  in  them  as  advocates.  First,  there  was  Lord 
Hardwicke,  who,  in  addition  to  the  amplest  qualifications  for  the  per- 
formance of  the  duties  of  Lord  Chancellor  as  an  English  lawyer,  pos- 
sessed the  reputation  of  being  well  acquainted  with  the  law  adminis- 
tered in  Scotch  appeals.  Then  there  came  Lord  Mansfield,  who  in 
addition  to  the  greatest  name  as  a  lawyer,  was  himself  a  Scotchman, 
and  long  employed  as  an  advocate  in  Scotch  cases.  Then  there  fol- 
lowed, after  the  interval  of  Lords  Halhurst  and  Thurlow,  Lord  Longh- 
borongh,  also  an  eminent  Scotch  lawyer.  To  these  eminent  men  suc- 

*  The  Judicial  Committee  Act  of  1833  has  now  introduced  this  reform. 


622  LAW  REFORM. 

ceeded  Lord  Eldon — a  man  who,  beside  standing  higher  in  reputation 
as  an  English  lawyer  than  any  judge  since  the  time  of  Lord  Coke 
himself;  who,  beside,  I  say,  being  marvellously  and  supereminently 
skilled  in  every  branch  of  English  law,  added  to  his  extraordinary  ac- 
quirements, that  of  being  learned  in  every  part  of  the  law  of  Scotland, 
having  been  employed  for  full  fifteen  years  of  his  life  in  almost  every 
appeal  which  was  heard  before  the  House  of  Lords.  It  is  to  a  suc- 
cession of  these  great  men  in  England,  as  Lord  Chancellors,  that  we 
are  doubtless  to  look,  when  called  on  to  account  for  the  patience  with 
which  our  brethren  of  Scotland  have  hitherto  borne  the  inconvenience 
of  the  system  of  appeals.  But  if  the  time  should  ever  come  when  a 
person  should  fill  the  situation  of  judge  in  the  last  resort,  who,  having 
but  a  moderate  acquaintance  with  English  law,  gained  his  first  know- 
ledge of  Scotch  law  from  being  called  upon,  by  any  arrangement  that 
might  be  made,  to  decide  on  the  merits  of  appeals  from  the  decision 
of  the  courts  of  Scotland,  then  the  anomaly  would  be  seen  in  its  full 
force,  though  the  means  of  accounting  for  it  would  be  gone.  I  cannot, 
indeed,  avoid — let  it  give  offence  where  it  may — expressing  my  opin- 
ion on  this  occasion,  that  the  nature  of  the  arrangements,  with  respect 
to  the  disposal  of  Scotch  appeals,  is  a  subject  extremely  worthy  of  the 
best,  the  most  serious,  and  the  earliest  consideration  of  his  Majesty's 
government. 

I  have  been  somewhat  drawn  aside  from  the  question  before  me, 
by  the  observations  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  make  on  the  nature  of 
the  appellate  jurisdiction;  but  having  said  thus  much,  I  shall  now 
proceed  to  explain  in  what  manner  I  propose  carrying  into  execution 
the  principles  I  have  laid  down,  and  to  show  how  a  tribunal  may  be 
constituted,  through  which  the  people  of  this  country  may  be  able  to 
obtain  that  most  desirable  object,  cheap  justice,  in  the  speediest  man- 
ner, in  causes  of  a  moderate  amount.  What  I  suggest  then,  is,  that 
there  be  appointed  in  each  county  or  district,  as  the  case  may  be,  a 
lawyer  of  a  certain  number  of  years'  standing,  who  is  to  be  the  judge 
in  the  last  instance,  in  causes  under  a  certain  sum,  and  in  the  first 
instance,  under  certain  regulations,  in  causes  over  that  sum.  In  the 
first  case,  I  would  enable  this  judge,  in  all  cases  where  the  sum  in 
litigation  is  under  £10,  to  call  the  parties  before  him— to  examine  the 
claimant  as  well  as  his  adversary — to  dispose  of  the  claim — to  give 
judgment — to  award  execution — and  to  specify  the  time  when,  and 
the  amounts  in  which  the  instalments  in  furtherance  of  that  execu- 
tion are  to  be  paid.  Above  the  sum  of  £10,  I  would  give  any  party 
power  to  go  before  the  same  judge,  who  should  be  authorized  to  call 
on  the  adverse  party  to  answer,  both  having  power  to  employ  pro- 
fessional assistance  if  they  should  deem  it  necessary,  and  to  determine 
the  matter  in  dispute,  and  examine  witnesses  if  they  should  think  fit. 
I  would  limit  the  jurisdiction  of  the  officer,  or  judge  as  I  call  him,  in 
this  instance,  to  the  sum  of  £100  in  point  of  value;  but  I  would  not 
limit  him  with  respect  to  the  nature  of  the  causes  to  be  tried— for  I 
would  give  him  jurisdiction  over  all  causes  except  those  relating  to 
freehold  or  copyhold  property.  I  would  give  him  jurisdiction  in  all 


LOCAL  COURTS.  623 

matters  of  torts,  as  well  as  of  debts;  but  I  would  make  his  decision 
in  these  cases  open  to  appeal, — final  in  all  matters  under  £10 — open 
to  review  in  all  causes  from  £10  up  to  £100,  and  in  all  cases  of  tort. 

I  now  proceed  to  show  in  what  way  I  think  this  appeal  should  be 
managed,  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  would  be  a  great  relief  to 
the  suitors  if  it  should  lie  to  the  judges  on  circuit,  and  not  to  the 
superior  courts  of  Westminster-hall.  There  might,  however,  be  good 
reasons  in  some  cases  for  not  bringing  the  appeal  before  a  particular 
judge  going  circuit,  and  I  should  therefore  remedy  that  inconvenience 
by  allowing  the  option  of  an  appeal  to  Westminster-hall,  with  certain 
restrictions  only  as  to  costs.  I  would  allow,  therefore,  an  appeal 
either  to  Westminster-hall  or  the  judges  on  circuit;  but,  if  the  party 
carried  the  cause  to  the  more  distant  and  expensive  tribunal,  I  would 
allow  the  opposing  party  double,  or,  in  some  cases,  perhaps,  treble 
costs.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add — at  least  to  those  professional 
gentlemen  who  hear  me — that  by  these  appeals  I  mean  motions  for 
new  trials  in  all  cases  where  the  judge  may  have  ruled  a  disputed 
point  of  law,  or  the  jury  be  supposed  to  have  decided  contrary  to 
the  evidence.  In  these  cases  I  would  allow  a  motion  to  be  made  to 
the  judge  going  the  ensuing  circuit,  for  a  new  trial,  notice  being 
given  to  the  other  side  that  it  is  intended  to  make  the  motion,  in 
order  that  he  may  be  present  at  the  assizes,  and  have  counsel  ready 
to  argue  the  case  if  he  thinks  fit.  I  do  not  mean  that  this  is  to  be 
according  to  the  practice  usual  in  the  courts  of  common  law,  where 
the  party,  without  notice  to  the  other  side,  obtains  a  rule  to  show 
cause,  and  the  matter  is  afterwards  heard  upon  that  rule  being  served 
on  the  other  side;  but  I  mean  it  to  be  according  to  the  long-established 
practice  of  the  equity  courts,  where  the  notice  is  served  before  the 
hearing,  and  the  judge  has  an  opportunity  of  knowing  the  whole 
merits  of  the  case  by  having  both  parties  before  him. 

I  am  now  giving  an  outline  of  the  measure  which  I  think  neces- 
sary to  accomplish  my  object;  but  I  have  not  yet  mentioned  the 
necessity  of  having  recourse  to  trial  by  jury.  Far  be  it  from  me  to 
say  that  there  are  not  many  cases  in  which  the  trial  by  jury  might 
fairly  be  dispensed  with;  but  when  in  connection  with  the  question 
of  trial  by  jury,  the  name  of  Mr.  Jeremy  Bentham  is  forced  on  my 
recollection, — a  man,  whose  merit  as  a  philosopher,  and  as  a  benefac- 
tor of  mankind,  is  admitted  by  all — of  that  man  who  is  both  most 
distinguished  as  a  lawyer,  and  foremost  amongst  the  advocates  of 
legal  reform — whose  name  will  go  down  to  posterity  with  an  honour- 
able remembrance  of  which  few,  if  any,  are  more  deserving — when 
I  mention  that  name,  I  think,  after  this  humble  but  sincere  tribute  to 
his  great  and  disinterested  benevolence,  I  shall  detract  but  little  from 
it  when  I  stale  that  I  do  not  agree  with  him  in  all  the  reforms  which 
he  proposes  in  our  law.  I  diller  from  him  upon  some  points,  only  in 
degree,  Mr.  Bentham  going  further  than  I  should  be  disposed  to 
follow;  and  on  other  points,  I  differ  from  him  in  kind,  as  when  I  am 
not  prepared  to  concur  with  him  in  his  view  of  trial  by  jury,  lint 
the  necessity  of  that  mode  of  trial  in  all  cases,  I  deny  with  him.  It 


624  LAW  REFORM. 

is  not  from  any  indifference  to  the  incalculable  advantages  of  this 
most  important  institution  that  I  now  state  my  opinion — that  in  many 
of  the  actions  which  would  probably  be  brought  in  the  county  court, 
I  think  that  mode  of  trial  not  applicable,  and  therefore  that  it  may  be 
dispensed  with  to  the  great  advantage  of  both  parties.  In  cases, 
indeed,  where  there  is  conflicting  testimony — in  cases  where  it  may 
be  necessary  to  contrast  documentary  with  oral  evidence — in  cases  of 
that  kind  I  would  have  a  jury,  for  I  know  of  no  mode  so  perfect, 
where  there  is  to  be  a  decision  on  contradictory  evidence,  as  that  of 
assembling  a  number  of  men — I  will  not  say  twelve,  for  there  is 
nothing  in  the  particular  number — of  different  feelings  and  habits  of 
thinking,  and  let  them,  after  an  investigation  of  the  whole  case,  pro- 
nounce upon  it  by  their  verdict;  but  I  would  not  have  that  verdict 
the  verdict  of  the  majority,  for,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  I  would 
have  a  forced  unanimity  among  the  jury.  Were  it  otherwise,  there 
would  never  be  that  patient  investigation  which  is  necessary  to  come 
at  the  truth.  There  would  be  cries  of  "  Question,"  such  as  are 
sometimes  heard  in  larger  and  less  judicial  assemblies.  There  is,  in 
short,  no  more  effectual  way  of  coming  at  the  truth  than  such  a  trial 
in  such  cases.  In  them,  then,  I  would  have  the  matter  decided  by 
the  jury.  I  would  also  have  juries  in  cases  where  damages  are  to  be 
assessed, — in  cases  of  tort,  seduction,  assault,  and  trespass,  and  even  in 
attacks  on  property,  as  well  as  in  personal  wrongs;  but  there-  are  many 
cases  in  which  they  might  well  be  dispensed  with.  I  repeat,  that  I 
state  this  not  from  undervaluing,  in  any  degree,  the  advantages  of 
that  great  institution;  for  1  hope  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  it 
will  become  general  throughout  every  part  of  the  empire.  I  am 
aware  that  it  is  difficult  to  classify  those  cases,  in  which  the  decision 
should  be  left  to  the  judge  without  the  aid  of  the  jury.  And  this 
difficulty  presents  itself,  not  from  not  having  duly  considered  the 
subject, — for  I  have  given  it  long  and  anxious  consideration, — but 
the  difficulty  is  not  of  a  nature  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  the  plan. 
I  would  allow  the  judge  to  decide  in  all  cases  not  exceeding  £10, 
whether  or  not  it  ought  to  be  sent  to  a  jury;  and  when  those  improve- 
ments shall  have  been  made  in  pleading,  which  are  recommended  by 
the  Common  Law  Commissioners, — when  the  story  of  the  plaintiff 
and  the  answer  of  the  defendant  shall  be  laid  before  the  court  in  such 
a  manner,  as  that  the  judge  can  at  once  comprehend  the  whole, — and 
when  plaintiff  and  defendant  respectively  know  what  they  have  to 
prove  and  to  answer, — it  will  not  be  difficult  for  the  judge  to  say  to 
them,  "  I  think  this  is  a  case  which  I  may  decide  without  the  assist- 
ance of  a  jury;"  but  I  would  not  allow  the  judge  to  be  the  sole 
arbiter  of  the  propriety  of  dispensing  with  that  mode  of  trial.  It 
should  also  be  left  to  the  consent  of  both  parties  to  the  suit;  and  if 
they  agree,  then  the  cause  should  be  decided  by  the  judge  alone.  I 
have  stated  that  I  would  give  the  judge  of  this  court  jurisdiction  in 
most  kinds  of  civil  actions;  and  when  it  is  considered  that  the  present 
state  of  the  law,  and  the  practice  under  it,  entail  an  enormous  but 
essential  expense,  for  carrying  into  effect  its  administration  from  dis- 


LOCAL  COURTS.  625 

tant  parts  of  the  country,  I  contend  that  it  is  imperative  on  Parlia- 
ment to  give  such  relief  as  that  which  I  have  pointed  out. 

Now,  with  respect  to  the  qualifications  of  the  judge  who  should  be 
selected  to  preside  in  those  county  courts,  I  think  he  ought  to  be  of 
considerable  learning  and  skill,  and  of  some  practice  of  the  law;  for 
without  that,  one  great  object  of  those  courts,  effectual  administration 
of  justice,  would  not  be  obtained.  He  ought  also  to  be  well  paid; 
for  if  the  public  expects  that  his  whole  time  should  be  devoted  to  his 
duties,  they  ought  to  pay  him  well  for  it.  I  would  suggest  that  he 
should  sit  once  a  month  for  ten  months  of  the  year,  and  that  six  of 
those  sittings  should  be  in  the  chief  town  of  the  county,  and  that  the 
four  other  sittings  should  be  in  such  towns  in  distant  parts  of  the 
county  as  would  bring  the  administration  of  justice  home  to  every 
man;  and  thus,  twice  in  the  year  at  least,  a  suitor  in  any  part  of  the 
county  would  have  an  opportunity  of  having  his  claim  tried  without 
being  put  to  the  trouble  of  going  to  any  inconvenient  distance  from 
his  home.  The  advantage  of  a  court  in  many  things  similar  to  that 
which  I  propose  to  establish,  has  been  long  felt  in  Ireland,  where  a 
judge,  called  "the  Assistant  Barrister,"  goes  through  the  county  at 
stated  periods  of  the  year,  holding  sessions  for  the  trial  of  actions  for 
small  sums,  but  excluding  all  trials  connected  with  the  freehold.  The 
assistant  barrister  has  also  the  power  of  deciding  certain  cases  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  jury;  but  in  those  cases  where  he  thinks  juries  neces- 
sary, they  are  summoned,  and  the  case  disposed  of  with  their  assist- 
ance. This  court  was  instituted  in  1796,  and  has  since  been  found  of 
great  convenience  to  the  public  in  disposing  of  small  causes,  which 
would  otherwise  have  to  be  sent,  at  much  greater  expense  to  the 
parties,  for  the  decision  of  the  superior  courts. 

I  have  said  that  there  should  be  a  power  of  moving  for  a  new  trial, 
in  certain  cases  which  may  have  been  tried  before  this  new  court,  and 
that  the  motion  might  be  made  before  (lie  judges  of  assize.  It  would, 
in  that  case,  be  necessary  for  the  new  judge  to  attend  the  assizes,  and  be 
named  in  the  commission.  He  should  sit  on  the  bench,  and,  as  occa- 
sion required,  should  read  his  notes  of  the  case  in  which  the  new  trial 
was  sought;  but  he  should  have  no  voice  in  the  decision.  Tire  judge 
of  assize  alone  should  decide  on  the  question.  Keason  and  experi- 
ence have  shown  to  those  who  are  conversant  with  the  practice  of 
our  courts,  the  very  great  inconvenience  of  allowing  the  judge,  from 
whose  opinion  an  appeal  is  made,  to  have  a  voice  in  the  decision  on 
that  appeal.  It  often  happens,  that  he  givos  a  tone  to  the  feeling  of 
the  court  in  favour  of  the  opinion  which  he  has  given  in  the  rourt 
below;  and  the  result  is,  in  some  instances,  where  a  judge  has  fallen 
into  an  error — for  judges  may  err  as  well  as  other  men — that  the 
error  is  adopted  by  his  brother  judges,  and  thus  confirmed  by  the 
decision  of  the  whole  court.  I  have  seen  this  practice  lead,  in  some 
instances,  to  decisions  which  I  have  no  doubt  on  earth  were  errone- 
ous; and  I  have  not  been  the  only  person  present,  on  such  occasions, 
who  have  come  to  the  same  conclusion.  This  ix-vor  would  have 
happened  had  the  appeal  been  made  from  the  opinion  of  a  judge 
VOL.  i. — 53 


626  LAW  REFORM. 

who  was  not  a  member  of  the  court.  I,  for  these  reasons,  would  not 
give  to  the  judges  of  the  new  county  courts  any  voice  in  the  decision 
of  the  appeal  which  might  be  taken  from  them  to  the  court  of  assize. 
By  the  adoption  of  this  practice,  with  respect  to  them,  there  would 
be  established  a  uniformity  of  practice  in  those  courts  throughout  the 
country,  and  we  should  not  have  one  mode  of  administering  the  law 
in  one  county,  and  a  different  one  in  another. 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  objected,  that  this  establishment  of  so  many 
courts  would  entail  a  very  considerable  expense  on  the  country;  for 
that,  beside  the  judge  in  each  court,  there  must  be  a  registrar  and 
clerk,  and  one  or  two  ushers.  No  doubt  the  appointment  of  such 
officers  would  be  necessary;  for,  if  we  are  to  have  establishments, 
they  should  be  complete,  to  answer  the  proposed  end.  But  the  ex- 
pense of  the  whole  on  the  country  will  be  but  trifling,  when  compared 
with  the  important  advantages  which  must  accrue  to  the  public.  I 
would  suggest  that  the  judge  should  have  a  salary  of  £1500  a-year. 
I  observe  my  honourable  and  learned  friend,  the  Solicitor-General, 
smiles  at  this,  as  if  he  considered  it  too  much;  but  if  the  public  are 
to  have  the  whole  of  the  time  of  a  professional  man  of  talent  and 
experience,  they  ought  not  to  expect  it  without  giving  an  adequate 
remuneration.  Taking  the  whole  expenses  of  the  judges,  registrars, 
clerks,  and  other  officers,  I  estimate  that  it  will  not  exceed  from 
£120,000  to  £130,000  a-year  for  the  whole  kingdom.  Now,  in  judg- 
ing of  this,  I  would  beg  the  attention  of  the  House  for  a  moment  to 
what  is  the  expense  of  the  judicial  administration  in  France.  In  that 
country  there  are  between  3000  and  4000  local  magistrates  scattered 
over  the  whole  country,  called  juges  de  paix,  who  have  jurisdic- 
tion in  actions  for  small  sums.  The  expense  of  these  amounts  to 
£121,000  a-year.  There  are  next  the  courts  of  First  Instance  for 
the  several  arrondissements,  amounting  to  from  300  to  400,  and  hav- 
ing from  1600  to  1700  judges;  the  annual  expense  of  these  amounts 
to  £125,000.  There  are  then  the  several  Courts  of  Appeal,  at  an 
annual  expense  of  £70,000;  and  beside  all  these,  and  over  them  is  the 
Court  of  Cassation,  in  Paris,  which  is  a  court  of  appeal  in  the  last 
resort,  or  rather,  a  court  of  error,  which  costs  the  country  £25,000 
annually,  making,  in  the  whole,  for  the  civil  administration  of  justice, 
an  annual  expense  of  from  £300,000  to  £400,000.  And  if  to  this  be 
added  the  expense  of  the  administration  of  criminal  justice,  it  will 
amount  to  about  £525,000  a-year;  or,  taking  it  pound  for  pound, 
and  considering  the  comparative  value  of  money  in  that  cheap 
country,  and  in  this  dear  one,  it  is  equal  to  about  £800,000  of  our 
money.  But  why  do  I  mention  this?  Merely  to  show  that  our 
neighbours  do  not  think  that  any  price  is  too  high  to  pay  for  an  effec- 
tual administration  of  justice;  and  most  certainly  it  would  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  convince  me  that  the  price  ought  for  an  instant  to 
be  put  into  competition  with  the  advantages  which  would  result  to 
the  public  from  such  a  system.  Let  it  be  considered  that  if  the  sum 
should  amount  to  £150,000  a-year,  it  would  be  still  less  than  three 
weeks'  proportion  of  the  extra  expenditure  to  which  the  country  was 


LOCAL  COURTS.  627 

subjected  in  the  last  year  of  the  war,  beside  the  cost  of  the  national 
debt,  of  the  civil  list,  and  all  the  ordinary  expenditure  of  the  year. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  extra  expense  was  no  more  than 
£50,000  per  week;  what  I  mean  is,  that  three  weeks'  amount  of  the 
extra  expenditure  of  that  year  would,  if  taken  into  the  market,  be 
sufficient  to  purchase  an  annuity  of  £150,000  for  ever.  I  do  not 
intend  to  inquire  how  far  that  expense  was  or  was  not  necessary,  hut 
I  contend  that  the  sum  I  have  named  would  purchase  by  far  the 
greatest  blessing  that  Parliament  ever  conferred  upon  the  people— a 
cheap,  speedy,  and  certain  administration  of  justice. 

I  have  said  that  the  new  judges  will  not  act  merely  as  presiding 
judges;  they  will  also  have  to  act  as  arbitrators,  and  in  that  way 
many  cases  will  bo  settled  without  ever  going  to  a  public  decision, 
and  thus  a  great  saving  of  time  and  expense  will  be  made  to  the 
parties.  This  of  itself  is  a  most  important  consideration.  What  is  so 
likely  to  give  satisfaction,  or  to  prevent  lawsuits  from  misdecision,  as 
the  enabling  a  person  to  decide  cases  as  a  judge  would  decide  them, 
but  sitting  in  the  character  of  an  arbitrator? 

Sir,  there  is  a  subject  far  which  I  have  hardly  left  myself  strength, 
and  I  am  sure  I  have  left  the  House  no  patience  to  go  into  it,  but  to 
which  I  shall  very  generally  and  cursorily  refer — I  mean  the  subject 
of  Conciliation.  In  many  foreign  countries,  courts  of  conciliation  are 
established,  with  a  view  to  the  prevention  of  lawsuits,  by  having  the 
parties  called  before  them — by  talking  to  them  familiarly,  kindly,  and 
privately — by  telling  one  that  it  is  very  foolish  to  go  into  court  where 
the  facts  are  so  clear  against  him,  and  that  he  will  lose  his  cause — by 
telling  another  that  he  ought  not  any  longer  to  resist  payment,  as  it 
is  quite  clear  that  he  is  wrong;  in  short,  by  giving  tluj  parties  sound 
advice,  to  which  they  may  attach  the  weight  that  does  and  will  always 
belong  to  the  disinterested  counsel  of  a  prudent  and  worthy  man,  and 
of  one  experienced  in  such  disputes.  It  has  been  found  in  some  coun- 
tries— not,  I  confess,  in  all — that  the  best  possible  results  have  accrued 
from  such  a  system.  Where  the  reference  has  been  compulsory,  the 
experiment  has  entirely  failed.  In  France,  it  has  signally  failed.  I 
have  the  authority  of  not  only  many  learned  and  excellent  persons, 
but  I  have  also  the  distinct  admission  of  M.  Levasseur,  in  his  Manuel, 
in  which  he  says — "  That  where  the  parties  settle  their  differences 
before  the  court  of  conciliation  without  going  farther,  the  principle  of 
the  measure  is  fulfilled — le  veil  du  Icgislultur  eat  cotn/tle/;"  hut  ho 
adds,  "  these  cases  are  infinitely  rare."  I  have  to  make,  also,  <-xcop- 
tion  of  the  Netherlands  and  Holland,  for  the  result  of  the  experiments 
of  the  code,  since  it  has  been  applied  to  those  countries,  has  bt-cu  so 
exactly  the  same,  that  they  have  resolved  not  to  renew  it.  I  under- 
stand that  in  Sweden  the  measure  has  been  attended  with  Iwttor  suc- 
cess. Hut  in  Denmark  it  has  succeeded  best  of  all;  and,  if  1  am  not 
misinformed,  in  that  country  the  going  before  a  judge  of  conciliation 
is  entirely  optional.  I  know  that  in  Switzerland,  at  least  in  two  parts 
of  it  —  I  mean  Geneva  and  the  Pays  du  Vaud— the  exprrimnii  was 
tried,  and  was  attended  with  success.  The  Codo  Napoleon  lulled,  as 


628  LAW  REFORM. 

there  was  in  it  compulsory  reconcilement — that  is,  no  person  could  go 
into  a  higher  court  before  he  called  his  adversary  to  the  court  of  con- 
ciliation, and  obtained  a  prods  verbal;  if  the  adversary  did  not  appear, 
he  paid  a  fine  of  ten  francs,  and  the  other  got  a  certificate,  and  was 
allowed  to  go  before  a  higher  court.  In  Denmark,  where  the  thing 
is  more  optional,  and  where  the  court  does  not  call  the  parties  before 
them,  I  find  that  on  an  average  of  three  years,  1825,  1826,  and  1827, 
one-fourth  of  the  actions  brought  into  those  courts  were  terminated 
by  the  withdrawal  of  proceedings,  or  by  the  parties  being  reconciled. 
The  returns  do  not  specify  the  exact  numbers  of  each  of  those  stopped 
by  conciliation,  or  by  the  parties  withdrawing  proceedings,  being 
hopeless  of  success.  In  one  instance,  however,  I  have  that  return, 
and  I  find  that  the  numbers  are  very  nearly  equal,  that  is  to  say,  that 
between  one-seventh  and  one-eighth  of  the  cases  not  tried  were  settled 
by  the  process  of  conciliation. 

Now,  I  propose  adding  to  the  power  of  the  judge  the  right  of  call- 
ing the  parties,  if  they  please,  before  him;  that  is,  if  one  is  desirous  of 
it,  and  the  other  has  no  objection.  I  propose  that  they  should  go 
before  him;  that  it  should  be  compulsory  to  receive  his  opinion;  that 
he  should  act  as  judge  of  conciliation,  and  endeavour  to  reconcile  their 
differences.  I  will  explain  in  one  moment  why  I  regard  this  measure 
as  desirable,  and  by  no  means  impracticable;  and  I  can  assure  the 
house,  that  the  suggestions  which  I  have  offered  are  founded  strictly 
on  practical  experience.  When  a  court  is  resorted  to,  in  many  cases, 
no  person  is  more  likely  to  be  led  into  error  as  to  the  probable  termi- 
nation of  the  cause  than  the  party  interested.  In  almost  all  instances 
he  is  more  or  less  misled  by  the  advice  he  receives.  I  do  not  say  that 
gentlemen  of  the  bar  give  opinions  that  the  action  is  maintainable, 
when  they  know  that  it  is  not.  God  forbid!  I  believe  that  there 
is  no  set  of  men  less  apt  to  do  so;  I  believe  they  are  more  apt  to 
dissuade — to  throw  cold  water  upon  law — to  give  doubtful  opinions, 
and  offer  discouraging  advice.  I  say  this  is  the  common  course  of  the 
profession.  I  say  that  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  it  is  so. 
I  need  hardly  say  it  happens  to  all  respectable  men:  I  need  hardly 
say  when  it  happens  not,  a  man  is  scarcely  respectable.  But,  great 
as  my  feeling  is  for  the  profession — strongly  prepossessed  as  I  am 
with  the  belief  of  its  high  honour,  of  its  great  integrity — of  all  those 
qualities  which  entitle  it  to  respect — and  much  as  I  hope  that  the 
exceptions  are  rare — yet  I  will  not  say  that  there  are  no  exceptions, 
even  in  that  profession  to  which  I  have  the  honour  to  belong.  I  will 
not  take  upon  myself  to  say,  that  it  is  an  impossibility  to  find  a  man 
at  the  bar  who  will  give  an  opinion  to  encourage,  when  he  ought  to 
discourage — still  less  will  I  take  upon  myself  to  deny  that  there  are 
always  to  be  found  men,  in  the  other  branches  of  the  profession,  who 
will  go  to  that  man  to  get  his  opinion,  and  who,  if  they  cannot  get 
such  an  opinion,  will  substitute  their  own  for  it,  and  tell  their  client 
that  he  is  sure  to  gain  that  which  they  ought  to  know  there  is  every 
probability  he  will  lose.  But  this  I  do  know,  that  we  have  men 
every  day  come  before  counsel,  previous  to  going  into  court;  that  a 


LOCAL  COURTS.  629 

consultation  is  holclen,and  those  present  lift  up  their  hands  and  throw 
up  their  eyes,  and  say,  who  could  have  advised  such  an  action?  and 
that  upon  other  occasions,  on  the  part  of  the  defendant,  it  is  said — 
how  could  you  go  on  so  long  with  it?  The  reason  is  neither  more 
nor  less  than  this — that  no  sooner  have  they  read  the  case,  than,  with- 
out any  further  consultation  together,  each  man  comes  into  the  con- 
sulting-room, with  his  mind  made  up,  that  they  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  case,  and  thus  the  poor  client  is  allowed  to  go  into  a  court  only 
to  be  ruined.  This  happens  every  day,  and  it  happens  often  enough 
to  make  one  wish  that  it  never  happened  at  all.  There  are  cases 
where  the  advice  of  the  counsel  is  kept  back  from  the  client;  other 
cases,  where  the  favourable  opinion  is  obtained  on  false  statement  of 
facts;  and  in  all  these  cases,  the  man  most  ignorant  of  the  chance  of 
success,  or  failure,  is  the  unfortunate  client  thus  dragged  into  a  court 
of  justice.  I  ought  not  to  say  he  is  always  dragged — he  is  sometimes 
coaxed;  they  who  ought  to  put  him  on  his  guard,  mislead  and  urge 
him  on;  and  he  finds,  too  late,  that  he  has  been  deceived  to  his  ruin. 
The  men  who  do  so  ignorantly — and  they  are  not  a  few — are  not  of 
course  so  culpable  as  they  who  do  so  knowingly  and  willingly.  Even 
my  respect  for  that  branch  of  the  profession  to  which  I  allude — I 
mean  solicitors  and  attorneys — will  not  allow  me  to  deny  that  I  have 
frequently  seen  instances,  in  both  classes,  of  such  cases,  produced 
more  frequently  by  the  ignorance  of  the  attorney,  than  by  a  know- 
ledge that  his  client  must  lose.  In  these  cases,  if  you  could  separate 
the  client  from  the  attorney  and  the  counsel,  and  get  him  aside,  and 
tell  him  that,  if  he  goes  on  with  his  suit,  he  must  be  disappointed 
and  defeated,  I  am  sanguine  enough  to  expect  that  the  ruin  which 
now  often  happens  would  be  saved  to  the  unfortunate  and  ill-advised 
clients. 

This  system  which  I  have  submitted  to  the  House,  I  trust  respect- 
fully, founded  as  it  is  upon  experience,  would  produce  the  best  results. 
I  have  hopes,  and  I  think  they  are  not  visionary  hopes,  that  great 
benefit  would  accrue  to  parties  from  having  conversation  with  an  in- 
dividual of  knowledge  and  of  undoubted  respectability.  Whether, 
not  merely  that  part  of  the  subject  which  relates  to  conciliation  and 
arbitration,  by  publicly  appointed  arbitrators,  but  the  whole  subject  of 
affording  the  means  of  obtaining  cheap  justice,  will  be  approved  of 
by  the  legislature,  I  know  riot;  but  this  I  know,  that  those  who  reject 
it  are  imperatively  called  upon  by  the  state  of  the  case  to  point  out 
another  remedy.  I  care  not  for  the  name.  If  you  reform  the  county 
courts,  it  will  only  hamper  you  with  certain  forms,  with  obsolete 
rules,  and  with  many  inconveniences,  which  had  much  better  be  got 
rid  of;  for  nothing  is  so  useless  as  preserving  the  shadow  when  the 
substance  is  gone — it  only  disappoints,  and  harasses,  and  vexes.  Hut 
call  it  by  what  name  you  will,  the  substance  of  this  measure  is  impe- 
ratively required.  The  exigencies  of  suitors  will  no  longer  allow  us 
to  withhold  it  from  them.  Of  this  I  am  as  much  persuaded  as  I  am 
of  my  existence,  or  that  I  am  standing  hero  addressing  this  House. 
The  people  have  a  right  to  justice — they  are  crying  out  for  it— they 


630  LAW  REFORM. 

distrust  the  government  for  want  of  it — they  distrust  all  plans  of  re- 
form, whether  legal  or  political  reform,  because  of  it;  and  so  long  as 
they  feel  this  want  will  they  continue  to  cry  out  and  to  distrust. 

I  have  heard  it  said,  that  when  one  lifts  up  his  voice  against  things 
that  are,  and  wishes  for  a  change,  he  is  raising  clamour  against  exist- 
ing institutions,  a  clamour  against  our  venerable  establishments,  a 
clamour  against  the  law  of  the  land;  but  this  is  no  clamour  against 
the  one  or  the  other — it  is  a  clamour  against  the  abuse  of  them  all. 
It  is  a  clamour  raised  against  the  grievances  that  are  felt.  Mr.  Burke, 
who  was  no  friend  to  popular  excitement,  who  was  no  ready  tool  of 
agitation,  no  hot-headed  enemy  of  existing  establishments,  no  under- 
valuer  of  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors,  no  scoffer  against  institutions 
as  they  are,  has  said,  and  it  deserves  to  be  fixed  in  letters  of  gold  over 
the  hall  of  every  assembly  which  calls  itself  a  legislative  body, 
"  Where  there  is  abuse  there  ought  to  be  clamour,  because  it  is  better 
to  have  our  slumbers  broken  by  the  fire-bell,  than  to  perish  amidst  the 
flames  in  our  bed."  I  have  been  told  by  some  who  have  little  objec- 
tion to  the  clamour,  that  I  am  a  timid  and  a  mock  reformer,  and  by 
others,  if  I  go  on  firmly  and  steadily,  and  do  not  allow  myself  to  be 
drawn  aside  by  either  one  outcry  or  another,  and  care  for  neither, 
that  it  is  a  rash  and  dangerous  innovation,  which  I  propound,  and 
that  I  am  taking  for  the  subject  of  my  reckless  experiments  things 
which  are  the  objects  of  all  men's  veneration.  "  I  disregard  the  one  as 
much  as  I  disregard  the  other  of  these  charges.  I  know  the  path  of 
the  reformer  is  not  easy;  honourable  it  may  be — it  may  lead  to 
honour;  but  it  is  obstructed  by  the  secret  workings  of  coadjutors;  and, 
above  all,  it  is  beset  by  the  base  slanders  of  those  who,  I  venture  to 
say — some  of  them  at  least — know  better  than  others  the  falsehood 
of  the  charges  which  they  bring  against  me.  But  I  have  not  pro- 
ceeded in  this  course  rapidly,  hastily,  or  rashly;  for  I  have  actually 
lived  to  see  myself  charged  with  being  in  name  a  reformer,  but  in 
truth  in  league  with  the  enemies  of  reform;  in  secret  and  corrupt 
league  with  those  who  batten  on  the  abuses  which  I  denounce. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  I  have  so  acted  in  order  to  obtain  high 
professional  advancement — I,  \vho  have  refused  the  highest  judicial 
functions — I,  who,  at  the  very  time  those  slanders  were  propagated, 
was  in  the  act  of  preventing  such  a  proposition  from  being  made  to 
me — upon  political  principle — upon  public  principle — upon  party 
principle— as  well  as  upon  personal  feelings.  Did  I  regard  the  slan- 
der? Was  I  stung  with  such  false  opprobrium?  Did  I  change  my 
colour,  or  falter  in  my  course,  or  did  I  quicken  that  course?  Not  I, 
indeed — 

False  honour  charms  and  lyinjr  slander  scares 
Whom,  but  the  false  and  faulty]* 

It  has  been  the  lot  of  all  men,  in  all  ages,  who  have  aspired  at  the 
honour  of  guiding,  instructing,  or  mending  mankind,  to  have  their 

*  Falsus  honor  juvat  et  mendax  infamia  terret 
Quern,  nisi  mendosum  et  mendacen? 


LOCAL  COURTS.  631 

paths  beset  by  every  persecution  from  adversaries — by  ever  miscon- 
struction from  friends:  No  quarter  from  the  one — no  charitable  con- 
struction from  the  other.  To  be  misconstrued,  misrepresented,  borne 
down,  till  it  was  in  vain  to  bear  down  any  longer,  lias  been  their  fate. 
But  truth  will  survive,  and  calumny  has  its  day.  I  say,  that  if  this 
be  the  fate  of  the  reformer — if  he  be  the  object  of  misrepresentation, 
— may  not  an  inference  be  drawn  favourable  to  myself?  Taunted  by 
the  enemies  of  reform,  as  being  too  rash;  by  the  over-zealous  friends 
of  reform,  as  being  too  slow  or  too  cold;  there  is  every  reason  for  pre- 
suming that  I  have  chosen  the  right  course.  A  reformer  must  pro- 
ceed steadily  in  his  career;  not  misled  on  the  one  hand  by  panegyric, 
nor  discouraged  by  slander  on  the  other.  He  wants  no  praise.  I 
would  rather  say — "  \Vo  to  him  when  all  men  speak  well  of  him." 
I  shall  go  on  in  the  course  which  I  have  laid  down  for  myself;  pur- 
suing the  footsteps  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us — who  have  left 
us  their  instructions  and  success — their  instructions  to  guide  our  walk, 
and  their  success  to  cheer  our  spirits. 

I  move,  sir,  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill  for  the  establishment  of  Local 
Judicatures  in  certain  cases  in  England. 


END   OF   VOL.    I. 


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